You might be right; it is possible that businesses fail because of trouble-makers like my boss. Certainly people like my boss tend to drive dedicated, good workers away. I'm going to get away as soon as possible. You are partially correct in your feeling, too, that she knew someone in the company. That person is gone now and I can't help but think my boss is getting her last major freak on before she herself retires. As for why companies put up with/facilitate/encourage her kind of ill will: some types of work draw people who lack people skills; some companies either seek out or keep on people who would in days gone by not been hired or let go quickly for being poor performers (my company's unspoken motto is "better poor performance than taking the time to hire and train better performers" and let's not forget the pervasive: successful bullies are careful when and who to choose to bully. I work for a large corporation, and there is here what I suspect is in other large corporations, individual little 'kingdoms' so that in X's area people are treated decently; in Y's area only white people are treated decently; in W's area the people are run so by the book they don't get much done because they constantly have to wait for instructions from W; in B's area, only young men are hired...the list goes on and on. The poor twisted person who is my boss could continue to be a total crud to me and I guarantee you the company wouldn't do anything because they'd rationalize she is only a 'few' years from retirement. Meanwhile I am gauging if I jump out the window if the fall will kill me. I am not finding the situation funny, and I find it particularly galling that I want to do a good job and am being held hostage by an emotionally stunted extremist bigot who is discriminating against me for what she thinks she knows about me.