I suspect her being a narcissist, but I would like your opinion. There are four of us all doing the same work in the department we work at. She is one of the four and she is not our boss but constantly acts like it. She even acts like this with people who are there longer than she is and who actually taught her how to do this job. She can't escape the being authoritative- kissing up to us routine - she compliments us on something, and then when a superior is present or someone she thinks has a better job than her, she criticises us for the very same thing she complimented us for.

She spreads negative gossip about us all the time, and involve as many people as she can in this. She never admits doing anything wrong and blames us for it or other people. She talks all the time, interrupts people, shifts conversation subjects to herself, injects herself in the conversations of others, etc. When she's explaining something, she uses way too much unecessary detail, lecturing us on things we already know.

When she is criticised, she can't drop the subject until she proves she is right. This often includes bringing in other people into the matter, even those who have nothing to do with it. This is very embarassing, and she uses this opportunity to criticise and lie about us in front of other people.

The kissing up pattern is more pronounced when she's around superiors. This behavior is so extreme that is makes my stomach turn, but many of them don't seem to think there is anything unusual about it. When they leave, she sometimes bad-mouths them in front of us, although not so much lately, probably because she is sensing that we refuse to be dragged into her web.

She doesn't treat us the same way though. Those of us who confronted her directly and gave her honest opinions about her received worse treatment than those who didn't. I was lucky enough to know to just politely put her in her place and not to insult her. My coleague unfortunately didn't do that, and she continued to treat her worse than me. Nevertheless, everything described here I experiences myself. I got a feeling like she's constantly trying to feel me up, always calculating whether to act authoritatively or to suck up to me. She shifts from one pattern to another constantly. The coleague of mine who told her honestly what she thinks about her gets only the brute, authoritative pattern.

Another thing she does is that she goes out of her way to do work she is not supposed to for bosses and those who are better positioned. By doing this, she doesn't respect procedure or our internal arrangements as a team. Other coworkers who don't work in our department but who nevertheless work with us think therefore that the rest of us don't do as much as she does, which is probably her goal.

Our immediate boss knows about this. He told me that previous workers quit because of her and that this has been a problem for ages (I'm newly employed there, couple of months). According to our coworker who is a senior employee, a lot of people recognize these problems, including our immediate boss, apparently, but he never did anything about it. All three of us feel very uneasy around her and have difficulty doing our job.

Sorry for the long post. So, do you think, based on this, that she has narcissistic tendencies and what can the three of us do about it? All three of us completely agree on her, by the way, she hasn't brainwashed any of us.

Thank you in advance!