Gen Z Managers and Joan of Arc

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal says that Gen Z managers are more focused than previous generations on employee mental health. It’s a good thing and probably long overdue. Stress in the American public, not just in Gen Z, has reached new highs. There are many sources of stress but one that may be overlooked was brought to our attention 125 years ago by Mark Twain—manipulators.

In 1896 Twain published what he felt was his best book, not about Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer, but about the great French Saint, Joan of Arc—Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte. The book tells the story of her triumphant and tragic life from her childhood, leading the French Army to victory over the English in the Hundred Years War to her imprisonment, torture, trial, and finally being burned at the stake. 

Twain described Joan as “wholly noble, pure, truthful, brave, compassionate, generous, pious, unselfish, modest, and blameless as the very flowers in the fields.” But, for Twain, at least as important as Saint Joan, was her tormentor and judge, Bishop Pierre Cauchon. In Cauchon, Twain finds evil personified as he stood to gain an appointment as Archbishop of Rouen (in Normandy, France) by condemning her. He lied and deceived the innocent 19 year-old girl to falsify evidence that her visions and voices came from the Devil, rather than God. It was necessary for him to have her burned as a heretic for him to gain his appointment.

Today, there are many Cauchon’s in our lives, but they are often difficult to spot.  In the movies and TV, think Gregory in Gaslight and Eric Cartman in Southpark. These are people who have no moral or ethical standards; only care about getting what they want and do not care what others want; will lie, flatter, ignore or discredit people, and finally may complain that they have been ignored or cheated. In short, they will do anything to achieve their own ends. They are often viewed as clever, sly, or having low cunning and they truly believe they are smarter than people around them and that no one will catch on to what they are doing.

In the public sphere, lying and spin has become so commonplace that it is no longer news. Fox News was successfully sued over lies about the “stolen” 2020 presidential election. In a recent Full Measure program, Sharyl Attkisson documents MSNBC, CNN, TIME and others simply making up stories about Donald Trump. So it’s liars telling lies about liars.

But Twain was concerned about these people in our personal life, and I think that is why, after twelve years of research, he believed that he wasn’t just highlighting the most saintly person who ever lived, he was warning people to watch out for manipulators in their everyday life. 

I wish I had read it before I went into government. I worked with people who told you they would support you in a meeting only to lash out at you in the actual meeting. And it took time to figure out that they spent much of their time going behind other people’s backs sabotaging them. For me, I assumed it was just part of normal bureaucratic behavior and, rather than focus on the public health issues, I was forced to learn their tactics and how to thwart them. 

What an incredible waste of time.

These people affect our mental health. Psychologists say that being around “manipulators can take a toll on  your emotional well-being including anxiety, depression, increased stress, lowered life satisfaction, low self-esteem and social withdrawal.” 

To the Gen Z managers, I congratulate you for helping to lower stress and make workplaces more productive and nicer place to work. To your list of concerns that you can actually do something about (sorry about gun violence, lying politicians, and other external stresses), you can keep an eye out for these people, particularly when they come into your office to tell you stories about other employees. Don’t encourage them or place them in positions of power. If they are bad enough, fire them.

Personal Recollections is a hard book to read, unlike the more popular Twain books. But, as two members of my book club put it, you will feel like a better person after having read it.

Oh, and at the end, Twain called Bishop Cauchon, the Satanic Bishop.