And not because he is a mafioso toting interchangeably a Smith & Wesson, a tommy gun, a wrench, or a shovel. Gangsters can be good bosses too. I mean, a boss like Vito Corleone is a chief executive of mythological proportions: someone with his own strict moral and professional code; he'd destroy his enemies, yet he treats his loyal employees like family, and, in return, they are ready to take a bullet for him.
No, Gyp Rosetti is the worst boss ever, because he is so fucking impulsively unpredictable. With Gyp, you just never know what the fuck is going to short-circuit his neuro-system, how he is going to react to a word, a jest, a facial expression. One moment he seems to be okay and a second later he explodes into a bloody violent feat on account of somebody's hat or stance.
Of course, the compulsive violence is a typical response in men who are surrounded by domineering, dismissive women at home. The notorious Red Ripper Andrei Chikatilo, convicted of 52 murders of women and children, was famously abused and treated like dirt by his wife. Gyp Rosetti, when at his home in Brooklyn, is vilified not by one, but four pesky women: his wife, mother-in-law, and two daughters. Not that his household circumstances absolve him, but at least it makes the craziness explainable.
It's a miracle that members of Gyp's crew talk and do anything around him at all; that they are not completely paralyzed by fear. Somebody says something, Gyp does a double take, and everyone just fucking freezes, trying very hard not to look him in the eyes. That stare that Bobby Cannavale mastered – the one of a cobra doing her hypnotizing trick on its pray before the attack, I've seen that look before, frozen on the face of one very cruel CEO.
It would be easier if Gyp Rosetti was simply an authoritarian ruler, giving strict orders and expecting absolute obedience without any talkback. But he is tricky, sadistic. He actually puts his employees on the spot, asking them questions, wrenching their opinions out of them, looking for a reason to explode.
You cannot possibly find a sensible way of acting around people like that. Unquestioning compliance, dutifulness, and composure can rile them up just as quickly as independent opinion, defiance, and anxiety. Gillian Darmody (Gretchen Mol) tries her darnedest: "You are always welcome here, Mr. Rosetti. Make yourself at home, Mr. Rosetti." And still it's uncertain that she is safe. I keep thinking that Gyp's sexuality is a better guarantee for her than her sly ways. The Sicilian boy has a soft spot for the white meat with porcelain skin and red hair (don't we all?), so he cuts her a bit of slack. But how long will that last?
If you think that the Gyp Rosetti-type exists only on your TV screen, you are wrong. There are plenty of them out there, exercising their unpredictable despotism in the boardrooms, corner offices, production floors, living rooms. While most of them don't shoot people in the face or beat them to death, they do plenty of damage by inflicting destruction on people's self-esteem, psychological balance, emotional well-being.
What kind of advice can one give to people who work for Gyp Rosetti's clones? "Run away as fast as you can" comes to mind first. But what if you can't? Many of Gyp's "subordinates" were recent immigrants who at the time couldn't find any work at all, had no means to feed their families. By the same token, if you live in a town, where everything is owned by the same family with a brutal patriarch (sounds like an early last century novel, but still as valid today as ever), you are stuck with him as your boss. It's not like the national job market offers too many opportunities nowadays. If that's your predicament, you'd better rely on your survival instintcts and intuition: you are under constant pressure to make split-second decisions on how to act and what to say. And you'd better pray that you make the right ones…
The Frustrated CFO 