We're a development team of 10. Our collegaue (not my superior) is a burnt out lead developer who is constantly working 12-14 hours and expects the same from everyone. At first, I did try give all my best I could, I even worked long hours to finish my work on time. As I learned, this guy is a bully. He doesn't like if someone else works on the same component and knows WHAT crucial information to hold back so you fail your task. We don't know if he does this intentionally or not, but he constantly puts blame on you and openly criticizes how you approach a certain problem instead of being assertive and nurturing. The turnover rate is pretty high and we noticed this toxic atmosphere, but no one DARE to openly recognize the source of the problem. The source is this guy. If you try to bring attention to this or confront him, he plays the victim and he is very smart to appear as a victim! Last time, I talked to my boss that I no longer want to participate in this play: I want to leave the company, I cannot work like this, and it is highly damaging to my creative vision. My boss was understanding, but also explained that he cannot do anything, because this guy here is basically a half-god and has the knowledge so deep that he cannot replace him easily. He asked me to keep calm and understanding. His solution was to reduce the working hours of this guy so it helps him recover from this burn-out phase. The situation of course was not improved. This guy was still and still is a bully and I decided to leave. I don't have to mention that it was a long 3 years and I feel deeply hurt and incapable of anything. Now I have a different job where I get good feedbacks, but yet I cannot overcome this experience. What's wrong with me? I talked to an old collegaue what is the situation now. Of course the guy is still there and now he harasses someone else. I just want to understand what is happening in the mind of such bully and how can I approach this problem in the future?