'Good Cop' / 'Bad Cop' In Your Company?

I am known as the dark overlord. I am usually left alone, I work all hours. I always have some crazy contraption on my desk. People only like to talk to me or ask me a question when they know what the right answer is. Not knowing the answer is a 20 minute lecture, a load of homework and a random quiz next time I see you in the office.

I once worked for an integration firm where the partners were like that but not on purpose - it just happened that one of them was an a$# and the other one was a really nice guy.  When it came to dealing with the employees - the bad one was an absolute jerk and turn over in his area of focus (installation) was very high where the good one had a coaching attitude and was well liked by the sales/admin/engr that was his focus. But when it came to tough situations with customers or vendors the bad one would disappear or go into "I'm a nice guy" mode and let the good one deal with any bad news, problem solving or strong arming that needed to be delivered.  It was a toxic environment.  Fortunately I directly reported to the good one so if he wasn't in the office I would find a reason to be out of the office (unplanned cold calls, drive by's, etc). I lasted 5 yrs there and they sold the business shortly afterward because the good one couldn't stand it any longer. I think business people who "play" that game make a mistake on many levels.  First of all its bad for internal customers (employees) but its also easy to see through so you're not fooling most vendors or customers.  They know you're manipulating things and not being genuine so trust is broken with them and in this industry (small) word gets out so you're likely to only attract the lower level techs, sales people, engineers etc to work for you AND vendors are less likely to go the extra mile to try to win your business (some may even avoid it) and customers will be easily stolen by your more sincere competitors.