>I am not native English speaker There is a bit of nuance here. As someone else mentioned, he is not saying he is literally dictating what decision the employe

>I am not native English speaker There is a bit of nuance here. As someone else mentioned, he is not saying he is literally dictating what decision the employer must make, he is dictating his own terms. In fact, you conveniently left out a definition that doesn't fit your argument from the pages you linked: > to influence something or make it necessary Example (from the Cambridge URL that you linked): "He shouldn't be allowed to dictate all the terms and conditions - it's supposed to be a democratic decision." That's exactly what OP is doing. Dictating the terms and conditions. Influencing what "must be done". Giving them an ultimatum, by dictating his conditions. He is "dictating" in this case, because he does have total authority on his own actions. If they do not cede, he will leave. It's kind of a semantic argument, and moot at that, but even the resources you linked support OP's usage of the word dictate.