I’ve been fortunate enough to have never been in that sort of toxic environment, but I do remember going to school with some kids who would have embraced that if they ever wound up in management positions. Hell, I’m sure they’re using that as their primary interaction no matter what jobs they hold now.
In 2010, several weeks before I lost a long-term job I thought I would retire from, we had a meeting where we were told that all the departments in the hospital would assign a couple of employees to be snitches. :eek: That’s not how it was phrased, but that’s exactly what was said.
We all knew exactly who those people probably would have been in our department, and I know now that they did me a favor in the long run.
My background is similar (though more manufacturing-based) and I’d agree with all your points and particularly the one above.
The best managers I’ve seen have been those who have surrounded themselves with good people and listen to them. They provide clarity and vision and trust people to do their jobs. With those basic boxes ticked they can still be unlikeable and demanding but they get stuff done. A conflict-laden, undermining, demeaning, confusing, capricious workplace is not neither happy nor productive (other than by accident)
Good summary. I can’t imagine working for Amazon.
My condolences. 
I’m an “on site” contractor at a government facility. Every day I see what goes on their organization. I could tell you stories you would refuse to believe. They live in La La Land. I don’t think it’s possible to fix their system.
In one of my last jobs there was a manager who was sort of like that; he was mainly targetted to us consultants, but shat glass on anybody’s desk whenever he felt like it. Everybody seemed terrified of him, including his managers. We eventually found out from his boss’s boss that the ass’s actual job description was “keep the consultants under control”. All the in-house people came from One Of Those Firms, had very low experience and generally no fucking idea what they were doing (a couple of exceptions to this last thing). They didn’t want to train the end-users, but whined in pretty much every single meeting that “the users don’t know shit”. Then again, the in-housers themselves were so lost they couldn’t have given much training if they’d tried…
We were threats. We were assumed to have that kind of attitude as well; those of us who didn’t were an even bigger threat, because if we got our way and taught anything to the end-users they might start to notice how little IT knew; and my left little toe knows more about, not just ‘my’ subjects but any I normally interact with, than the in-house people.
The ass’s job was to preserve their jobs.
Good managers try to hire people smarter than they are. Bad managers try to hire people dumber than they are.
If the good manager makes a mistake and hires a relatively dumb employee, she will try to make him better. If a bad manager mistakenly hires a smart employee, he’ll try to make her fail. That way he feels better.