Power certainly corrupts, but not everyone in those positions are affected by it. There are good leaders who use their positions to better everyone around them, but these people are in short supply. It's a lot quicker to get to the top of the food chain if you're selfish and don't mind stepping on others. I also think those in power forget how to interact with others on a lower level and just bearing a title over them inflates their ego.

It's definitely a psychological issue I hate about humans.

>Do you have to be a jerk to be in charge of something? Do you get taken advantage if you don't project this image? Does power corrupt? Does shit float?

All of the above, but especially the first two. Telling someone to do something without riding their ass often leads to that thing not being done.

Because a lot of people don't have many opportunities to be in power regularly, so when they do get it a lot of people will abuse it. It's the same reason why forum admins like to ban people with impunity, because most of them are 12 year olds that get picked on in school
I don't mean to blogpost but I get what you're saying, there's this military family run yard sale every couple months I go to and they always get their dumb kids to be the traffic conductors. Some of them are decent but there's always the asshole who loves to use the megaphone.
My advice I guess is to just keep contact with them as short as possible. It sucks but that's the best you can do

>>16893442
You are either a big titty baby bitche and/or you just don't have much work experience.

Sure I've had some real shithead managers but the good ones I've had outnumber those shit ones. For the most part though even the shit ones didn't bother me much because I always did my job, and usually better than anyone or finished projects way ahead of schedule, so there was no reason to ride my ass.

I've been in management positions too. Yeah I've been an asshole to my underlings but it was never unwarranted. I'm sure in their mind they thought it was unnecessary but that's why they were where they were at and I was where I at. You might read that and think, yep he's an asshole for thinking that way but really it's just the way things work. Get over it or quit.

>I'm 29
>been working 14 years
>have had only 4 jobs since I was 15

>>16893442
Smart, effective leaders don't hang around shitty in shitty positions for very long

>>16893442
Aggressive douche bag personalities are admired and widely accepted for some reason

>>16893442

I'm not sure how old you are, but you'll find (hopefully) as you move through your professional career you'll find that there are a lot of really competent, kind people as long as you find the right organizations. Shitty cultures beget shitty people - and it's often the underqualified who put up barriers and come across like asshats. Most of the bad managers and bosses I've met or had are people who have pretty much maxed out - they're never going to make much more of anything of themselves, so they take it out on the people they can control.

Anecdotally, two quick stories - I go to this burrito shop up the street pretty often, and it's mostly college age kids working the line and stuff. It's a chain place, and a couple of nights I noticed a new manager. The place was slow for a normal night, and I hear this guy in the back just BERATING everyone about how slow they're going. It was almost uncomfortable. Suddenly, he starts bragging about how he didn't even get his GED until he was 35. You could just tell that he never learned the skills to treat people like they were humans, and he was a huge dick.

Separately, I used to be in corporate marketing for a smaller but national company, and they ended up hiring this really petty dude to be our new VP, mainly because they could only afford to hire him, and he at least had experience. One of his first moves as my boss? He changed my title from "Director" to "Jr. Marketing Assistant" because he thought the title was too close to his. (This didn't last long, but it was an omen.) When we'd present to to the CEO and operations teams, he told me to keep quiet about mistakes in the data and to refrain from speaking up unless directly called on because it "didn't present a unified front" and "made it look like he wasn't in charge."

Today, in my new role at a Fortune 200 company, I was asked to present by my director during our meeting with senior leadership, and encouraged to interrupt with ideas and feedback.

>>16894441

Cont.

As they said, it would show that our entire team was invested in our various projects, and working to support each other to reach a common goal as a team, rather than celebrate individual successes.

A lot of valid opinions have already been given, but I wanted to add that from my perspective as a manager of a couple of retail teams quite often other employees hate management so management hate employees in like a vicious cycle of stupidly where both sides can't relate or see the big picture.

You can claim your boss is horrible, but frankly most people are horrible and their bosses are aware. Maybe you have a good boss, but the reality is you're a good employee and so they never give you shit.
Some managers try to be the nice kind, right up until an asshole underling exploits it too long, then they either give it up or become assholes themselves.

To get people to do shit you have to use both the carrot and the stick. If you develop a friendly rapport with an employee in a lower position than you, it can make disciplinary action or threats more difficult to deliver and also make them less effective as they think you have to be nice to them.
If you treat people in an impersonal manner, it's easier to be an asshole when appropriate and it doesn't prevent you from being kind when appropriate. In fact, many would argue an act of kindness from a harsh manager is more appreciated.

This is the whole rational response. Unfortunately, people who are naturally just cunts parasitise this dynamic and so they're overly represented in management, though not to the extent people make out.

>>16893442
If you're good at your job you get promoted. Suddenly you're in a different job you may not be so good in. (A good salesman is not necessarily a good manager). Lots of extra pressure and responsibility, along with the suspicion that you're not really as good at this job as you were at your old one, make anyone grumpy.