Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Managers are simply employees that trade increased income for increased resentment. Most people like to control their own destinies; if everyone could choose what they wanted to do, it's unlikely that taking orders from someone else would be their preferred occupation, so naturally subordinates will resent the authority of their manager. The more authority the manager represents, the greater the resentment. This eventually metastasizes into social awkwardness and shunning of the manager. In a large, mostly anonymous community where managers and subordinates rarely meet outside of work, the downside of management is not as pronounced, but is small communities, managers have to walk a fine line.

The cult of manager denigration, most famously fostered by humorists like Scott Adams, has made it fashionable to treat managers with a private disrespect that borders on hatred. Also, there is truth in the old saying, “familiarity breeds contempt.” For managers to maintain the respect of those they command, the relationship must be formal because if those who must obey have the opportunity to see their erstwhile commander in an unguarded casualness, the familiarity will cause them to compare against an idealized version, invariably leaving the human manager found wanting, and once someone loses respect, it cannot be regained. People need to seriously consider whether the aggravation of being a manager is worth an addition $5 an hour?