I heard this from an upset customer at work once, after he had an encounter with one of the managers there. "!#@&$*% managers! They're all the same!" he growled.
After he left, and I got to thinking about it, it seemed so right and so true. They ARE all the same! I mentally reviewed as many manager encounters that I could recall and they all fit the same general pattern.
A good asset to have for any company is a manager at the top of his manager game. A seasoned pro. Because with a guy like that on your team, ANYTHING can be explained away. Customers can't win with a guy like this. Arguing is futile, and 'coming to an agreement' means that you are going to lose, because managers are hired guns for the company and their allegiance is with the big and powerful company, not with paltry little you.
Let's expand this concept out to the whole of the U.S. of A. We have a particular management team in place right now that embodies the epitome of the American attitude, which used to be something more honorable but now has degenerated into shamelessness.
Our managers serve 'The Company' in various ways, all of them nakedly shameless, but fitting the 'American spirit' to a T. Americans, we are presently led to believe, are audacious, brash, bold, brazen, flagrant, high-handed, immoral, improper, outrageous, rude, unabashed, unprincipled, arrant, barefaced, cheeky, immodest, impudent, incorrigable, insolent, overbold, and unblushing. We charge in and get 'er done, we don't take prisoners, we lead, not follow, and any kind of restraint we may exhibit is a far distant second to winning at everything.
Ruthson Zimmerman- Unsplash.com
Thus, we have our present day managers serving 'The Company' and The Company loves 'em. Managers get bonuses and perks from doing their jobs, bonuses and perks that the rank and file never get wind of. The best thing you can hope for as a member of the rank and file is to be left alone.
Another conceptual fact is that managers come and go but The Company survives. There are always manager candidates waiting in the wings to sell their souls.
So look to The Company then. Who is wanting something? Who wants to get their way? The managers will see to it that it gets done but The Company won't be visible. The Company is actually the shameless one here, not the managers. The managers have just been turned. They probably weren't born unethical, but they learned that in order to ascend shameless behavior was rewarded.
Why is shamelessness so prized? Because acting shamelessly get things done, number one, and gets you the biggest win, number two. You NEVER get such lopsided gains working by committee.