I come from a family of workers. My great grandpa was a floor salesman who worked his way up to the VP of the sport company he worked for. He was outspoken about working with athletes of color for sponsorship deals and once threw Hank Aaron a surprise birthday party. When I was a kid, he would tell me all about his exploits as a relatively high up employee in the org. He also taught me some simple rules.
1) Always be nice to the secretary and the janitor, they're the ones that actually run the show. Know their names and treat them with respect.
2) Make sure that everyone on your team is paid well enough to support themselves and their family. If they're not, they're going to look for another place to work.
3) You're never too important to be kind. If you're mean to the waiter, or to the valet, you need to reevaluate your life.
I think about the bosses that I've had in my career, and it seems that there's been a shift in values from “I'm an employer, and I have a moral and ethical responsibility to take care of my employees” to “My employees are a cog in my business and I can always find another cog.”
As we move from the labor side of things into the management side of things, I can only hope that we can shift things towards respecting employees and making sure people are taken care of.