At age 58 I have dealt with more than a street fighter’s share of violently humiliating “higher-ups”. I can count on one hand those employers who did offer and instill mutual respect, yet I haven’t enough fingers and toes to count all the others. I have to wonder if every one of those hateful, snarling, red-faced, power-mongering, ineffective, lying, backstabbing scumbags must have had something really bad done to them in their childhoods. Were they the grade school bullies that got away with their behavior, or were they the ones who were relentlessly bullied? Were they physically, emotionally and/or sexually abused at home?
Sigh, I’m kind of just emoting here. Reading the posts from y’all, every day, just makes me so angry on your behalf. I still see and hear those nasty spittle-spewing faces and demeaning, screamed words, years, decades later. Some of those “people”, (for lack of decent pejoratives that aren’t ban worthy), may be dead by now. Yet the technicolor trauma remains.
It’s only one reason that I have chosen to live the rest of my days self-employed, yet it’s obviously a huge one. I’m absolutely struggling to make it work (as an artist/woodworker with admittedly poor business skill) but I will never EVER go back. The pain and suffering instilled at the hands of those vicious, flog-wielding captains of industry is far more unbearable than whatever injury my limited business skills cause in the mistakes I ultimately learn from. I’ve had only two employees myself, working for me at sales events, and they outright say they love how I treat them, how much fun it is working “with, not for” me.
Why should I be such an anomaly?