I’ve recently experience some coworkers who have climbed the ladders (along with myself). They have gotten out of the every day work that makes the company money (engineering) and got into management and VP roles.
As the years have progressed they seemed to have drank the corporate kool-aid and do nothing but complain to me about the engineers under them and how those “have it so easy” and how they are “ungrateful.” I have to swiftly remind them of our days in the trenches and how we wished we were in management so we’d stop all of this nonsensical level separation /understanding between management and engineering. – They just make fun of me saying “I miss the old engineering days”.. Which I actually do; at least we weren’t fake then.