Why the Worst Get on Top, Part 1: An Opus to the Worst Bosses in Our Lives

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton

I believe many of us have had that one boss – maybe for the most unlucky of us, more than one. The boss who arrives to the office or factory or store and everyone’s mood suddenly shifts – and not for the better. This boss is a scoundrel, a curmudgeon, an asshole. They are irrational, unpredictable, and emotionally volatile. They’re the worst!

It begs the question, why was this person, who to so many is obviously unqualified and lacking in leadership, make it so far? Why did THEY make it to the top?

There is an interesting theory posited by economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek. Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1899, Hayek saw first had how the worst got on top.

In his magnum opus of political philosophy, The Road to Serfdom, he devotes an entire chapter to his reasoning as to why the worst people tend to rise to the top in totalitarian states. I believe the book, written in 1944, is as timely today as it was then – especially when we see the trends in the world today following many of the same pathways as it did in the 1930s.

But I digress.

In the chapter aptly named “Why the Worst Get on Top,” he reviews many reasons why he believes this to be so. Three of these reasons, which I will focus on here, include:

1. Centralization of Power: Hayek argues that in a totalitarian state, power becomes centralized in the hands of a few individuals or a single party. This concentration of power allows those with ruthless and unscrupulous tendencies to manipulate and control the system for their own benefit.
2. Lack of Checks and Balances: Totalitarian regimes often lack effective checks and balances on the power of their leaders – probably on purpose. Without these mechanisms in place, there are few constraints on the actions of those in power, allowing them to act with impunity and without accountability.
3. Corruption of Morality and Values: Hayek suggests that totalitarian states often lead to the corruption of moral and ethical values. In such environments, individuals who are willing to abandon principles and exploit others for personal gain are more likely to rise to positions of power and influence.

What’s all this have to do with work?

While Hayek’s focus was political, I believe this theory is easily transferable to the workplace. You may wince at calling a workplace “totalitarian,” as this may somewhat minimize or trivialize the effects of totalitarian regimes worldwide, but it’s worth considering that many employers do, in fact, act as totalitarian dictators or oligarchies.

Elizabeth Anderson, a professor of political philosophy from the University of Michigan, calls totalitarian employers “private government,” which is also the name of her book. Anderson write that employers “don’t merely govern workers; they dominate them.” How? Through a myriad of activities: Surveillance, suspicion-less searches of person and property, monitoring of emails and other communication activities, as well as having off-hour (and sometimes on-the-clock) speech and political activities monitored, submittal to invasive medical testing, and much more. Essentially, Anderson argues if the government did any of these activities, many folks would be up in arms, but since it’s “private” employers, we tolerate it or outright don’t think about it.

Similarly, Sohrab Ahmari argues something similarly in his book Tyranny, Inc.He discusses a “daily anxiety” many Americans face when it comes to work, “the fear we are utterly dispensable at work, that we are one illness or other personal mishap away from potential financial disaster.” The fact that he even calls this “tyranny,” Ahmari continues, “challenges some of our society’s most fundamental assumptions.”

He shares examples, some being over the top exceptions rather than the norm, but these events still occurred – and the employers created an environment where they were allowed to occur.

• An Amazon warehouse in Staton Island, NY, monitored every movement of their employees punishing them for minor lapses and even forcing workers to bathroom breaks.
• Workers at a Shell factory in Monaca, PA, were forced to attend a speech by then President Trump, or else forgo pay for the day.
• An employee at G.F. Fishers found out the company installed key tracking software and other monitoring devices without informing employees. The software monitored all the employee movements, even what was happening on private email. This info was routinely provided to management.

Imagine these actions were taken not by American employers, but by foreign totalitarian governments, and many Americans would be shocked and angered. Imagine the indignation if a Russian oil company made their employees attend a speech by Putin or risk going unpaid. But the fact it was American employers doing these things, many ignore it, if they even hear it happened.

It is important to carefully consider the implications of these ideas. Workplaces do exhibit an inordinate amount of power over most of our daily lives. In some cases, more so than the government. Workplace tensions are at some of their highest levels in decades.

If workplaces have unreasonable amounts of power, who often wields this power? The worst who get to the top. Not necessarily Elon Musk, although one could easily argue his vulgarity as he rose to the top. For most of us, it’s the incompetent, selfish, unempathetic manager. CEOs wield the final say for many things, but for the majority of workers, their daily dose of totalitarianism is through interactions with their direct supervisor.

So what is HR to do? Well, there isn’t unfortunately a lot. Like other employees, HR practitioners are employees – many times subjected to the same shabby treatment. But this isn’t to say HR is powerless or influential-less. There are things we can do to help bring humanity, empathy, and kindness to the workplace.

I’ll explore these in my next post. Until then, if you have a story you’re willing to share about a dictatorial manager, I’d be happy to listen. Just keep swimming. It’s all we can really do.

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