their owners are more likely to breathe down your neck

For all the Graeberian waste that goes on in corporate businesses, I’ll take being micromanaged by a yes man middle manager over being micromanaged by the company’s owner any day. I worked in a small-to-medium sized business that was growing really quickly and the owner just got more deranged as time went on. Because he insisted that, despite delegating responsibilities to people all over the company, he needed to be the jack of all trades with his eyes in every department. He basically wanted to avoid being out of touch and wanted to make sure he was holding his managers responsible. He even had several instances where he let go of asshole managers who were treating their workers like dirt. He was essentially a good guy who meant well. But he was also a tyrant by nature of his incompetence. He was an awful programmer. He was an awful video editor. He was an awful logistics technician. He was awful at tech support. He was excellent with clients. But his obsession with being the Everyman made sure he drove himself crazy focusing on all the stuff he was shitty at. It made him stressed out and volatile when there was no need for it. I was under constant stress that he might come around at any moment and be having a bad day and decide I was doing my job wrong and needed to be fired. Never again with that shit.