I recently left UPS after 10 years, the majority in management after having come on as a management trainee.
I considered myself 'decent' when I started off. By decent, I would say I felt I would consistently; 1) Do the right thing for the people whom I was responsible for 2) Do the right thing for my customers 3) Do the right thing for the business.
The first one went by the wayside within a week. I was told to 'protect' certain routes, dump on certain people, make sure that 'so-and-so' is out until 8:30 every night, run the runners, make the whiners shut up, 'bend' the contract, and do hourly work. Almost all of which I would consider incompatible with 'doing the right thing'. The sludge of deals-with-the-devil, 'understandings', and other such deals that I was instructed needed to stay in place gave me almost zero flexibility in addressing the wants, needs, and concerns of most of my drivers.
The second value, commitment to customers was always highly spoken of, but in practice didn't always pan out. Air left over after the driver's left? They left the 'S' off of a city name, that's an address correction. Driver's DR'ing 15 1DA stops at 10:29, and being told to look the other way. Damages rotting for months under a slide for months. Closed 1 being put on EAM packages habitually with no attempt. Being told that I couldn't help out a shipper with something because 'that's the sales rep's job', then begging a rep to talk to the customer for 6 months with no results. Same thing as above, much of the frustrations being driven by levels beyond my control. The net-net? You can beat your head on the wall, or go along with it.
The last one, is the straw that breaks the camels back. I have, at least in theory, been entrusted as a management person in this organization. That would imply that I have been entrusted with making decisions that are good for the business. However, time and time again, reality shows that the people upstairs most certainly do NOT trust those below them. I wasn't allowed to drive more than 50 miles without dispensation from the Pope, I wasn't allowed to have a key to my office, the biggest, however, was the number chase. Each week brought a different number that we 'had' to make. Sometimes, the divy's would make up some new number that we had never heard of before, no matter, it was hell-fire if you were at the bottom of that rank-and-rate. And finally, Stops Per Car. There is no worse measure of 'how we did' than stops per car. It didn't matter, if you saved 10,000 on road, zero late air, and every driver was off the clock by 5:00. If you missed stops per car, you were scum. All that served to do was drive home the point that I was to follow instructions, not make decisions.
To sum up, what has turned into an essay. When I started, I thought I knew how to be decent. However, the corporate culture at UPS is not one that allows people to be both successful (as measured by promotions), and decent. Much of what many people see as the problem is driven from the top down, and by corporate culture. Therefore, except in extraordinary cases, the actions of your front-line supervisors and managers are being manipulated (sometimes without their knowledge) by forces beyond their control thus turning them from 'decent' people.
