[WastingMyTime89]

Most certainly but that’s not the point. The point is that companies are structured so that division of labour flows from a core group deciding the strategical priorities towards more specialised groups and ultimately line workers through levels of organisation making tasks more and more specific along the way. As a salaried worker, provided it was in your contract, you can’t entirely refuse to do what’s asked of you by the strata defining your work and expect to keep your position.

Thankfully, in Europe, unions have harshly fought for somewhat fair employment laws and this relationship only applies to actual work and not the whimsies of your boss.

[camgunz]

I think you're right about things like chain of command; most companies are hierarchical in this way. But I think there's a fallacy that's widely believed that people "at the top" see things more clearly than those... not at the "top". I think we see very little no matter where we are, and we have to rely on each other to get the whole picture. To me, this indicates that a more flat structure makes sense: I'm good at the tech thing, you're good at the budgeting thing, if suddenly you stop being good at the budgeting thing I want someone else to do it, and vice versa.