I'm not passing judgement on you personally. In fact, I twice emphasized that I'm not saying that is what you should have done. You may have had a Very Bad Man

I'm not passing judgement on you personally. In fact, I twice emphasized that I'm not saying that is what you should have done. You may have had a Very Bad Manager. There may have been nothing you could have done about it, other than walk away. I totally accept that. But you write: they (managers) see a class divide between "management" and "workers" When what I see in your words is you (the programmer at the time) seeing (and reinforcing through your actions) a class divide between management and workers. You blame the bad managers for a behavioral pattern that you were just a as much a part of. At least that's what I read in your words. And that's what I see in many other programmers. They act like children with zero responsibility, and then complain about being treated as such by evil pointy haired bosses. It's a two way street. And given that we, the engineers, are the ones who know how it should be done, we have a considerable responsibility in changing it.