Are abusive bosses and corporations just sadistic at heart? Where is the logic?

Many, many studies both business/productivity oriented and psychological show that treating employees well (like humans) increases productivity, creativity, worker retention – all the good things one wants in an employee. While abusing and micromanaging employees creates stress, absenteeism/health problems, low productivity workplace errors, waste and theft …not to mention violence by disgruntled employees.

Yet many corporations are penny wise pound foolish and mistreat their workforce for the short term gain. Even though these methods have been shown through data and practical experience to not be efficient or productive.

Is this just a control issue, an abuse of power? Is the actual business an afterthought?

Greed. Control, power, simply bad folks.

Much is made of those who try honestly and still get criticised. That is inevitable.

Some try and give up.

I’d say personally, that many folks are in positions of power they’ve not actually earned. They may have used every dirty trick in the book to gain that position, and then they find out that they’re not getting their "deserved prestige" from their underlings.

Pride- they refuse to consider the possibility that the very same amount of effort and cunning that got them the positions are ill-suited to the proper running of that they control.

Stalin was once questioned by a young (and gutsy) young man– "When will you stop killing so many people?"

His reply- "When it is no longer necessary".

It’s amazing what kind of tunnel vision people are capable of in an effort to do what is "necessary".