Many disturbing aspects to this.

1- The managers who participated.

2- The employees who allowed themselves to be degraded by their managers.

3- The one that really left me speechless was accepting a collect call and still believing it was a person of authority.

I witness this (fear of authority) now that I find myself back in the workforce. Many of my coworkers believe management is scared of me because I get what they view as preferential treatment. It really isn't, it's because I am assertive (not aggressive) in addressing what I will or will not do, with compassion that it might not work for them and I could go elsewhere with no hard feelings on my part if such is the case. of course, one must be a hard worker which makes one valued for this to work effectively.