All so true. I had a supervisor on with me a few years back for the day. Mine is an extended route so he was literally stuck with me. Over the course of many miles, stops & hours, he revealed his perspective, as he really had no stories for me as a delivery driver because he never really was one. Started in pre load, then part time car, then into management.
One of the most chilling things I got out of the entire day was his statement to me that "If they could get the goods on an hourly guy & get them fired that was a good month & a feather in their cap. But if they could get the goods on a management person & get them fired, that is like a home run & big featherdress." Earlier, he had his sheet of WOR reports for the previous week along with others, and described on how he wished he had a week to come out & help me iron out my route to get these numbers in line.
Finally, at the end of the day when dropping him off at his car I noted to him my amazement that we both worked for the same company, trying to get the same job accomplished. As I am out here running against the clock trying to get everyone their package in the best time I can, and he is in a warm dry office, analyzing papers scratching his head at my numbers, and he agreed.
This wasn't that long ago, so my spin on this is; like every other company trying to make a profit, these management cats are pushing production, unfortunately for so long that job has already been done by numerous, previous sup's & managers. So they gotta find some new spin to make it look like they are busting ass & it's the drivers who are the weak end. Not keeping it under 9.5, not taking a full hour for lunch, running over allowed, etc. Our jobs remain so similar to 30-40 years ago that they just can hardly impress their bosses that they are the best thing down the line since a bread slicer. But they will try to continue to omit the reasons behind our indesrcetions, we were dispatched with a 12 hour day & running 3 hours of bonus isn't big in our book, we were so blown out, we couldn't take time for the lunch, sitting in a road construction line for 30 minutes each way for 2 packages.
Worst of all, I see no end to it in sight, it the standard, they wouldn't know how to change it even if they wanted to. I hate to be a defeatist, but from my perspective, it's just the way things are.
Do your job, look good, try not to allow your crappy day run over to others, and watch the light at the end of this brown hole we all are mired in.