Part of middle management's job is to psychologically torture you. I got added to an internal email distribution for managers and supervisors, although I do not have anyone working under me. It's a collection of 'tips and tricks' that amount to manipulating, lying to, appeasing, and poking your employees. They want to keep people on the edge of sanity, day by day - they don't want you to give up or quit in the face of your plight, but they need you to feel uncomfortable enough that you don't quit or take your rights for granted. That is, you need to come into work every day and thank your captors for not taking your privileges away from you. That's the conditioning loop corporations have to keep people in.