It's a mix of fealty and class consciousness. I've spent enough time in boardrooms to know the only prerequisite to sitting at the table is being born on third base. Basically the boss needs their immediate advisors to only do what's necessary (which usually ain't much), not bite the hand that feeds while doing it, and all of them have to understand they're all part of the non-poor club who get paid because the suckers below them put in a hard day's work.
I used to work at a retail place where the boss had a couple of floor staff (who were all his friends) were getting paid as managers.
He wasn't the big boss, he had just enough power to give a couple people 60k incomes for retail.
I assume it's sort of a formalization of that
It is.
It's a mix of fealty and class consciousness. I've spent enough time in boardrooms to know the only prerequisite to sitting at the table is being born on third base. Basically the boss needs their immediate advisors to only do what's necessary (which usually ain't much), not bite the hand that feeds while doing it, and all of them have to understand they're all part of the non-poor club who get paid because the suckers below them put in a hard day's work.