I'm not talking about executives. I'm talking about rank-and-file office workers who have nobody reporting to them. Now, while there are probably some individual office workers treated worse than individual warehouse employees, the contrast is stark. Like, I work at the office of a factory. I don't have anybody under me, but the difference between how I'm treated and how they're treated is so stark. Hell, they're even union guys and I'm not.
Is there some obscure theory thing explaining this?
Because office workers are usually managers of some kind.
Eh, not really. A lot of office work is clerical. You might be compiling data that managers use, but you could say the same about manual workers compiling resources for managers to use. It's just a different type of labor.