Who’s Really Paying Your Salary? Hint: It’s Not Your Boss!

Ever had a boss ask you, “Who’s paying your salary?” and immediately expected you to say, “You, of course!”? Well, I’ve got news for you. That answer might make your boss puff up with pride, but it’s dead wrong. Your customer is the one footing the bill – and not just any customer, but the down-the-line internal ones too!

Let’s take a moment to talk about something that can easily get twisted in big organizations: hierarchy. Often, employees are taught to obey superiors like they’re the all-knowing gods of Olympus, but where does that leave the customer, internal or external? Lost in translation, that’s where.

The “Boss Worship” Phenomenon

So, why do we fall into this trap of boss worship? The answer lies in some deep-rooted psychology. Sigmund Freud (1920) would argue that many of our work relationships mirror the family dynamics we experienced growing up. We see our bosses as parental figures and fall into roles of dependency and obedience. It’s almost instinctual! We seek approval from higher-ups, just like a child seeks a parent’s nod of acceptance.

Jacques Lacan (1977), another giant in psychoanalysis, would take this even further. Lacan believed that much of our behavior is shaped by “the Other,” a symbolic figure we use to define our self-worth. In the corporate world, “the Other” can easily become the manager or director, leaving employees to put their need to please their boss above their actual purpose – serving the customer.

The Org Chart Trap

Here’s the funny thing about organizational charts: they make us think we need to look up for all our answers when in fact we should be looking down, sideways, and diagonally too! You might have a VP or a CEO, but who’s actually interacting with customers day to day? Not them! It’s the employees on the front line who are making the magic happen, and they often report to… guess what? Internal customers! These are the people in other departments who rely on your work to do their job better, and in turn, serve the external customer.

You Don’t Work for Your Boss – You Work for the Customer

To put it simply: You don’t work for your boss. You work for the customer. When we fail to understand this, organizations get caught up in a cycle where employees are more concerned with pleasing the person above them than providing value to the one who’s actually paying the bills. The result? A customer experience that’s second-rate and an organization that’s on the fast track to irrelevance.

Psychoanalyst Melanie Klein (1946) would say that this misplaced loyalty can create what’s known as a “paranoid-schizoid position.” Employees become so focused on whether they are in their boss’s good graces that they start seeing colleagues and even customers as potential threats to their status within the company. Instead of collaborating, we end up competing for approval, which directly undermines the customer’s experience.

Shifting the Mindset

What can we do to shift this mindset? Start by flipping the org chart upside down! Imagine the customer at the very top, with every layer of the company below them working together to support their needs. Your manager? Think of them as a coach or facilitator rather than a commander-in-chief. Their job is to help you serve internal and external customers better, not to be the final word on every decision.

If you need inspiration, remember something the famous humanist psychologist Carl Rogers (1951) said: “The good life is a process, not a state of being.” The same goes for organizations. Success doesn’t come from following orders – it comes from constantly improving how we meet the needs of those who matter most: our customers.

The New Order of Things

So, the next time someone asks, “Who’s paying your salary?” smile and say, “The customer!” It’s a mindset shift that helps everyone – your bosses included – remember that the org chart is not a ladder to climb, but a web of relationships to nurture.

Let’s stop treating hierarchies like rigid, sacred structures and start thinking about how every role, every department, and every person in an organization is there to serve the same mission. Obedience to a boss is overrated; serving your customer is where the real value lies.

References:

Freud, S. (1920). Beyond the Pleasure Principle. London: Hogarth Press.

Klein, M. (1946). Notes on some schizoid mechanisms. The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 27, 99-110.

Lacan, J. (1977). écrits: A Selection. New York: Norton.

Rogers, C. (1951). Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications, and Theory. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

#CustomerFirst #OrgChartFlip #PsychoanalysisAtWork #ServeNotObey #CorporateCulture #Leadership #EmployeeEngagement