To me it really feels like he's the classic 'friend boss' who expects his staff to love him because he's giving them such a great job so of course they should put all their effort in or they're betraying his friendship, of course they shouldn't ask for more money or time off that would be betraying his friendship, of course they shouldn't complain about working conditions, make things difficult, take someone else's side, focus on their own stuff, or anything beside be a good friend...

He sees himself as the god that makes everything happen, it's all about him so without him no one would have anything - as you say it's contempt for his workers, he lets them have the scraps from his plate so they should worship him.

It's painfully common, almost built into capitalism that you can't do well enough to gain relevance without exploiting everyone around you