Big corpo jobs are fucked, yes, but my worst bosses were small business tyrants. Even corpos have some internal sense of organizational standards that most petty bosses also have to adhere to, but small business tyrants have little crowns on their heads.

Based off the comments on this post, I'm just now realizing that my experience has been pretty atypical. I've always had a better time working for local businesses, but I guess I've just been lucky.

For example, I'm working at a pizzeria right now and the owner will deliver pizzas or work in the kitchen pretty frequently. He pays us above min wage (not very common for a pizza job here) and makes sure tips are split evenly between foh and boh. It's a much better environment than when I worked corporate fast food stuff. I find that working for a well liked local businesses can make working feel a bit less alienating. But again, I guess I've just been lucky with the jobs I've managed to land.