To think hierarchy doesn't work at work?

It isn’t. Have you ever actually been a manager? Occasionally you do get entire teams like this, usually all influenced by one supremely negative character. I’ve cleared out a couple in my 30+ year career.

Why did you leave your job where there was no hierarchy?

Of course I can. If somebody doesnt doesn’t do their job properly and has zero interest in improving, that’s exactly what they are: they expect to be carried by the flow.

sounds to me perhaps you’ve been pulled up on a few things, or perhaps your boss is trying to do something differently and you’re pushing back. Your reaction to people not agreeing with you wholeheartedly is very telling.

as I said earlier, it’s impossible to answer your question. It really depends on the work ethic of the team. A flat strategy in a team with little work ethic woukd be a disaster. A flat strategy in a team with strong work ethic could work. You’d still need a manager somewhere.

That really only works if you hold the same level of responsibility and pay.

Alright Jack Nicholson! 🤣🤣🤣

I learnt a lot from my first boss who introduced herself to others as my colleague. That and many other things she did made her a great boss.

OP your line manager does sound bonkers but you sound almost equally stuck in your line of thinking.
A healthy mindset would be "my manager has issues, I need yo either raise it with HR or change jobs", not "hierarchy is bad and I'm worth as much as all my managers and demand respect and only flat structures work".
Ultimately if you haven't embraced management as a career yourself you need to accept a level of oversight.

Wow. You talk about a colleague as if they were a petulant child. And yet she is the one who has the problem?

Yes but your definition of ‘just doing my job’ might be different to theirs. It’s very difficult to give an answer to your question.

once I inherited a team full of dead wood. The previous manager had basucally done their work for them. As you can imagine, within weeks of my arrival I was an ‘evil micromanaging witch’. They all ended up leaving and now I have a team who have been with me for years.

From your OP and the replies that followed, you sound like a nightmare to work with, sorry.

My line manager recently spit her dummy out because she found out she gets paid less than one of the people she manages 🤣

She also loves an email and a bit of micro managing.

Yes you do. You meet them at interview. You are permitted to ask questions. Ask them about their management style.

You’re conflating 2 separate things.

There’s being in charge and then there’s being a bully.

Some people the power goes to their head and they are vile people who should never be in charge of others.

But I think hierarchy is important.
As humans we need a leader.

Managers have to make important decisions like hiring and disciplining people and you do need hierarchy to do that.

My boss is amazing. We go out drinking with him, we joke around with him and we work in a very challenging environment where the higher up people are very difficult and our boss will be the one to take all the shit on our behalf.
But he is our boss still and although he’s very down to earth, when he talks, we listen type thing.
He has shouted at people and pulled people up on their lack of work etc.

OTH just before going to him, I had a boss that was everyone’s friend and ‘on the same level as everyone else’ - she was lovely but an awful manager.
There was a lot of bullying and people taking the piss, meaning we’d do extra work to pick up their slack.
She was too busy trying to not be too ‘bossy’ but it created an awful working environment.
She should have cared less about making friends and being seen as on the same level and cracked the whip more.

Your boss is just a complete bitch with a power trip.
We need hierarchy as you need someone above her to tell her that her behaviour is completely unacceptable.

It seems a shame that you have to leave your job because of her and I’d advise you to report her, not care what she thinks etc but sometimes it’s not worth the hassle.

I worked in a place with bitchy colleagues and it was awful. I could not imagine that bitchyness coming from a manager 💐

It depends on the team. Proactive people who quality control their work and are inquisitive enough to look for ways of doing things better are great and dont need micromanaging.

then there are people who think they should get employee of the year because they managed to log in.

then there are people who think they should be the CEO, that everybody else is stupid, and that their purpose is to highlight how incompetent everybody else is.

which camp do you fall in?

What sector do you work in? Your manager sounds unhinged and may be abusing her position.

Work in the tech sector, it's all flat hierarchies as there can be no innovation and growth in a hierarchical organisation.

Oh but she would.

People have this idea that non hierarchical organisations are a free for all and everyone gets to do as they please. Reality is, there are usually a fuckload of written polcies and procedures and someone to enforce them (allbeit at the same level as everyone else)
No hierarchy is not a guarantee you won't be micromanaged.

Manager like the one you describe are over-promoted bullies who deep down are not confident about their abilities and take it out on their staff.

I agree with you as well the because someone is a manager/director/CEO it does not make them any better than me as a human being, especially if they can't even do their job properly, and we are all equal.

I really don't like how some workplaces see staff as serfs/properties and leading does not mean crushing your team members just because you can.

I work to the best of my abilities and receive a wage in return, that does not mean the company can treat me like dirt or 'owns' me.

Managers like yours just lose good team members who can get other jobs where they can be treated correctly.

There needs to be some level of hierarchy but the gradient can't be too steep - in healthcare, a steep hierarchy gradient (think nurse to surgeon) has been shown to impact patient safety as people at the bottom of the gradient don't feel safe to speak up (or will be dismissed if they do!).
Micromanagement comes from poor leadership and insecurity - I imagine that your manager gets that from above to. An emotionally intelligent manager will lead and not micromanage - unless someone isn't performing and then it's their responsibility to manage that particular individual.
My current line manager is amazing and trusts us to get on with the job. We are all professional adults and do perfectly well! If someone doesn't do this, they are managed appropriately.