The supervisor in question definitely trash talked all of his "subordinates" but I don't think it was particularly effective in this instance. He is past retirement age and his interpersonal skills are completely lacking which made him universally hated among workers and management. But he always said yes to management. So that makes him a useful idiot.

If I worked in the office, I could definitely see this tactic being more effective. It was very common to see trade supervisors battling it out with other trade supervisors. The workers were all united through misery.

The majority of the trades people I worked with were hyper focused on their masculinity by focusing their lives around marriage, children, cars, property and expensive things to express themselves. All those things require money. The people I worked with always needed money.

So when all the answers to your problems is more money, how do you understand and treat someone whose motivations are not driven by money? How do you react when someone challenges authority and is still not motivated by money? Even when I plainly tell them why I am acting the way I am, they truly have a difficult time understanding me because money is so important to them.

They also believe that change is impossible so I'm an idiot for trying. Personally, there's nothing more motivating to me than being told I can't do something.