Workers often assume their boss despises them and wants to see the back of them. And in many cases it seems, they might be right.
A poll by UK online meetings company Skillzbase.com has found that more than nine out of 10 managers would cheerfully get rid of at least one team member given the chance.
Worryingly, given that it shows a total breakdown in relations, nearly a fifth said they would also happily change their whole team.
In fact, just eight per cent of the 870 UK managers polled said they were completely satisfied with every member of their staff
More than eight out of 10 felt that at least one member of staff acted completely differently to how they had appeared during the interview.
Nearly two thirds felt employees had either exaggerated or lied on their CV (or both) about their knowledge and experience.
Three quarters claimed that at least one member of staff appeared unmotivated and unsatisfied at work and felt that this affected their performance.
In large part, the scepticism and cynicism among managers about their workers was down to failings in the recruitment process, argued Skillzbase.
More than three quarters of the managers polled claimed the fact they had had little contact with applicants before offering them a position was mostly to blame for their misjudgement in hiring them.
Time constraints made it difficult to deal with applications internally without outsourcing to recruitment agencies, they added.
Sam Fianu, co-founder of Skillzbase.com, said: "As someone who has always been passionate about my work and careful when recruiting members of staff, I find it worrying that so many people are clearly unhappy with their job and so many employers are unsatisfied with members of staff."
What's also clear is this distrust and dislike is not a one-way street, with employees often feeling equally strongly about their managers.
Last month, for example, a poll of 8,700 U.S workers by recruitment website CareerBuilder.com found nearly half did not rate the "C-suite" leaders within their organisation, with their immediate line manager playing a much more important role when it comes to leadership and motivation.
And European research back in July found that, while seven out of 10 employees still generally trusted their bosses highly, the vast majority also felt they generally failed to live up to their expectations and aspirations.