Give respect, receive respect

Now, I know that when a manager tells an employee to do something they should do it, but there are limits and definitely emotions involved. Now, employees or not, everyone has feelings and we expect to be treated with the same respect as they would like to be treated in return. Some managers act so nice in the beginning, but once they learn that you’re a soft hearted person, they try to use and step on you as much as they could and it hurts. I personally have backed down a lot of times without saying a word and it does hurt. It takes a lot of courage for some people to stand up and say something because one way or another you know that you are going to be standing up to your boss. Sometimes though, it doesn’t really matter if you will lose your job or not by saying something because in the end it’s the respect that you deserve to receive as every other employee.

For example, one time a previous manager asked me to shovel snow when my job position was to work in the front counter. Now, as to respect my boss’s wishes, I did what he told me to do: shovel snow. As I was shoveling, my back went out and since I have back problems, I decided to take a rest and continue afterwards. As I went back in to rest a bit, my manager came up to me and demanded that I get out there and finish the job. I told him about my back problems with a guarantee that after I rest I will get back to work. He looked at me angry and practically laughed in my face about what I just said. I got very frustrated and emotionally hurt that I did not have the courage to stand up for myself and therefore, I said nothing.
A colleague of mine’s job position is to be tutor for children ages 4 and up, and her manager asks her to clean after the children. For example, one of the things her manager asks her to do is clean the toilets after the children. After my colleague told me that I could not only believe it but I was shocked as to what her manager wanted her to do when she was supposed to tutor children as her only job.
Now I see it that to be a manager one needs to respect employees and respect their work. It seems that most managers don’t seem to care much about their employees and they simply press the ignore button on. This really frustrates me because as a manager or not, everyone needs to be treated equally and with respect but it seems that that is only a statement to those managers and not a rule for accepting it.