That's because you're defining 'rank' as 'setting schedules'.

You could just as easily view the situation as the manager providing an interface to the rest of the company, and helping with organisation - somewhat secretarial role.

That would drive me out of corporate life in a hurry, especially the gatekeeper part.

It was a different kind of relationship. My job comes with a fair amount of autonomy and authority. I'm trusted to communicate with people directly, and consider that to be a vital part of how I do my job.

And the department is "matrix" organized, so there's a lot of cross communication.

Anyway, the rank inversion was temporary, and was just a matter of having different numerical rankings for "technical track" and "management track" employees.

Yes it does. It sounds like his boss was actually his administrative assistant.

To be fair, more like a project manager, and a damn good one. He could keep things straight in complex projects, and was deft with politics, but without sacrificing his integrity or engineering cred.