Valid authoritative relationships are limited in at least one of two key ways:
For example, a child-parent relationship is limited in duration. Sure, yes, the parent will always be the parent. But their authority ends at some point, in a healthy child-parent relationship. The parental authority is no longer valid when the child is no longer a child.
A worker-boss relationship might be theoretically unlimited in duration. (I mean, at some point, somebody dies. Or everybody dies. Or the economy collapses. Or the aliens come. You know. Stuff like that.) But a worker-boss relationship is limited in scope. This is why the HR department exists. If your boss starts telling you what to do outside the scope of the job, No. The boss’s authority is no longer valid outside the boundaries of the job.
The problem is obvious, right?
People in authority often fail to acknowledge and honor the limits of their position.
And people under authority often don’t know the limits exist, or exactly what the limits are, or what to do if the limits are crossed.
So authority, in many cases, becomes unlimited. That’s always bad.
When authority is unlimited, there is no longer a voluntary relationship for a mutually beneficial purpose. There is a coercive, unbalanced relationship. There are many vague, undefined purposes. There is all sorts of opportunity for abuse.
Remember that GARDEN/notes/Approval requires authority and GARDEN/notes/Valid authority is based on defined criteria
And if that someone is in authority over you, take a quick step back and define the limits of that authority: duration? Scope? Both? You only need their approval within the limits of their authority.
See also