Servants are people, too. Seneca, Epistles 5.47.1-5

Seneca notices that Lucilius treats his servants as members of the family, and approves. What is the right way to be a boss, in modern terms, or an employer? Seneca would not advise quashing your subordinates.

Libenter ex iis qui a te veniunt cognovi familiariter te cum servis tuis vivere: hoc prudentiam tuam, hoc eruditionem decet. Servi sunt. Immo homines. Servi sunt. Immo contubernales. Servi sunt. Immo humiles amici. Servi sunt. Immo conservi, si cogitaveris tantundem in utrosque licere fortunae. Itaque rideo istos qui turpe existimant cum servo suo cenare: quare, nisi quia superbissima consuetudo cenanti domino stantium servorum turbam circumdedit? Est ille plus quam capit, et ingenti aviditate onerat distentum ventrem ac desuetum iam ventris officio, ut maiore opera omnia egerat quam ingessit. At infelicibus servis movere labra ne in hoc quidem ut loquantur, licet; virga murmur omne compescitur, et ne fortuita quidem verberibus excepta sunt, tussis, sternumenta, singultus; magno malo ulla voce interpellatum silentium luitur; nocte tota ieiuni mutique perstant.

Sic fit ut isti de domino loquantur quibus coram domino loqui non licet. At illi quibus non tantum coram dominis sed cum ipsis erat sermo, quorum os non consuebatur, parati erant pro domino porrigere cervicem, periculum imminens in caput suum avertere; in conviviis loquebantur, sed in tormentis tacebant. Deinde eiusdem arrogantiae proverbium iactatur, totidem hostes esse quot servos: non habemus illos hostes sed facimus.

From the messengers who reach me out of your household, I see that you live on familiar terms with your servants. This is a very worthy approach, one that speaks well of your prudence and learning. “But they are servants!” Actually, they are human beings. “Still servants.” More like messmates, who share your closest quarters. “Servants!” Friends, whose material means happen to be small. “Slaves, bound to serve.” Better to think of them as our fellows—fellow servants, as we also are bound to some service—if you are one of those people who have decided to make our fortune depend so much on others. I laugh at those who think it base or mean to share dinner with a servant. What habit but the most arrogant and obnoxious surrounds every master with a crowd of waiters standing there while he dines? Such a master is more than just what he takes from the table: though his belly is already swollen with huge greed, he stuffs it far beyond its ability to digest, achieving everything he does with more work than he ever contributes. His unfortunate servants aren't even allowed to move their lips to talk. Their lightest murmur is beaten down with a rod, the same rod that strikes whenever they cough, sneeze, or choke. Every time a voice interrupts the master's silence, somebody must pay with great suffering. The servants stand there all night, mute and fasting.

So it comes to pass that those who cannot speak before the master end up speaking about him, when he isn't there. Some would have been ready to speak up for the master, sticking their necks out for him and turning imminent danger onto their own heads rather than his, to his face and in more private conversations, if their mouths weren't forcibly shut. Such folk generally speak at banquets and parties, but in torments they fall silent. This is the source of the proverb, born of overweening arrogance from idiot lords, that a man has as many enemies as he has servants. These are not really the enemies we have, but the ones we make.