People respond to incentives in generally predictable ways.
If you are told you will get a substantial raise if your subordinates work harder, guess what, you are going to get your subordinates to work harder.
If you are told you will get a substantial raise if your subordinates work harder, guess what, you are going to get your subordinates to work harder.
But previous experience, as a grunt, ought to suggest that -- completely in line with almost all of the established research -- task-switching decreases performance. There's just so much overhead associated with it.
So it is as if elevation has caused someone to forget their experience.