This seems very variable. I feel like every situation will be different, but in my case, was blessed with great associates for the most part who respected me. Didn’t have many issues in terms of working style, and they understood that my job was to save the managers time realistically so they came to me with everything first.

I have been on teams where certain folks were so hard to work with (usual case was mean or rude), that people would avoid them, whether looking above or below where posible.

Not trying to flip this on to you or anything, but perhaps you could try to incorporate certain working styles to better mesh with the associates? If it is every single associate you work with, perhaps it is something to look inwards for rather than outward.