So, what’s the deal with whiny managers who mock any attempt to ask for job improvements/raises?

Let me explain, I’ve worked under whiny managers who would be asked for quality of life improvements or a simple raise and they’d always respond with some smug answer. To their credit, usually the smug answers and laughter would be about the QoL improvements, while raises would be met with either “not now” or “that guy sucks, but asked for a raise” behind the person’s back, instead of their face.