One of the supervisors on my team, I'm a software developer, is, to blunt, a jackass. He's in his own world and only comes out of it to shit on other's work, namely mine. You see, he's the main code reviewer, for everyone. Nothing gets past him, literally. Almost no code unless it's a one line change, and not even then, gets approved until his made some sort of statement on how you're doing wrong.
Last month, I was told for the nth time that I “don't ask enough questions” and that's why I haven't, “improved at all” since joining several years ago. Now, my improvement being stagnant for three years, is simply not true. It has been and can be proven that my skills as developer have improved. But not in his Rockstar eyes.
As for questions, well I do ask them. He just doesn't answer them. Instead, he interrupts me, like it's a sport. I've tried every method to make it as awkward as possible, but he simply doesn't care. If I look like I'm about to talk, he'll just jump in with something. It is maddening.
To keep my own slipping sanity, I decided to ask more questions, in the most annoying way to him. See, he likes to leave comments but not receive them. He really hates comment chains, long slack conversations, you name it. I love them, leaves a nice paper trail and lets me create references for my notes.
Now, all of the PRs he's on with me are littered with questions to his comments. I've decided that if I haven't improved at all, I should be asking all of the questions. Why aren't we using this method? Is there something wrong with it? Why should we change this variable name to wasteOfTime? Isn't camel case reserved for our subroutines so that we can distinguish them more easily from datatype variables?
The latest complaint? “She asks too many questions that aren't meaningful! She keeps leaving comments asking me to explain why I'm doing something!” I had to restrain myself from grinning too much when my direct manager told me this.
Fortunately, Mr. Rockstar should be retiring within the year. Rumor from one of the other supes is it a rather “encouraged” retirement. When I heard the news, I celebrated with a drumstick. The chocolate cone bit never tasted so good.