I recently had a manager appointed to me, which increased the reporting structure. Without me and my colleagues, he is useless. We don’t need him but he needs us. Increasingly, he tries to break us down and blames his own shortcomings on us. I won’t take the bait and it kills him. What I’ve realized is that he uses questioning to put us on the defensive rather than actively trying to solve an issue. He’s looking for blame, not a solution. Middle management are leaches.