This really resonates with me. I've always had the strong opinion that a corporate culture of open, cooperative, non-judgemental dialog is critical to building

This really resonates with me. I've always had the strong opinion that a corporate culture of open, cooperative, non-judgemental dialog is critical to building strong teams. The OP's experiences mirror my own: I try to be careful to avoid this failure mode when onboarding interns and junior folks and have generally been sucessful, but it's taken me up to six weeks to convince people that it's ok for them to ask questions and, until that happens, I have to constantly ask them how things are going to make sure they're not stuck. That works fine if someone is my intern, but I can observe that many intern and new hire mentors do not do this and that often results in a bad outcome for all parties In almost every case, the person had at least interned at other companies, but they hadn't learned that it was ok to ask questions. P.S. if you're a junior engineer at a place where it's not ok to ask questions, you should look for another job if circumstances permit If you want dependable, competent people to work with, you need to give them the space to become those kinds of colleagues.