Every manager has their on and off days. On their off days, programmers are an easy target to displace aggression. The unfortunate truth of human nature is that

Every manager has their on and off days. On their off days, programmers are an easy target to displace aggression. The unfortunate truth of human nature is that it is rare where you find a situation where aggression is not displaced. The pieces of the puzzle that work to set the balance are when developers are freelancers who can walk away from undesirable situations. It also helps to catalog and share experiences to "warn" other developers of potential problem companies. The optimal situation, I've found, is working remote when the developer is well-motivated, is being compensated based on weekly milestones they help create, requirements are based on real and realistic business assumptions, and bonuses are paid weekly for meeting the milestone with an extra bonus for exceeding the milestone for that week. This is how we work at poppup. Everyone seems happy and when we have had developers who are falling behind regularly, it just means that they are not the right fit at that time and both parties can move on soon after the discovery, having learned something valuable in the process. No hard feelings. By the way, this last bit is an advertisement for this new way of working. Poppup is looking to hire a remote rails developer right now: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/45288/rails-developer-with-ember-js-experience-poppup http://careers.stackoverflow.com/jobs/45288/rails-developer-...