That manager is bad at their job, or has a different set of values than the developer who's asking the question. In either case, this is a recipe for a bad rela

That manager is bad at their job, or has a different set of values than the developer who's asking the question. In either case, this is a recipe for a bad relationship. As a manager, I consider my biggest responsibility to be creating and maintain an environment and structure where the developers that work in it (and report to me) are happy, productive, trusting, and engaged. Anything else I'm responsible for doing - like, say, delivering software - can't happen in a sustainable and predictable way without my being good at that first thing. Being a good software manager - or any manager really, but I've got less experience outside of of the software realm - is about people first and whatever-you-do second, and it sounds like this manager has forgotten and/or missed that. What do you do in this situation? Make preparations to quit (which is distinct from actually quitting, but it can lead to that). If you have a decent network - and if you're good enough to get a 40% raise on moving jobs, you should - go talk to a few people at other companies you admire. If you've know any recruiters you trust, talk to them. Get a feeling for what the market will actually pay for your skills. Spend some time working though a good answer to "why do you want to leave your current job and come here," which force you to clearly work out what it is that you don't like in your current job (and if moving jobs will fix that). Once you've done all that and still want to leave, go to your old manager (and their manager) with a job offer in hand, and tell them you want a 20% raise and the following four things to change in this specific way, pulling no punches. If they hesitate, put in your notice there and there. If they accept immediately, book another meeting for a month hence with both of them to re-evaluate how fixing those issues are going, and go back to your job. If you're in this position, like Toronto, and can give a brief discourse off the top of your head about when it is and isn't appropriate to use a metaclass in Python, respond to this and let's talk.