Don't bring it up to the boss, he was probably trying protect his 'human resource turf' to meet his goals. He is evaluated on the performance & management of h

Don't bring it up to the boss, he was probably trying protect his 'human resource turf' to meet his goals. He is evaluated on the performance & management of his team and your request was probably against that evaluation. Try talking to the programmer directly or maybe his boss and bring it up in a 'for the entire company' way.