[RoadieRoller]

I've a Manager who loves one thing - Ask questions. No answer ever comes from him, but he keeps on asking questions. And as you can imagine, I am always at the end of it giving him answers. If I ask clarification questions back, he counters that with a "Five Why" type questioning and most of the time I get frustrated, owns it up to give answers and cut the conversation.

After a few months working under him, I started wearing out and started taking it personally. I started attacking him back. Not only did that cause friction between us, he gave me a bad performance review rating. I didn't give up and kept resisting one way questioning. I reminded company pays him for providing solutions and answers when his team is in need, and not sit there asking questions.

A friend of mine understood the pains I go through, and suggested I read the book, "How to master the subtle art of not giving a f*ck". I can say I am now at peace and don't care a sh#t about most things. I am still employed, but stopped worrying and taking things personally.

[WOTERMEON]

I personally like this Socratic approach, but if person A kept avoiding giving answers constantly, even if it’s clear that the other interlocutor is getting frustrated by this approach, then, to me, it means that person A is not able to give any answer in that domain and they think that their job can be done by a chatbot and by following an inflexible approach.

[xnorswap]

I thought this was going to be a positive story about how his approach helped teach you to explore solutions via the Socratic method, I wasn't expecting your reaction at all.

Many people would hate a manager who only gave solutions, often described as micro-managing. Here we have a manager who seems hated because he only asked questions.

[sanitycheck]

Yes, same! My approach to less-critical PR comments tends to involve asking questions instead of saying "this is wrong/bad" so I was hoping it would be a positive story too.

I can see how a manager never providing actual guidance could be very frustrating though! I do recall a similar situation in the distant past, and in that case the manager was completely out of his depth and could do nothing but bluff.