Overheard somewhere, sometime

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER (in a cheerful tone): I'm working on fixing the XYZ disturbance in the flux capacitor module.

MANAGER: You know, you can try {insert obvious technique here} to fix that.

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER (in a calm, pleasant tone of voice): Thanks for the suggestion. I have a question for you, and please don't read too much into this. When you offered that suggestion, was it because you thought I was unaware of that technique or that I've overlooked something?

MANAGER: No, I think you are a highly skilled Software Engineer. I guess I won't try to be a manager.

(fade away...)

My take on this is that the Sr. Software Engineer was asking for feedback about the manager's motivation as well as the engineer's performance. The engineer asked a reasonable question, although I can see how the manager might feel threatened by the way the engineer asked it (but note the engineer asked, up front, not to "read too much into" the question).

My impression at the time was that the manager's response shut down all communication, implying that his question was just part of normal management duties (which it might have been, though it seemed odd at the time). That last bit about not trying to be a manager seemed rather petulant and hurtful based on the manager's tone of voice so it seemed more of a control technique than anything else.

Background

The "back story": there was a history of poor communication between the manager and his subordinates; in fact, over a long period of time, the manager had not built a successful team, rather, due to turnover he had never had more than one or two engineers on staff at any time, and none having been there more than a year or so.

Talk Back!

What do you think? Did the manager handle this well? Did the Sr. Software Engineer mishandle the question?