Do you know any engineers? There is a reason they are called "geeks." They consist primarily of the kids who got beat up in high school. Their identities were founded in their intelligence because they just couldn't rely on their physical prowess.
Fast forward to the "real world" where most people look wincingly back at how they treated others in school. Most adults are very kind and certainly never intentionally humiliate anyone. That just ain't the case with most engineers. They got picked on, they didn't deserve it, and now they can retaliate by putting in place the intelectually inferior minions surrounding them.
It is worse when a group of engineers are in close proximity to each other. Like if they work together. Let the gnashing and gnarling of teeth begin. Each one wants to be the smartest engineer and being average will simple not suffice. This can create a very hostile environment and "idiot" is the word used most often by engineers.
My first year working at my job was terrible. In fact, it was worse than that. I worked with a group of 4 young engineers who, like me, were trying to prove their worth. I remember my first "code review." "Code" refers to the computer program that a software engineer writes. A code review is when a group of other engineers look at your code and makes comments on it which helps to remove all the bugs. One more thing you should know is that every software engineer thinks all other software engineers write horrible code.
When I was assigned my first project I thought it was very hard. I wasn't sure if I should even be a programmer, or if I was in the wrong field. I slaved away for weeks before I completed my program and finished testing it, and was incredibly proud of my accomplishment. As I sat basking in finally finishing, Jason walks in and sees that I am finishing my test, and he takes it upon himself to make sure I did everything correctly. When I tell him to leave, he physically rolls my chair away from my computer, pulls in his own chair, and starts looking through my code with an intensity I have not seen since.
With each line, his lip curls a bit further in disgust. My insecure self is withering with each passing second and after a few pages, he sigh and then growls, "I can't believe you wrote this s**t!" He turns to glare at me and waits for a response. What is a poor, kind girl, who would never dream of treating anyone else like this, supposed to do? I dashed for the bathroom to cry.
In the subsequent weeks and months, Jason evoked this response many times. Strangely, he would alternate between incredibly charming and downright mean. Sometimes he would be very fun for a few weeks. Then, all of a suddon, his mean side would erupt and he would spurt horrible, demeaning remarks. I was not the only victim of his lashings, but I was the newest member of the team, so I got the brunt end of his mean stick.
It was a strange time in my life. I had officially entered the adult world, and was thrilled to be supporting myself. But my job was nothing like I had imagined and every morning I would have to drag myself out of bed and force myself to face the environment that I now know is caused by insecure engineers trying to prove their self worth. In hindsight, I could have gone to HR and the abuse would have stopped. At the time I thought that it was what the "real world" was really like and that I would have to learn to handle it.
Thank goodness I am now on a team that is sarcastic but never mean spirited.
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