Full disclosure: I'm a freelance rock-star developer with a 30-year international career predominantly in finance and investment banking.

If I were your manager, I'd fire you and then do everything in my power to make that guy happy.

Some people produce things, and their intrinsic value is obvious. If nobody writes the software, then no software gets written. Some people manage others and have no intrinsic value except in their ability to inspire others. If we take away the managers then the software may still get written.

In this case, we have a guy (the programmer) with measurable intrinsic value, and we have yourself, a manager who has, according to their own testimony, completely failed to inspire their staff.

So, as your manager (I might be, how would you know?) I would look carefully at the harm you've allowed to happen here and try to find the best way of rectifying the situation before I loose the rock-star developer. Out of the two of you, his skills are a lot more difficult to replace and losing him would do my business much more harm than losing a middle manager.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming the entire situation on you. The culture was probably in place before you started, but if this is the result then that culture is toxic. The problem is that it is still going to be in place when you leave too. Unless you fix it yourself.

So, the answer to this problem is for you to step up and fix the structure of your organisation so that this cannot happen again. Embrace servant leadership and find alternative reward structures that keep everyone on side, rather than just the psychos.

Alternatively, you can continue to be angry with this guy's response to your company's chronic poor management, blame it on him and fire him, and you'll suffer because of it, just like most people who are driven by anger instead of humanity.

Full disclosure: I'm a freelance rock-star developer with a 30-year international career predominantly in finance and investment banking.

If I were your manager, I'd fire you and then do everything in my power to make that guy happy.

Some people produce things, and their intrinsic value is obvious. If nobody writes the software, then no software gets written. Some people manage others and have no intrinsic value except in their ability to inspire others. If we take away the managers, then the software may still get written.

In this case, we have a guy (the programmer) with measurable intrinsic value, and we have yourself, a manager who has, according to their own testimony, completely failed to inspire their staff.

So, as your manager (I might be, how would you know?) I would look carefully at the harm you've allowed to happen here and try to find the best way of rectifying the situation before I lose the rock-star developer. Out of the two of you, his skills are a lot more difficult to replace and losing him would do my business much more harm than losing a middle manager.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not blaming the entire situation on you. The culture was probably in place before you started, but if this is the result then that culture is toxic. The problem is that it is still going to be in place when you leave, too, unless you fix it yourself.

So, the answer to this problem is for you to step up and fix the structure of your organisation so that this cannot happen again. Embrace servant leadership and find alternative reward structures that keep everyone on side, rather than just the psychos.

Alternatively, you can continue to be angry with this guy's response to your company's chronic poor management, blame it on him and fire him, and you'll suffer because of it, just like most people who are driven by anger instead of humanity.