“I crush people” is an unacceptable attitude for a manager to take regarding his own employees. Whether those employees can handle that sort of counterproductive adversity is irrelevant.

We don't live in a utopia. There are going to be people that say and do things that you dislike; That's reality. Instead of running to an authority figure to complain every time you encounter adversity, like a child, people need to learn to handle those situations...like adults. Someone acting mean or making an off color comment like this are a fact of life. No amount of safe spaces and down voting inconvenient truths is going to change that.

I don’t think you read what I wrote. This has nothing to do with anyone’s ability to handle adversity. It’s about whether “I crush people” is an acceptable management style. Hint: It isn’t.

I would probably handle the situation like an adult. By quitting. People dealing with the consequences of their actions are a fact of life.

I want my place of work to be a safe pace and I'm not ashamed to admit it. If I want to confront somebody's tamper tantrum I'd... do exactly what I'm doing right now, really.

The only people in need of a safe space are people who say "I crush people" and then are unable to deal with the blowback.

So, duels at dawn? No? Talking about it? But you don't like to hear about it. Uhm, hmmm, how does an adult handle a situation?

The normal way to resolve this is with violence. You should shouldn't have left that part out of your spiel.

@munchler

I did read what you wrote, I meant to reply to the commenter below. As for your point, clearly the higher ups at Google disagree.

Uhm, isn't pushing back against such "adversarial behaviour" one of the adult ways to deal with such behaviours? What are you trying to say?

Part of being an adult is to give up behaving like — and excusing — a bully.

I mean, I'm not sure that I'd be afraid of them; it comes across as kind of comical. Obviously, though, I don't think they'd make an appropriate people manager.