The best solution would have been to escalate these problems to the managers line manager.

It’s clear they were having problems which were impacting the team.

Where I work we don’t have “engineering managers” our line managers are other engineers in different squads as I think it is great!

In a previous company we did have an over zealous manager and the team feedback through the correct channels and the issues where resolved. This was also a team made up mostly of contractors who all had strong opinions.

I thinks it’s important to remember that it was a really tough time for a lot of people during the lockdowns so maybe that factored into these issues.