This happened just now. It's not serious but, God I wanted to bang my head in a wall.
So, I work in a government non-specialized job. I have some education in IT and I'm trying to get back into the industry after a hiatus (long story). While my job is non-specialized, the bosses realized I'm a somewhat competent programmer and developer (in a tech-illiterate environment I'm basically a God) and basically put me in a position to develop content for the institution I'm at. They get nice whistles and bell and I get to develop my portfolio while avoiding the most boring jobs. You can probably guess some coworkers don't like it and think I'm lazy because I'm "always on the computer", but I digress. It's definitely not the case with Jimmy he at least understands what I do.
Jimmy joined the staff not long ago. He used to be a security guard supervisor and is a competent computer user. In that place that is a lot better than most people. But he knows nothing of programming or development or even intermediate tech support. But he is resourceful and knows how to figure some things out. We get along fine but he is older than me and can be a bit condescending. The moment he arrived I was glad I, at least, had someone else tech-literate. While talking to him I found out he had been enrolled in a Computer Engineering degree but quit on the first semester because "he had no time to go to classes". I was very optimistic until I saw him do some dumb things. One was using a random charger for a laptop because "it is all the same and I know better, kid" (I stopped him just in time). The other was seeing me working on a disassembled machine trying to troubleshoot and he basically banged on a hard drive because "all this needs is a little slap". I almost had a heart attack and managed to stop him as he was about to unknowingly destroy a hard drive.
He used to see me programming and I use LLM's to help me speed some things up. He would, half-joking (or not), say it was easy and he did the same at home and I just tried to make it look harder. After a while he came with a small web app he did to help in his post. It was visually nice, and I applauded his initiative, but I quickly realized it was vibe coded 100%. It was basically HTML and JS all in a single *.htm file. I don't like to put people down or be arrogant so I just complimented the aesthetics of it. It was never usable. I tried to lure him to try to fix it with my help but he was never interested.
Recently we changed posts and I got his old post since it would leave me more free to develop and give tech support. I decided to make something more usable to "replace" his app. I didn't want him to feel I was trying to make him look bad so I decided I'd try to fit his code in the project I started in Laravel. The aesthetics would still be there so he would still be recognized for his initiative. But I soon realized nothing short of the layout would be usable (he had a harcoded pin code in JS, I shit you not) and even that I eventually left out since the interface wouldn't be practical.
Well, sorry for the long context, story time:
Today as we're leaving work he comes to me with a very condescending tone telling me that app was sure to get me in trouble. I had 2 QR codes in my desk. One with my local hotspot with restrictions that runs on the local network, and another with one of my projects ip (that runs in a machine inside the network only I have access to). Everything developed using MVC in Laravel and proper authentication. He actually took a picture of it and showed it to me saying it was the most unsafe thing ever (and probably to other people, but whatever). He was holding that picture like it was the most damning thing ever, like it was the thing that could make me be disciplined for. At first I was dumbfounded because I wasn't truly understanding what was wrong. For a moment I even got worried I had missed something obvious. So I kept asking him what was the problem because I was probably missing it. At first he was saying the local hotspot was a security risk and I should use the local network only (uh). Then he was saying the app I already developed was unsafe to be there and should be on the Internet (I didn't laugh in his face, I'm proud of my composure). Then he told me, in his majestic tone to this lowly pleb, there were rules about data protection and privacy, like any half-competent developer wouldn't know about it. In between some vague concerns and contradictions and insinuations I was getting in trouble with the bosses (that 100% trust me when IT is concerned). I basically insisted he explained himself properly. Always while he was keeping that annoying condescending smirk. I kept my composure and forced him to explain himself properly. Until he eventually realized how blatantly he exposed his ignorance and was making a fool of himself. And he started avoiding the conversation saying stuff like "oh, I don't care, don't say I didn't warn you".
I know what you're thinking. He's trying to scare me into stopping improving that post, since he can see how much of a major improvement it will be. I'm used to it, so I don't care. I'll be leaving that job as soon as I can jump ship anyway. But the more he talks the more I realize that he isn't as capable as I think. Even in other contexts he does everything to look smart but fails. But it was so frustrating trying to explain to me he had no clue what he was talking about and, until today, I hadn't realized how threatened he felt by me. I know he wants to be the go-to IT guy and try to stand out from the rest of us, but he has no chance while I'm around. And after the ignorance I heard today...I wouldn't even trust him with a laptop administrator account.
Yeah, Nuno is a beast. Greatly underrated guitarist.