UPDATE: Manager rejects engineer’s ideas in private, then implements the same solutions as his own, after the construction professional refuses to demote himself – FAIL Blog

After a few rounds of that, it is no surprise the engineer starts wondering whether this is sabotage or just ego dressed up in a tie. Either way, the result is the same. The person actually doing the groundwork feels smaller and more uncertain, and the person with the title gets to look decisive. Shifting more of the conversation into email, keeping a quiet trail of who suggested what and when, is not petty. It is just protecting reality from memory.