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Your description does not sound like good management. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a mutual working meeting where both IC and manager commit to goals and achieve organizational changes in a more coordinated manner? How could a conversation with a manager with hire-promote-fire power be considered a safe space? An EAP specialist would be a more appropriate outlet for venting.

Now, I would commend a manager teaching an employee to not see management as an enlightened therapist/advocate/accountability partner, but rather as just another kind of specialist in the organization with certain powers and access channels. Sadly, that seems unlikely in the age of Rands, Ask a Manager, etc.