Which is worse?
The dreadful manager or Javascript on the backend?

The dreadful manager, obviously?

Obviously the first.

Manager.

JS is just a language, if that is what you know best, what you prefer or what your platform only supports, sure use it for your backend.

Unpopular opinion: node and JavaScript can make for a good backend. Doing full stack JavaScript means it’s easier for engineers to work on all parts of the app, and therefore it’s easier to fix problems, wherever they appear. It has pretty good concurrency support, and a massive amount of libraries to call on. And as long as you’re using typescript, all the nightmares involved with js types is essentially gone

I genuinely enjoy using nodejs, and don’t understand all the hate it gets

Depends. If you're using node.js or similar, the first. If you're catching http requests, firing them at a virtual browser to process some Javascript, capturing the result, and firing it back, then that's definitely worse than having a bad manager.

Why not both?

That's like asking which is better, a toxic life or a happy life

Backend JS developer turned manager. My previous company used to have one like that, and that's horrible.

Aren't they the same?

I mean:

- Both start yelling at you over seemingly random things.

- Both are more well-known in the company than you are.

- No sane person will like them.

- Both get way more credit than they should.

- Both give you more headaches than it's worth.

Manager

Yes

*Busy writing typescript*

You can kill the manager.
Can’t really kill Node, unfortunately.