I think this is really excellent advice. I've had my share of sour interactions with supervisors. I've had few supervisors who didn't respect my work. Typically, the feeling was mutual. I've occasionally let a supervisor know that I didn't respect their work. I've also had supervisors who constructively mentored me and even made me feel cherished. My experiences have pretty much encompassed the entire spectrum of possible feedback. Also, I'm very sensitive to how others respond to me. A pat on the head could put me on cloud 9, while a negative appraisal could get me quite dejected.

It's really not good for others to have that much power to control our mood. One of the goals of becoming a mature person is to develop a certain degree of indifference to what others think of us. I'm not saying I've reached that goal yet. I'm working on it. I'll always be working on it. For you to confront your supervisor about his response to you might be a case of you supplying more fuel to a dynamic that would be better left to sputter and peter out. I think challenging him, in any way, will just get you more negative feedback. I say this because he sounds like a negative sort of guy who's over-ready to dump a subordinate who approaches him with an issue. A wise, mature supervisor would have buffered his criticism with something positive . . . unless you were a complete non-performer, which, clearly, you are not.

Some types of people in a work environment are best to kind of avoid. Of course, if you terminate, you'll not have to deal with him further. However, it's probably just a matter of time before you bump into another supervisor like that. So learn what you can from this.

Like Divine says, he's not a friend of yours. If he talks nice to you - even if that niceness is fake - that's really all you need, in the work arena. I've occasionally been "fake-nice" to people at work. I wish, now, that I had been "fake-nice" a lot more often. It's actually a necessary social skill.