These comments are probably true. And I say this from experience having worked at a large corporation for the last 6 years. Yes it might be one or two guys writing negative comments but it'll also be someone who has been really wronged and cannot let go of the pain. But you can believe that there would have been others who were also wronged during this guys tenure who are just too meek (as we engineers usually are) to say it out in public.

Reasons why its probably true:

A) The comments by themselves would not have been enough to fire the guy. There must have been enough complaints by their own staff. In my corporation we managed to get our manager fired in the same way. Everyone complained to HR. Though it took like a year. This guy actually had me on "communications performance plan". It was right out of dilbert.

B) Its very very difficult to be a good manager.

This is because its easier to play the political game than it is to actually be a leader with morals, the technical chops and great communication/relationship skills. So most people just kiss ass and shit on their reports and climb up the ladder.

The higher you go in a corporation the harder it is to be a good manager. Because the amount of communiction/relationship/leadership skills necessary really rises exponentially rather than linerally. I say this from my experience of having worked in one corporation for 6.5 years. I have had MANY managers but only one good manager.

C) Sucky indian managers (selection bias). But yes there are many.

Now, I'm indian but I have to say that most indians SUCK at being managers (I've been a sucky indian manager myself :) . I've tried to figure out why and the only ponits I can think of are :

1. In tech companies there are a lot of indians and therefore a lot of indian managers.

2. Most managers suck at what they do. This because to be a good manager you have to be able to lead your employees but also be able to take orders from your own manager. Also you never get real world "practice" before your stuck into the role.

3. An indian on a H1-B is going to try harder to keep his job than one that doesnt and I think thats why they do downright deceitful things to look good to their own managers. Ie they become hardline task masters.

I've known quite a few bad indian managers. Infact if I get an indian manager the first thing I'll do that day is start looking for another job. The manager might turn out okay but I'm that disillusioned with them. Especially new ones.

PS: At the end of it all I did change. :) I got really huge pay increases for my best engineers and saved 1 from getting fired.