u/Dry_Shallot_6272

Hey so I'm 22M and I'm very much fucked my btech got completed in july 2026 with last semester viva but i still have 1 F*cking backlog from 2nd semester and it is affecting my every life decisions it may not look that much of a problem but imagine not able to change job because you won't be able to take leave and travel to college and give backlog exams, I'm preparing to CDS and honestly I've kinda gave up on that dream cuz I don't have all my marksheet with me. I've been depressed my whole college life and 2026 is the worst year of all. I have lost around 10 kg due to stress and hair fall has also started and i don't even care about these things my main issue is to clear that backlog trust me I have tried several times to clear it but i couldn't. I cannot sleep at night because of anxiety. I cannot even explain what I'm feeling these days. I'm dying everyday inside and honestly it sucks

I feel like eventually i will never be able to clear this backlog and my degree will get stuck for forever. And the worst part is none of my family members knows this.

TL;DR: My teammate (1 year senior) keeps acting like my boss even though I only report to my manager. Today he publicly criticized my work, misrepresented completed tasks, and made me look incompetent in front of my manager. It honestly felt like a power move, and I'm not sure how to deal with it.

I joined a very small startup (5 people total) about 8 months ago as a fresher software engineer. My manager, another teammate (who is an AI engineer), and I work together most of the time. I mainly handle the full-stack side of things.

When I joined, my manager explicitly told me that I report only to him.

Over the last few months, I've noticed that my teammate, who's only about a year more experienced than me, has started acting like he's my boss. He constantly tells me what I should be working on, how I should do things, and points out issues with my work. I don't mind constructive criticism at all—I actually appreciate it—but lately it feels less like feedback and more like he's trying to establish authority over me.

Today was the worst instance.

I posted an update in our team group about the work I'd completed. He immediately replied saying my work was incomplete. The problem was that he hadn't even understood what my assigned task was. Some of the things he claimed were "missing" had already been discussed in our previous meeting and were intentionally planned for next week.

A couple of hours later, he called a meeting with my manager and started going through my work point by point, highlighting what I felt were very minor issues. At one point, he even told my manager that the login/signup system wasn't working properly—which simply wasn't true. It was working exactly as expected. He also brought up tasks that weren't even supposed to be finished yet.

The whole meeting felt less like a technical discussion and more like he was trying to make me look incompetent in front of my manager.

What hurt the most was that my manager didn't really step in. He's genuinely a nice person, and I don't think he realized what was happening, but I wish he had intervened or clarified the scope of my tasks because it would have immediately shut down a lot of what my teammate was saying.

I know this might sound like a small issue, but I can't shake the feeling that this is becoming a pattern. It feels like he's trying to position himself above me, maybe because if the startup grows, he wants to establish himself as someone who manages me.

I'm a fresher. I don't know much about corporate politics. I just put my head down, work hard, complete my tasks, and report to my manager. But this kind of drama is exhausting. I almost cried after today's meeting because I was working since I woke up and didn't took a break

Am I overthinking this? Has anyone dealt with a coworker like this? How do you handle someone who keeps trying to act like your boss without creating unnecessary conflict?I also study for competitive exams and these things really make me stressed.