Comment by hypeatei

Well, he rolled up to the same director and was the most senior engineer under that director, so it was a little bit his business.

And, like I said it was only semi scolded: he came to me and quietly said something like, "you guys don't seem very busy", which I took to mean "why are you loudly brainstorming future work when the guys in the next row of cubes over haven't slept in 36 hours?"

My answer was, "All our stuff is working."

Stuff like that can almost always be traced back to that senior being told to "be visible." Show up! Have opinion on things (loudly)! "Scale yourself!" Other mumbo jumbo. It often leads to these weird misguided drive-bys where everyone is left confused.