Kindness is Underrated (2014)
As a developer, kindness is EARNED, you want people to be kind to you despite of who you are and your mediocre contribution to the code base , unnecessarily  refactoring code when you're meant to be working on an important feature ? No sir, I don't think it'll be kindness you will get from or any business manager.<p>If however you want well deserved respect and kindness, show that you excel at your job, you are able to deliver for me in a timely fashion and exceeding expectation.
You can't handle being criticised ? You have no business being in business, go open a charity bookshop. 
One has to understand, developers like in any other creative industry can go off on a tangent by themselves if not  given direction explicitly, sometimes that means being very much assertive and firm.
If that is perceived as being unkind then tough luck.