From the above posts, you will be able to gather that, hopefully, pain in the arse captains are very much in the minority?
If you are flying as directed by your company SOPs then, in the perfect world, there should be no reason for any interference. Unfortunately you will, throughout your career, come across individuals who want to place their own interpretation on SOPs and one has to hope that such people are very few and far between.
If there are legitimate short cuts that can safely be taken then the captain can offer these as a suggestion to you but should, provided you remain within the bounds of a safe operation, let you do your own thing.
What you are experiencing is much the same as most of us have experienced at some time in the past and the advice given in the above posts, ranging from 'grin and bear it' because tomorrow should be better through to speaking to your CP is all valid. Ideally the path with the least confrontation is the way to go but as a professional pilot you naturally want to fly safely so, in each case, you must make your choice.
Look forward to the day you become a captain!
BlueEagle - Moderator.