Working for a micro manager
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Anonymous
| My manager micro manages and it's driving me nuts. It actually feels better to vent about her (share stories about how she micro manages) at work, but i know thats a terrible outlet. I spend more time answering her questions and following up on her requests and it feels like im wasting more time than being productive. Any tips on how to deal with this day to day? For reasons i wont get into, leaving this job is not an option for at least another 3 years and my manager is not going anywhere anytime soon. TIA for any tips. |
Anonymous
| Inundate her with info. Every move you make....every breath you take.... |
Anonymous
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First and foremost, I am sorry. Micromanagers suck the life out of you.
I have worked for several in the past. Things that have helped me: - Give her the information before she asks for it. Be proactive. - Give her a daily log of items you are working on and any updates (you can use the same list daily and just add the updates) for example: Smith File- Accomplished XYZ - emailed Joe about escrow (11/2) and waiting for reply. Barnaby File- Heard back from Debra on 11/2 about IT Issue - cc her on emails - manage expectations Some micromanagers can learn to let go once they have staff who inundate them, some do not, but I have found the above to be helpful. It takes a little bit of extra time (not too much) but much less than dealing with them hourly. |
Anonymous
+1 to all of this. Also, not sure how long you've worked for this manager but my boss starts out as a terrible micromanager with every new team member but really relaxes at about the one year mark (she just has a really hard time trusting people to do there job). It makes the first year so freaking hard/miserable but once it was over, life got a lot easier. So there is a possibility your boss will get better as time goes by. |
Anonymous
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How long have you been on this job? How about having a talk with her about expectation? Ask her how she wants to be kept informed while allow you to do your jobs more efficiently?
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Anonymous
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Maybe it's due to the field I'm in but I've dealt with several micro managers in the past. The way I saw it, the micro managing part is part of their Type A detail oriented personality and what made them good at their job.
There were some that I knew I couldn't work for and left. But in some ways I appreciated some of them as well. As they contained a wealth of information to learn from. As they usually were experts at what they were doing and is why they wanted things a certain way. Even more so after a change from what others called a micro manager to a manager that was more hands off and not involved in the things that we did. That caused problems in itself and between the two I might pick the micro manager. As others said see if you can learn to work together as the previous posters mentioned. Hopefully you can learn from the manager as well. But if things become unbearable you might just have to leave before your original three year plan is up. But there are all types of issues with managers. Micro managers, managers who are not involved, managers who are not qualified, managers who do not develop or support you, etc. So there might run into issues with other managers as well and they won't be guaranteed to be better than your current one. Hope it works out! |
Anonymous
| It's a shame that micromanagers aren't coached to improve and trust. Not sure why their idiosyncrasies are tolerated. They are the problem. |
Anonymous
In some situations, I have worked with subpar employees that have required micromanagement. It was not my favorite thing and in an ideal world, they would have been let go. Typically, I prefer that my team work at their own pace and bring their issues to me (with a proposed solution, if they have one). I don't always get to choose my employees, I inherited some and do the best with what I have. My deliverables are still the same. It would honestly take me much less time to do it myself, rather than micromanage a poor performer, but I choose to let the poor performer know that they need to improve and work with them on how to do so. |
Anonymous
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When I first became a manager, I accidently was a micromanager. It was really a case of thinking through the steps I would do to complete the task.
For example, I needed someone to get a piece of information, that would require some finesse to obtain. I was thinking of what to say, and I told the person to dial the number...when someone answers, ask for the specific person. Then, when they answer, .... My employee said, "I know how to use a phone". I apologized profusely, and told him I was working through the steps in my head and speaking them.... |
Anonymous
| I agree with inundating them with information as well as documenting everything. It decreases productivity but will make things tolerable until you can leave. |
Anonymous
| For the OP: does she do this to all employees or is there any bad apple? I was thinking about a case in which my manager HAD to micro-manage all of us for a while for a good reason - he tried to weed out a laggard and had to treat everyone equally... |
Anonymous
| Have you actually told your manager how you feel? Someone on my staff told me a few months ago he felt I was starting to micromanage him. I thought about it, and met with him the next day outlining a few things I needed them to do (ex: develop his own project timelines and deliverables instead of me doing it and communicate them with me at the outset) and in return I would loosen up. I think things have improved on both sides. |
Anonymous
| These are great ssuggestions! Thanks for all the advice. I've already started putting some into practice. I don't see a change in my manager yet but hopefully, this is what she needs and doesn't "bother" me so much moving forward. For those who asked, she's like this to everyone in my group and even to others outside of our group. She definitely steps on a lot of toes when she tries to manage other employees. She's always skeptical and believes everyone else doesn'twant to or can't do a good job. |
Anonymous
| Great suggestions! I couldn't handle my micromanaging boss. I ended finding another job ASAP! |
Anonymous
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In addition to above updates, maybe have a discussion where you say that you BOTH might be able to work more efficiently if you can set a time to check in and give an update. Then agree on a reasonable interval (which might be very short at first!). Then to the extent possible, don't react until the "check in" time--either don't respond (if feasible) or say "can I let you know at [next check in time]?"
Of course, if your boss has no other work to do and is making herself feel busy by pestering you, it's going to be tougher. |