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And its with the tiniest things. He wants to read every freaking email I'm going to send before I send it out!
This is a micromanager. I've had to deal with this and it's annoying, but primarily it was because they were afraid I was trying to take their job from them.
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I just sent one and he re-forwarded it to the sender, copying me with the same exact text I had in the email, except he reworded my wording "payments due to study patients" to "subject payments due"... I mean, it didn't change the meaning of the email what.so.EVER.
This is not a micromanager. That's not the exact text, and small words like that actually can make a difference depending on who's reading them.
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I had someone ask me a simple question today via email...how many patients do you have enrolled in trials and how many staff members are conducting research in your department?...I respond with: 140 trials and 10 staff members conducting research.
He got copied on the email, ended up responding with high importance, saying "Hold on southkakkatlantan, we need to look into this type of thing before responding." Then proceeded to:
(A) include four paragraphs saying, "Well, if the person counts THESE kinds of studies, it would be THIS number, or if they count THOSE kinds of trials, it would be THAT number, and if they count staff members conducting research with PURPLE hair, it would be THIS NUMBER"...and on and on and on.
This is also important. If an e-mail is going to someone making an important decision, it's helpful to provide as much information as possible.
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then
(B) following up with ANOTHER email saying he CALLED the person that originally sent me this request via email and that my original response was indeed correct.
Fortunately, tomorrow when that person needs the other information, you'll already have it and it'll save you time because your "micromanaging boss" got it for you already.
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He'll email me something, say it needs to be done TODAY and then mandate I attend meetings with him for frikkin 5 hours of the day...at the end of such meeting he'll ask if I completed that task yet and I'm lookin at him like, "No...because I've just been in meetings with you that you wouldn't let me out of and that were of no importance to me whatsoever for the past 5 frikkin HOURS!"
Decline the meeting and tell him why. But do that before you decide on the meeting. He has no idea if you're able to manage your time well enough to do the task and do the meeting. In fact, your predecessor may have been able to do things like that all the time. Why can't you?
Honestly this doesn't sound like a micromanager. Sounds like you transferred to a different department expecting an easier job than what it was and now you don't like the workload. Your boss can't trust the e-mails you send out, and odds are it's because he finds what you write embarrassing to him in some way. The work you do is a reflection on him, so it's imperative that you look good to everyone else so that he does. That doesn't make him a micromanager. Focus less on him and more on improving the quality of your own work, and I'm willing to bet that everything else falls into place.
This is not a micromanager. That's not the exact text, and small words like that actually can make a difference depending on who's reading them.
That is a micromanager. The wording means substantively the same thing, and email is not a contractual document.
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This is also important. If an e-mail is going to someone making an important decision, it's helpful to provide as much information as possible.
True, but you have no idea if the info in the email was going to be part of an important decision. If those differences are important in this case, the person asking the question should have mentioned that in their initial query.
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Honestly this doesn't sound like a micromanager. Sounds like you transferred to a different department expecting an easier job than what it was and now you don't like the workload. Your boss can't trust the e-mails you send out, and odds are it's because he finds what you write embarrassing to him in some way. The work you do is a reflection on him, so it's imperative that you look good to everyone else so that he does. That doesn't make him a micromanager. Focus less on him and more on improving the quality of your own work, and I'm willing to bet that everything else falls into place.
This makes you sound like a micromanager and a troll who likes to cast blame on people.
If your boss insists on approving all email from you, the boss is a micromanager.
As someone else said - my condolences. Personally, I can't STAND a micromanager. It drives me up and down a wall. I don't think there's anything you can do about it except leave. That kind of person tends to respond poorly to any 'creative' criticism and rarely changes.
Thankfully my boss is the complete opposite of this. In fact, he doesn't manage ENOUGH (he says he doesn't have time). However, I can deal with that much better than someone who wants to nitpick over every little thing I'm doing. I don't think they realize that it's counterproductive.
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Originally Posted by Csiko
Honestly this doesn't sound like a micromanager. Sounds like you transferred to a different department expecting an easier job than what it was and now you don't like the workload. Your boss can't trust the e-mails you send out, and odds are it's because he finds what you write embarrassing to him in some way. The work you do is a reflection on him, so it's imperative that you look good to everyone else so that he does. That doesn't make him a micromanager. Focus less on him and more on improving the quality of your own work, and I'm willing to bet that everything else falls into place.
Obviously we don't know the whole story, but it does not sound like the OP is trying to be lazy or do less work. She's just trying to be efficient and her boss is not allowing that because he's got to have his entire hand in every pie.
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Originally Posted by fishbrains
This makes you sound like a micromanager and a troll who likes to cast blame on people.
This. It's one thing to say you don't think it's micromanagement. It's another to basically insult another poster when you don't even know the entirety of the situation.
It sounds to me like he's a micromanager, but consider another possibility:
He's decided he doesn't like you or want you in that position but he can't get rid of you. Consequently he's doing everything in his power to make you miserable and make you leave.
I had one of those once. She bullied me and picked at everything I did, but she also desperately needed me because I knew more than she did. Once she bullied and harassed me in front of a witness and I was out of there faster than you can say, "Give me a severance package."
If you don't think this is the case and instead he "simply" is a micromanager, you have no choice right now but to put up with it, as others have suggested. Forward him your emails (even those that just say, "OK.") before sending them. Suck up. Go see Cool Hand Luke. He'll think he's "broken you" but you know you're just waiting for the right opportunity to get out of there.
I, too, had a boss like that. He nitpicked at the smallest details in my legal briefs and marked me off for a simple typo. I used to consider myself detail-oriented, until I met him... I was so stressed out working under him that I applied for (and got) a different position. The new position entailed a much longer commute, but I was a happier person.
Fast forward, several rotations and 3 years later - he's still at his old position, while I've returned and now am at a higher reporting chain (and make more money) than him. It's karma.
You just articulated how I feel. I used to consider myself an extremely detail oriented person, until my current manager and now, I am stressed out, have made some mistakes, which make me further stressed out and you know the story.
It is interesting how an experience can make you start questioning yourself.
This is a micromanager. I've had to deal with this and it's annoying, but primarily it was because they were afraid I was trying to take their job from them.
This is not a micromanager. That's not the exact text, and small words like that actually can make a difference depending on who's reading them.
This is also important. If an e-mail is going to someone making an important decision, it's helpful to provide as much information as possible.
Fortunately, tomorrow when that person needs the other information, you'll already have it and it'll save you time because your "micromanaging boss" got it for you already.
Decline the meeting and tell him why. But do that before you decide on the meeting. He has no idea if you're able to manage your time well enough to do the task and do the meeting. In fact, your predecessor may have been able to do things like that all the time. Why can't you?
Honestly this doesn't sound like a micromanager. Sounds like you transferred to a different department expecting an easier job than what it was and now you don't like the workload. Your boss can't trust the e-mails you send out, and odds are it's because he finds what you write embarrassing to him in some way. The work you do is a reflection on him, so it's imperative that you look good to everyone else so that he does. That doesn't make him a micromanager. Focus less on him and more on improving the quality of your own work, and I'm willing to bet that everything else falls into place.
Small words can make a difference...but they didn't in this case so there was no need to rewrite what I wrote.
Yes, it can be helpful to provide more information than is needed. But sometimes, people just need a frikkin CONCISE response so they can move on quickly...a novel about the topic is not always required.
No comment on my predecessor other than she was the first one to come outright and tell me he was a micromanager and it's part of the reason she left. I have also been approaced by the head of a department we work closely with to ask me to 'reign him in' on his recent attempts to micromanage them.
What you inferred about me is incorrect. I did leave a highly stressful environment in the hopes of having less stress, but found the stress I'm getting from being micromanaged is just as bad as the stress that comes from a much higher-paced environment filled with ego-tripping surgeons.
You can just simply take my word for it that I know a micromanager when I see one.
I've done way too much work under a minimal amount of supervision to need someone obsessing over every little word I speak or write; I know when to involve superiors when necessary in certain decison making processes or communications.
Well the simple answer is either find another job or do it his way. He is the boss. So, unless he leaves, your job is to understand what he wants and deliver it.
If what he wants is to review/revise whatever you write then give it to him automatically. Just set up your routine to do that.
Re the task/mtg. did you ask if you could skip any part of the mtg to do the task? If not, then the answer is I'll do it now.
Are you sure he's a micromanager? Maybe he just doesn't trust you yet and needs longer to do so. In which case, you could have a conversation asking what would help him have more confidence in you.
the OP clearly described a micromanager .... lack of trust is just a trait thereof
There is a difference between style and procedure. Writing something as "payments due to study patients" to "subject payments due"... etc, is being nit-picky.
Yeah. Took me 5 years to get a business established on my own and get out from underneath my micro-manager. In my case he was President, I was Director of sales and Marketing.
It was awful.
My sympathy, Friend.
From my perspective, micro-managers get the most results faster than a non micro-manager. That doesn't mean I like to work for one, they are the only ones that can deliver the accountability that a business owner or president wants.
Certain environments micro-managers may hinder productivity especially in engineering and creative fields.
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