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I'm 2 months into a new job (been with the employer 2 years, but transferred to a new department)...and the boss I have now is a freakin NIGHTMARE when it comes to micromanaging. I've never ever ever EVAH seen anything like this before.
And its with the tiniest things. He wants to read every freaking email I'm going to send before I send it out! 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.
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.
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.
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!"
I can't believe I left one department's problems thinking it would be better in this department...I just encountered way different (and POSSIBLY way more annoying) problems is all...the grass is NOT always greener!!!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,570 posts, read 81,147,605 times
Reputation: 57793
The advantage to transferring to another department at the same company is that you can talk to the employees there and find out about the manager ahead of time. Sounds like you missed that opportunity. There really isn't much you can do about it other than hope your work eventually demonstrates your capability and the manager decides that it's not necessary to keep such tight reins on you.
The advantage to transferring to another department at the same company is that you can talk to the employees there and find out about the manager ahead of time. Sounds like you missed that opportunity. There really isn't much you can do about it other than hope your work eventually demonstrates your capability and the manager decides that it's not necessary to keep such tight reins on you.
Not likely...it came out the first week I was working here that he is a micromanager. This came from the young lady whose job I took...and she worked for him for three years (Yes, she waited til I got hired to divulge this information)
Yeah, I didn't do a good enough job of finding out any potential negatives with this new boss...I was too damn ready to get the hell out of dodge from the last position My mistake
when you have a manger like this the best thing to do is just give in and do what they say. For whatever reason she finds you are not cautious enough and he's probably been burnt before. In healthcare (it sounds like) that's not really out of line. Just do what he says, otherwise you will have a tough time getting along, and he's the manager.
and yeah, every job comes with it something new and frustrating
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.
Sounds like a micro manager to me. So, here's what I do. The minute I get a note in my mailbox asking me to do something; I drop EVERYTHING (even if it kills me or makes me miss a different deadline); and do it right then.
Gosh, they just LOVE THAT. Do that a few times and maybe he'll think you walk on water and leave you alone.
Or . . sounds like you left one crappy department for another; maybe it's time to look elsewhere.
I'm 2 months into a new job (been with the employer 2 years, but transferred to a new department)...and the boss I have now is a freakin NIGHTMARE when it comes to micromanaging. I've never ever ever EVAH seen anything like this before.
And its with the tiniest things. He wants to read every freaking email I'm going to send before I send it out! 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.
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.
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.
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!"
I can't believe I left one department's problems thinking it would be better in this department...I just encountered way different (and POSSIBLY way more annoying) problems is all...the grass is NOT always greener!!!
Been there, done that. My condolences.
He's not going to change. My advice is to look elsewhere and find a job where the managers are normal.
Had a micromanager a while back, and rarely anything I did satisfied him completely. A couple other friends at work who worked on other projects under him previously ran into the same problems. So, I did the whole team player thing for about 6 months, knowing that there wasn't anything better to work on in my department, and I didn't want to look bad. Then, once some spots on other projects opened up, I immediately jumped onto it.
I later worked on another project under him, but the second time, it wasn't something he could really micromanage, and it helped that I was also working with a PhD, whom he respected.
He's not going to change. My advice is to look elsewhere and find a job where the managers are normal.
Good luck to you.
20yrsinBranson
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.
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(Yes, she waited til I got hired to divulge this information)
