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Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

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Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#91

Post by tomerv »

extr wrote: post #51

This hits home. I recently quit a job (~2 months ago) that was exactly the situation described. I had never encountered micromanagement to that degree before and was initially, naively, willing to accept my boss's criticism as "learnings" for myself. He was of course totally unavailable until ~6PM, after which he would dive into the weeds on my work product for the day. "This chart's axis aren't clear enough". "Line…

What you're describing doesn't sound like micromanagement, it just sounds like a manager who's fussy about all the little details. Some people really care about the small details, but there's a way of doing that correctly, especially when it's directed towards your subordinate (for example, asking why something was done a certain way - maybe there's a good reason - instead of saying it's wrong). If it was done in a way that caused you to leave then it's obviously bad.

Micromanagement is usually more about the manager taking a normal-sized task and breaking it up to steps that are too small to make sense on their own, then checking in with the employee on every step. This blocks the employee from developing their own method of work, applying creative thinking, etc.

Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#92

Post by UncleOxidant »

zug_zug wrote: post #63
extr wrote: post #51

This hits home. I recently quit a job (~2 months ago) that was exactly the situation described. I had never encountered micromanagement to that degree before and was initially, naively, willing to accept my boss's criticism as "learnings" for myself. He was of course totally unavailable until ~6PM, after which he would dive into the weeds on my work product for the day. "This chart's axis aren't clear enough". "Line…

I have a long and healthy career in tech, including some companies you would have heard of. At one point in the last 6 years I briefly worked for a manager just as bad as what you describe. I quit within 3 months, and I'm so glad I did. I've never had anything quite like it before or since. These stories are worth remembering and sharing, had I been less wordly at the time I might have suffered a psychologically unhl…

There are a lot of bad managers out there. In some cases it's because they never had any kind of training in how to be a manager. I lasted at a place 6 months at a place with a terrible manager (see my post elsewhere in this thread) who went from being an individual contributor to suddenly managing 6 people - he was just really bad at managing. At some point you just have to quit and move on. If enough people vote with their feet maybe we can weed out these bad managers.

Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#93

Post by halfmatthalfcat »

mixedCase wrote: post #37
majormajor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So, what do you do to build up trust? You talk. What do you do when talking leads to them saying "I understand, next time I'll either get it done faster, or let you know when I realize it's gonna slip" but then what actually happens is that it slips without them giving you any updates again after all? Repeatedly? Talking doesn't build trust when the actions don't match the talk.

It depends on whether your demands are reasonable or not if it's going to work, but: If there's a persistent lack of communication when it should've been known that a deadline is not going to be met or is at least going to be close, set-up a PIP where you lay down a checklist to follow at the start/end of the day of behaviors you expect regarding communication. If that doesn't help, then yes, firing is the correct re…

PIPs are a waste of time imo. Usually if you're at the PIP stage, you're going to end up firing them anyway. I've only heard a handful of cases where PIPs actually *worked*. The rest of the time they were a waste of everyone's time.

Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#94

Post by stephc_int13 »

I don't think that good work can be achieved if people in the same team do not trust each other, at least on software projects.

If you believe that an employee has to be micromanaged to be productive, then there is something wrong somewhere, and you should probably fire them.

Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#96

Post by nine_zeros »

neilk wrote: post #42

The advice here seems practical but only if you have a very fixed mindset about who people are. That might be appropriate sometimes but I think it’s worth trying to heal relationships. On the theory that managers are also humans, try to imagine why they are micromanaging. One of the biggest problems in computerland is that we promote technical specialists to manage people and strategy. Many people are far more comfor…

> One of the biggest problems in computerland is that we promote technical specialists to manage people and strategy. Many people are far more comfortable with, and nostalgic for, the craft of programming. Such a manager ends up dictating solutions that would have been brilliant about 5 years ago, but which don’t match current practice.

Very good point. To add, technical managers who like the craft of programming often cannot understand engineers who use different approaches to delivering projects. This is because there is NO ONE WAY to perform intellectual tasks but the craftsman fails to recognize that.

Eg: If the manager prefers a PR with every corner case covered, they would never understand an iterative development strategy with smaller PRs, leading to them nitpicking on every PR. Code reviews become a toxic nightmare then.

Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#97

Post by alexpetralia »

dogman144 wrote: post #64

This article, written by a career engineer/non-manager it should be noted, attributes pretty incorrect intent to the micromanagers the author has apparently worked for. It’s pretty easy to solve this, and it can be summarized as “manage upwards.” Every micromanager does it out of a lack of trust. Not so much not trusting the specific employee, but more not trusting the specific process that generate the information a…

Great points. One of the major roles of effective managers is to provide context on what they need to do, such that you can identify what you need to help solve their problems.

If they don't provide this context, "managing up" is effectively soliciting this context such that you can help them do their job.

At the end of the day they just want their problems solved, and if you can do this for them - with or without them - all the better.

Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#98

Post by extr »

tomerv wrote: post #91
extr wrote: post #51

This hits home. I recently quit a job (~2 months ago) that was exactly the situation described. I had never encountered micromanagement to that degree before and was initially, naively, willing to accept my boss's criticism as "learnings" for myself. He was of course totally unavailable until ~6PM, after which he would dive into the weeds on my work product for the day. "This chart's axis aren't clear enough". "Line…

What you're describing doesn't sound like micromanagement, it just sounds like a manager who's fussy about all the little details. Some people really care about the small details, but there's a way of doing that correctly, especially when it's directed towards your subordinate (for example, asking why something was done a certain way - maybe there's a good reason - instead of saying it's wrong). If it was done in a w…

The micromanagement you're talking about actually came directly from the top (CEO), which was even more awkward. For example, the first month on the job the CEO set up a daily meeting with me to talk details about how my team was supposed to accomplish the goals he had set out for us. To the point of asking exactly about the schema of the database we needed, what our ETL pipeline was going to look like, hand-picking an external technical resource to help with the task (who then no-showed on the deliverable, nearly killing the CEO of embarrassment).

I found it extremely bizarre to say the least. The organization was at a scale where it made no sense for him to be that involved in the minutia. And here my boss told me I was lucky to be getting so much time with such an important and brilliant man...

Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#99

Post by alluro2 »

dogman144 wrote: post #64

This article, written by a career engineer/non-manager it should be noted, attributes pretty incorrect intent to the micromanagers the author has apparently worked for. It’s pretty easy to solve this, and it can be summarized as “manage upwards.” Every micromanager does it out of a lack of trust. Not so much not trusting the specific employee, but more not trusting the specific process that generate the information a…

Good points and I agree that they can help in a lot of cases. However, I would argue that, if you're an engineer and the best use of your time is to report 2 times a day, for things to be "working", it might be that you're just empowering a flawed manager / process / organization that way.

Re: Way to Deal with a Micromanaging Boss

#100

Post by dfsegoat »

brailsafe wrote: post #54
dfsegoat wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was the happiest boss when I could let people just do their thing and come back with great results This is decentralized command, and really the best place to be. That's why I believe being a leader in software dev. is really about serving the ppl under you - not the opposite. I think it's about balance: I will micromanage new hires initially, so that I can ensure they are sticking to SOPs, code standards etc. an…

Do you find you get a lot of negative feedback or churn during that period? Seems like it would be an awful first impression, but maybe not if you communicate things well.

You mean during the intro / "more hands on period"?

I've not heard any negative feedback, but I think it requires a 'fine touch' - or you risk drowning people in information / tedium. If they get things the first time, I won't be prone to checking up on them as much.

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