# Being micromanaged at work? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208 "2012-11-16T16:41:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/61 "2012-11-20T21:09:41Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Keeping the boss informed is not a business goal upon itself, because the boss is not a customer. The boss is a cog in the machine along with everyone else. If the boss is just sitting there, waiting for his busy subordinates to tell him/her what they’re doing, then this kind of boss might as well be a secretary. A good boss is engaged enough with the work to have a comfortable sense of where things are at any given moment, and if they don’t know, then they know whom to ask. They don’t wait for their people to tell them about problems that require their attention; rather, they periodically check in with staff to make sure everything is okay. And if the boss is really effective, staff will volunteer information about their work so the boss doesn’t even have to ask. If you have to get your people to write status reports twice a week just to get them to “talk” to you, that’s a sign that you might not be the best fit for that job. > > It is management’s job to get off its ass and ask the necessary questions. If management is responsible for knowing what is going on, then they should figure out how to do that without creating unnecessary work for their staff. Otherwise, they are just getting in the way. > > FWIW, I’m in management. Are you sure? Doesn’t sound like any “management” I’ve actually seen in corporate America.😉 Most of the “management” I’ve been involved with consists of layers of bureaucrat who seem to serve no other purpose besides sucking up to some more senior bureaucrat. I litterally have seven “bosses” across three different departments, dotted lined to each other. The one team’s purpose, as far as I can tell, is nothing more than producing project charters and status reports for several layers of C-level management. This is a pretty large company, but it was the same in my last company. Out of a dozen employees in my office, we had two vice presidents, two account managers, an engagement manager, a “client relationship manager”, and like 2 analysts doing the actual work. The point being, for every manager who actually leads a team of people to complete some task or run some department, there seem to be a ton more who serve no other purpose besides shufling paper and emails and Powerpoint decks up and down the line. ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/62 "2012-11-21T03:20:07Z")
> [@Winston\_Smith](#): > > I guess there’s one in every crowd, right? > > I don’t know where you work (Burger King? Circle K?) but I am accustomed to autonomy in my work, which is interrupt-oriented and requires a great deal of multitasking. It’s probably easy to account for your time if you’re flipping burgers for a 6 hour shift, but my work demands a high degree of technical know-how, institutional knowledge, creativity and leadership skills. See, that’s actually insulting me. It’s not making the case that asking for reports is intolerable micromanaging. Small but real difference. (No, you are not obligated to make that case. You were free, for example, to not respond at all.) > [@Winston\_Smith](#): > > It is often difficult to quantify my time because, in the course of an hour, I’ve provided technical direction to a direct report, fixed the SAN, reasearched some details of necessary technical implementation and had a conference call with the Apps team to help them forecast disk space utilization over the next year. “It’s difficult to say what I spend my time doing, because these are the things I spend my time doing.” > [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > Just like any other activity in the workplace, management is supposed to serve a purpose. If the boss is asking for status reports and doesn’t even read them (like my boss does), then that means these status reports are a waste of time. If the status reports are being read but nothing of constructive consequence results from this information, then again they are a waste of time. I don’t see any indication in the post that the reports aren’t being read. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/63 "2012-11-21T04:26:11Z")
> [@Winston\_Smith](#): > > I guess there’s one in every crowd, right? > > I don’t know where you work (Burger King? Circle K?) but I am accustomed to autonomy in my work, which is interrupt-oriented and requires a great deal of multitasking. It’s probably easy to account for your time if you’re flipping burgers for a 6 hour shift, but my work demands a high degree of technical know-how, institutional knowledge, creativity and leadership skills. It is often difficult to quantify my time because, in the course of an hour, I’ve provided technical direction to a direct report, fixed the SAN, reasearched some details of necessary technical implementation and had a conference call with the Apps team to help them forecast disk space utilization over the next year. IT people always act as if their jobs are unquantifyable because they spend their entire day putting out random fires. But just because you are running around busy all day doesn’t mean you are being as effective as you can be or need to be in your job. The fact is, there are specific business questions your manager (or you) will need to be able to answer. Are you investing enough in infrastructure? Do you have enough staff? Are you providing appropriate levels of support? Do you even have an effective support plan or is it all reactionary? A well managed IT organization relies on good process, not the heroic efforts of a couple of key individuals. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/64 "2012-11-21T11:28:26Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > IT people always act as if their jobs are unquantifyable because they spend their entire day putting out random fires. But just because you are running around busy all day doesn’t mean you are being as effective as you can be or need to be in your job. The fact is, there are specific business questions your manager (or you) will need to be able to answer. Are you investing enough in infrastructure? Do you have enough staff? Are you providing appropriate levels of support? Do you even have an effective support plan or is it all reactionary? > > A well managed IT organization relies on good process, not the heroic efforts of a couple of key individuals. I agree with this. As much as I dislike the babysitting it is intended to fix something that’s broken. It hasn’t occurred to me until just now that this may be in advance of adding a person, not firing someone. And yes, I do get a little carried away with my sense of self-importance as an IT guy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/65 "2012-11-21T13:32:26Z")
> [@Winston\_Smith](#): > > I guess there’s one in every crowd, right? > > I don’t know where you work (Burger King? Circle K?) but I am accustomed to autonomy in my work, which is interrupt-oriented and requires a great deal of multitasking. It’s probably easy to account for your time if you’re flipping burgers for a 6 hour shift, but my work demands a high degree of technical know-how, institutional knowledge, creativity and leadership skills. It is often difficult to quantify my time because, in the course of an hour, I’ve provided technical direction to a direct report, fixed the SAN, reasearched some details of necessary technical implementation and had a conference call with the Apps team to help them forecast disk space utilization over the next year. …it never ceases to amaze me when people ask for advice, get advice they don’t agree with and throw out insults in response. You really need to get over yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/66 "2012-11-21T13:47:03Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > …it never ceases to amaze me when people ask for advice, get advice they don’t agree with and throw out insults in response. You really need to get over yourself. I was responding to a post with more snark than advice, and find myself doing it again. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Smith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/67 "2012-11-21T13:56:37Z")
> [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > See, that’s actually insulting me. It’s not making the case that asking for reports is intolerable micromanaging. Small but real difference. > > (No, you are not obligated to make that case. You were free, for example, to not respond at all.) > > "It’s difficult to say what I spend my time doing, because these are the things I spend my time . My point is that I do a lot of stuff, and having to capture it all, quantify it, organize and present it is sort of a pain in the ass. Especially since I’ve been at the job over 5 years and never had to do it before. Add to that, the reports are only a part of it, but they are the part that annoy me most because they are the most time-consuming. There’s also an element of actual, hands-on “do it this way” and constant questioning of the most mundane trivialities on day-to-day operations. Again, I understand it needs to be done, and if they’d rather pay me to write reports than actually work 10 hours a week, then so be it. This isn’t the worst thing to happen to me in 14 years of IT, but it does make the work a little less pleasant. And I thought the thread might spark some interesting discussion ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/68 "2012-11-21T13:59:30Z")
> [@Winston\_Smith](#): > > I was responding to a post with more snark than advice, and find myself doing it again. …it wasn’t snarky at all: they were just saying that what they didn’t perceive what you claimed was micromanagement to be micromanagement. I made my early career in the hospitality trade and if you think that handling five tasks in an hour is “multi-tasking” there is no way you could handle six hours behind a hot stove flipping burgers. If you really are spending an hour a day on this: then that will become obvious when you report to your boss, shouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208/69 "2012-11-21T15:17:08Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > The point being, for every manager who actually leads a team of people to complete some task or run some department, there seem to be a ton more who serve no other purpose besides shufling paper and emails and Powerpoint decks up and down the line. Yeah, and that’s a problem. Even if these managers are actually serving an important purpose, the fact that this purpose is unknown to everyone else in the organization means people will have a hard time taking them seriously when they ask for things. Which is why many are so often called micromanagers, even when techinically they aren’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/being-micromanaged-at-work/641208.md?page=3)