As mentioned in other threads, I’m planning to get the hell out of dodge in a few months because of the micromanagement I’m dealing with. But in the meantime I continue to cope as best I can. I’m always polite and respectful when dealing with these managers, but privately grind my teeth. And always try to learn from it. So in that vein, I thought it would be interesting to pose this scenario.
One thing I get alot is that they’ll (I have two managers) ask me to get with the developers to ask for some details on how something works before I respond to the external customer’s question. (And then I have to send the managers a draft of what my answer to the customer will be so they can verify if it’s correct or not. VERY extremely risk intolerant here!) So I do that. I get with the developer for details and then include a human-readable version of the answer in my draft reply.
Invariably the managers will ask me if I actually did check with the developers. One time, no problem. But this is a pattern now, for the last 1.3 months I’ve worked here, they consistently double-check that I actually did what they asked. Puzzled if they think I’m disregarding their instructions, or if the way I’m wording my answers leads them to think I’m not doing it, I just asked one about it. He said:
“I wanted to confirm since I was not part of the conversation. We need to always avoid any assumptions. It would look very bad to say, yes the information is in there only to later have to say we made a mistake. When in doubt, I always ask.”
So, I guess the solution to stopping this questioning behavior is to copy them on all conversations with the developers. Yuck, I don’t want to be one of “those” people who copies management on every little thing. Do you guys see any other ways to get them to trust that I am doing what they asked me to?
Yeah… so… that sounds like a good idea. Be sure to use the new cover sheet. There was a memo about that. I’ll just go ahead and make sure you get a copy of that.
You could just copy them on the entire email chain once you have all the information so a link would be included when you send the draft copy, instead of copying them all throughout the conversation.
I would either do that or use the “Forward as Attachment” feature to attach the email chain you had with the developers. The managers then have proof that you checked with the developers.
In my experience, I have found that if you do every little thing that managers ask (even if you think it is pointless or superfluous), then they usually get comfortable with how you are doing your job.
(Case in point: I got a new boss a couple of years ago who initially asked for all kinds of verifications and to be copied on everything. So I buried him with info. After a few months, he told me I could back off. Now he never bothers me at all—just like my previous boss.)
I’ve also found that the reason that managers usually ask for these pointless things is because they themselves are often being micro-managed by their superiors.
Yes, but here it’s not enough to do every little thing they ask but to SHOW them that I’ve done it. Effectively I haven’t talked to the developers unless they see me do it.
You mentioned in your OP that your managers will ask you to do something, and that invariably they will subsequently ask you if you actually did it.
Maybe it’s my Navy training, but whenever I am told to do something by a superior at work, I do it, and then I always report back to my superior that I’ve completed the task. This was a practice that was hammered into me when I was in the Navy, and it has seemed like good practice to follow ever since. That way there’s no wondering by the superior if what they directed actually happened.
Not sure if this advice applies to your current situation or not—because for one thing, they are also asking for proof. And of course, it goes without saying that the civilian workplace is not the military, so YMMV.
Hmm, yeah, it depends. If they ask me to do something like draft a document or whatever with no subsequent steps, then I do report back to them when it’s done. This is only an issue when they give me multi-step tasks, like talk to Bob and then include the answer in a reply to the client. I would totally copy them in the reply (or in this case, my draft reply because I can’t communicate with the clients without my proposed message being reviewed first). But I didn’t see a need to report finishing each micro-step of what I was asked to do.
Although I guess I could do that, but… I honestly am fussing with them treating me like I don’t know what I’m doing, it’s even harder to encourage this by reporting every tiny step. Or really, I am someone who strives to learn how to do things right the first time so I don’t have to be one of those difficult workers who has to be told to do something over and over again It seems like it would only encourage them. I’d envision something like this happening:
client emails us with a question
Boss: talk to Bob for details and then draft a reply and send it to me for review
me: Hi Bob, can I have details about X?
Bob: sure, it’s blahblahblah
me: Hi Boss, I talked to Bob and he said blahblahblah. I’ll draft the email now
Boss: great, be sure to send the email to me so I can review it before you send it to the client
me: right
And I am already bumping up against the borderline of doing things this way (with them reminding me to do the micro-steps multiple times any time I talk to them).
Are they just like this with you? Or everyone? Honestly, it sounds like someone before you dropped the ball in a big way and they are responding to that.
You can’t win with these folks. But @robby’s “forward as attachment” suggestion is the least bad.
I have certainly managed subordinates who could be relied upon to skip procedural steps because they simply couldn’t see the risks those “extra” steps were intended to forestall. “Close enough good enough is soooo much easier” was their motto. Once it became evident they could not be trained out of this attitude, and replacing them was too difficult for other reasons, then demanding documentary proof they had done all the steps was the only managerial technique left to make their behavior match the requirements.
Of course that also requires that the “proof” of the steps not be pencil whippable. But it was just these sorts of things, written coordination with other departments, that was likely to skipped in the case(s) I dealt with.
They micromanage everyone, but especially me because I’m “new”. (just over a year). As I mentioned, the risk tolerance seems to be negative some exponential number, so from day one they’ve been acting like I’m liable to blow the place up, piss off the client, get our contract yanked away, and laugh as I walk out the door. Or in short, they are very pro-actively NOT giving me a chance to drop the ball.
This is hugely good news. It doesn’t make you a less-bad fit for their ghastly culture. But it does mean they don’t think you’re an especially idiotic employee.
Right. and when I talk to them about things, they say I’m doing a good job. They just like being “hands on” (their terminology). They don’t seem to have a clue about how it makes us feel to be micromanaged. Typical of micromanagers!
There are people who need to be micromanaged, people who don’t seem to mind it or are oblivious to it, and people who can’t stand it.
A company can be full of micromanagers and type 1 & 2 people. The type 3s hate their work life and either quit or eventually become resigned resentful type 2s. I think you’ll be happier as a quitter.
I think it would be useful to appreciate that it’s business, not personal. As long as they are not implying that you are incapable of performing your job without their constant attention, these are just the i’s they dot and the t’s they cross.
You may want to ask if they have a preferred way to answer these questions, such as being copied on email chains before changing your process.
Total agreement. In fact, now that I’ve been running my own business successfully (but modestly) for over four years, I’m totally enveloped in the “entrepreneurial bug” and I don’t think I can work for bosses other than myself anymore. This gig is definitely on a short time limit.
This doesn’t sound like what is typically referred to as micromanagement to me. The key trait of micromanagement is that your manager is overly concerned with how you should do something when they are manifestly less of an expert in it than you.
This to me seems more like a workflow question where @robby has the right answer. If someone asks you to do something, you should, as a common courtesy, let them know when it’s done unless they explicitly tell you its not needed. @robby proposed one workflow to make that happen but it doesn’t have to be the only workflow. eg: one way I’ve worked productively with a manager in the past is at the end of every day, I’ll do a quick scrub of my current outstanding todos and write a very short slack message detailing what’s moved forward and where everything is. Another way that I’ve done that’s worked well is to communicate via a task management tool like Asana where I can jot a quick note in when something is done and my manager can look in at any time if they need to verify if something is done.
But the general principle behind all of this is that if you’re faced with what you feel like is an arbitrary demand, you should look deeper to understand what the goal behind the demand is and then work to craft a solution that fulfils the goal in a way that is conducive to yourself as well.