Are You Being Micromanaged?

Do you have a boss who seems to hover over your every move? Does this person seem almost obsessed with where you are and what you’re doing at any given time? Does the situation create stress for you on the job -- stress that might even work against your productivity? You might have a micromanager on your hands. And as you might have suspected or experienced, this kind of unhealthy management may cause more than just harmless tension.

Being an overbearing boss isn’t simply a means of annoying tough love. According to this recent article (registration required), micromanagement negatively affects morale, drive and confidence on the job -- and is suggested to be one of the biggest issues leading to employee turnover. The article cites a recent study that found 80 percent of workers feel like they have been victims of micromanagement, and that 22 percent of managers have admitted to super-controlling tendencies.

The fault of micromanagers is that they are more interested in activity than outcome, according to Harry E. Chambers, who conducted the above research and has written a related book. “They want to know what you were doing between 3 and 5 p.m. Tuesday…and they want you to be held accountable for everything -- I mean everything,” he says. This is why they might still have an issue with you, even if you complete every task on time, for instance. They care more about controlling your behavior. This is why, fundamentally, micromanagers aren’t good for the overall health and growth of a company.

Some tell-all signs you’re working for a micromanager:

• They Exercise Raw Power: They assert their authority just because they can.



• They Dictate Time: They don't trust people to assess their own workload, so they routinely impose priorities. And while they guard their own time with an iron fist, they constantly interrupt others.



• They Control How Work Gets Done: Things always need to be done their way.



• They Require Undue Approvals: They allow no one to move forward without their approval -- even on routine or time-sensitive matters.



• They Demand Frequent, Unnecessary Reports: They monitor others to death -- requiring a stream of needless reports that focus on activity over outcomes.



If you’re being micromanaged, heed these tips -- and find a better job if you must. If you’re a micromanager, realize that your controlling ways will probably hinder your own career; can you really be all that productive spending your time looking over everyone’s shoulders?


Share this post: Digg, StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, Facebook, Twitter, etc.


Posted by Maya on November 14, 2005 at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (59) | TrackBack (0)

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834515e7c69e200d83460870253ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Are You Being Micromanaged?:

Comments

It happens a lot in Monster India - Ironically

Posted by: Unknown | Nov 15, 2005 2:50:24 PM

Is anyone listening in US Monster ??? Please, get your magnifying glasses to Monster India. You would be in for surprises.

Posted by: Unknown | Nov 15, 2005 2:55:59 PM

I was in a micromangement nightmare! It started out as I was new and needed the guidence of my boss. Then it turned into reports, and what was I doing when, how and why. I ended up resenting it and actually hating my boss, feeling belittled and hating to go into work everyday. I should have looked for another job, but actually ended up being fired! I realized that my boss was insecure and needed to build herself up by micromanaging others. All I can say is if you think it's happening get out!

Posted by: unknown | Nov 17, 2005 11:50:29 AM

My former "supervisor" (and I use the term loosely) started out as a co-worker. Then he became *team leader* and started to get on his huffy bike because no one would give him special treatment. There were only five people in our department! Trained chimps could have done our job. Once he was made department supervisor by the new business owner/moron, everything went down the toilet. He lurked over us, treated us like we all of a sudden dropped 50 I.Q. points. I had to ask to use the bathroom. One day I lost it and walked out. Last I heard, everyone else quit and he's still there. I suppose it's hard to leave when your nose is permanently attached to the business owner's...well, you get my drift.

Posted by: Refabulous | Nov 23, 2005 12:32:48 AM

Managers, as well as the companies, can be held peronally liable $$$ if they are responsible for creating, fostering a hostile environment. Mostly hostile environment is linked with sexual harrarssment. However as the definition of hostile environment expands, i.e., CA has specific language in their rules/laws about managers who bully their employees, so shall the power of the work force expand to protect themselves against untrained, unenlightened, elitist management styles. Things are changing. There is hope.

Posted by: pnw | Nov 29, 2005 7:57:34 AM

Micromanagement is a symptom of a workplace bully. Please see: www.bullyonline.org

Posted by: lavenderirishtabby | Nov 29, 2005 9:34:20 AM

The fact that many supervisors would rather manage "activity than outcome" is that it's EASIER. This is also a big reason why telecommuting has not caught on. We have the technology for it--and have had for a dozen years. While participating in a telecommuting pilot at my old job, I learned that one of the reasons my supervisor didn't like telecommuting was because she could no longer overhear our phone conversations from her cubicle! It was totally irrelevant that I, for one, was getting a lot more work done than I had at the office, where there were more interruptions.

Posted by: Kim | Nov 29, 2005 10:21:27 AM

I was also micromanaged recently. I have worked for JCPenney for almost 5 years. The assistant manager that was brought in by corporate was the defintion of a micromanager. He was so bad that a lot of the "projects" he took on created more of a mess than a help. Morale in the store dropped, and most people didn't like him. I think he basically is inexperianced and not a "people person". He is now in another store, and I feel sorry for those people.

Posted by: Ted Franke | Nov 29, 2005 11:28:44 AM

Oh man, does THIS sound familiar? The third shift operatations manager is one of these. I actually liked working third shift until he came on board. Now I work second shift. They have such a hard time keeping people on that shift yet nothing is done about him. He brings absolutely nothing to the table, yet he still has a job there. He not only thrives in a hostile work environment, he helps create it by encouraging people to rat on each other. His latest bout of idiocy is trying to shanghai the temps that were hired for a specific project to work in his department, not once but twice! It doesn't matter one bit to him how important something may be, if he isn't involved he doesn't care at all. My biggest hope is to find another job so that when I leave the company I can tell him just what I think of him.

Posted by: Joe | Nov 29, 2005 12:30:12 PM

I left a job last May due to a manager who actually let a woman employee interfere with everyone else and influence his decisions. These two would tag team ganging up on an employee. People were called on the carpet for the most inane things. Getting any real work done became next to impossible. The stress level was off the roof. I considered sueing them for creating a hostile workplace. Since I left two other people have held my old position and left within two months of hire.
What a waste!

Posted by: beenthere | Nov 29, 2005 1:32:44 PM

Being micromanaged sucks, if you are old enough to have a job then you aught to be competent enough to be able to do the required job without the boss lurking over your every move. Though there are those people out there who dink around on company time and need to be more closely supervised, I personally cannot stand to have someone over my shoulder it makes me very uncomfortable and eventually I get hostile if it goes on long enough. Some one wrote that the best advice is to get out if you are micromanaged...I whole heartedly agree....Find another job!!!

Posted by: hates being micromanaged | Nov 29, 2005 4:13:06 PM

Do what the Khrushchev did: pound your shoe on the table. Make it painful when they falsly accuse you, then put them on the defense.
In order to do this, document everything you do, the amount, time used. It's easy with an Excel program I wrote. Very very very valuable tool. Keep the dogs on their leash, smack their nose with documentation.
Don't be such a wuss.

Posted by: PoundYourShoe | Nov 29, 2005 6:33:53 PM

I just had to put my two cents in when I saw this blog. We are having such a hard time on my job. I have been a loyal employee for 5 years always had the boss's back. Always was the one to boost the morale in the department. Now she has been promoted to a manager and she is off the chain with micromanaging! I can't believe how she has brought our departments morale down so low. We all used to be so close, now they don't even want us talking to each other anymore. We have ladies that are getting physically sick in this dept, they are taking 3-4 days off because of it.Then what happens, we get slammed with so much work to make up for their absences, but the funny thing is, is that I understand. Her so called team leads are being trained just like her, I HATE THIS JOB!!! I can't wait to get out. I feel for the other ladies because they hold their jobs over their heads.Fortunately I won't have to take this much longer. But guess what? What goes around comes around!

Posted by: gettingthehellout | Nov 29, 2005 9:39:14 PM

I have felt the personal pressure of an overbearing, micro-managing boss. What's even worse, he is the owner of the company. I feel exactly like "unknown" from Nov 15th. I should have left, but instead, I got fired! Just in time for my daughter's birthday and my husband's birthday and Christmas. Ain't life grand :)

Posted by: FiredButNotTired | Nov 29, 2005 11:21:35 PM

You Poor Stupid Fools!!!
Never, ever should you consider BUSINESS to be your number one GOD!? When you suck up to a CEO, a MGR, or a SPVR... you just make me sick!! You young stupid idiot assholes... you need to find character. You need to be ashamed of yourselves...groveling at the feet of the nearest moneygrubber! You really suck!!

Posted by: Dennis Matthews | Nov 30, 2005 1:47:45 AM

I just recently gave up a job/career...because I refused to take any crapp off of a supervisor. I lost my paycheck and my future..but, I maintained my self-respect!!! I am looking forward to finding another job and a better group of people to work with....simple!!
You piss ants that worry about how and where to kiss up the right way...you just make me sick!!

Posted by: Dennis Matthews | Nov 30, 2005 1:55:54 AM

I have well over 15 years of experience in management and I understand exactly what everyone is saying. I recently worked with a group of leaders that was heavy into micromanagement and I was not. I stayed true to my core values and was considered the leader that let his people get away with anything. I was also isolated for further promotional opportunities. But that is OK, I know that in the long term my leadership style will produce a better bottomline , increase customer satisfaction and higher team spirit than my peers. I know that I can acquire, retain and develop the best people out there. I know, I did it before this recent company I am with. Long story short... I am no longer there.
Take the advise of some other people....
LOOK FOR ANOTHER JOB AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS NOT TO WORK THERE. Maybe they will figure that out soon enough when no one wants to work for them....
Take care and good luck to everyone.

Posted by: Leader | Nov 30, 2005 8:48:07 AM

I have this kind of experience lately..and this is the kind of management that makes me sick.
I never had encountered these type before in my 25 years of work experience.
This kind of management really sucks!!!!!

Posted by: romeo | Nov 30, 2005 9:17:17 AM

Schools in trouble have to be the arch micromanagers. It may not be the building manager (principal)alone. It could be coupled with the system. It is an oppressive, top-down driven system imposed by the state to allegedly improve schools (get better test scores, etc) that knocks the morale of the staff flat with its insistance on knowing everyone is doing the same thing at the same time at the same rate. I was even at a place where schedules were set up so that the building manager knew what everyone was doing at what time and could decide on that basis when to call meetings even if such meeting would be inconvenient to the teacher. Teachers, incidentally, are treated as though they have no brains at all and are not capable of self management. The big system dictates what they must do with their time.

Posted by: queendragon | Nov 30, 2005 11:08:28 AM

I have been looking for another job for 18 months. My micromanaging owner/manager, gives us little time off, pays just enough to make it hard for others to match and not enough to save up for a move. He does his best to prohibit any relationships within or outside of the work. He usually takes turns degrading and mentally harrassing the employees. We work at different sites so his haranging is usally by phone. But he makes things miserable and he keeps changing the rules.
If creating a hostile environment is illegal, who do you report it to. I work in the real estate field in an unlicensed position if that makes any difference. What needs to be done to support a lawsuit.
The irony is that this man will not fire us...he wants to avoid unemployment. After his partner died about 6 years ago, he stopped giving any moral boosing incentives and has been able to hold employees for about 2 years, especially the women who get the worst treatment.
The most difficult part is that my attitude has gotten so negative that it shows in interviews, and I cannot use him for a reference. I do not know how to overcome that.

Posted by: onlyacaretaker | Nov 30, 2005 12:22:24 PM

Boy does all this sound like exactly what I am going through right now. I keep telling the upper management about how my immediate supervisor seems to be intimidated by me, watching my every move, asking me why I am doing something and telling me I am not "authorized" to do it. There could be a ton of work to do and she sits and dishes out a little at a time, so she keeps control of my productivity in order for her not to look so bad when the reports go to the boss. She's so concerned with what I am doing that she can't even focus on the customers that she is talking to on the phone, which could be why she makes so many mistakes!!! I make very few. Then once she screws up something, policies get changed so that we are held responsible if we don't catch her mistakes!!! What the hell is she still doing working at this company? I found myself getting anxious when I would see her name on the schedule with mine, so I am currently taking anxiety medication, but only when I have to work with her. Should I tell the President of the company what's REALLY going on, since our manager isn't doing anything about it?

Posted by: fedup | Nov 30, 2005 12:53:30 PM

I recently had worked for a company for 11 years and 5 years previously as a contractor. I had a boss that resided in another state, but could call all the time and make two of my co-workers as well as I, miserable. She would make smart assinine comments, and load more work upon us so that she would look good for the overall productivity and for her boss. She use to be craft herself before she became management. She had created such a hostile environment, that many grievences were filed, and the Union had to step in. Then, I had quit because of a constructive decision. She wanted me to go against my health and my doctor's decision, in order to implement a new plan that she wanted to impress her boss with. EEOC and an attorney was advised to the situation and they are investigating. Do not think that you as an employee have no rights. There are Title VII amendments that protect your rights as far as disabilities, race, color, creed, religion and constructive firing. Because one is a manager, he or she had to abide by rules and regulations also. If they go unreported, then this person will carry themselves to an extreme. You do have RIGHTS!

Posted by: Kathy | Nov 30, 2005 8:02:41 PM

I have four words for you. Sugar Creek Packing Company. Ohio.

Posted by: beenthere | Nov 30, 2005 10:14:37 PM

I keep hearing one side of the story here but there really are 2 sides to it. You see, I am a manager but I am also managed by higher level management(the owner of the company). I don't consider myself a micromanager but I do "Dictate Time". I pay my people by the hour, therefore I expect them to be working for me when they are on the clock. I don't believe they have the right to spend 30 minutes talking about their kids or pets to another employee who is also on the clock. If I paid them on production, then it might be a different story. This does not mean that I expect them to not communicate with each other. I actually want them to all get along but there comes a point when some will take advantage of this and spend more time gossiping than they do working. And they will usually be the first ones to complain if I say something about it. I also "Control How Work Gets Done". I get paid to decide what is the best course of action to take on any item that falls within my area of expertise. I am the one who hears about it when those above me do not get what they want. My employees don't. And if I used the excuse that it was their idea, then those above me would assume that I had no control of my department and wonder why in the world they put me in charge. I do, however, tell my employees what I want for an outcome and give them the right to choose how they get there. With certain limitations. My area of expertise is accounting and there really are some guidelines that you must follow to be in compliance with regulations. My employees don't always know what those guidelines are so it falls on my shoulders to make sure what they do does not put the company in any kind of jeopardy. And my employees don't always understand why I want them to take the extra steps that will ensure we are doing everything properly. All in all, my employees respect me and I have a tendency to keep employees for a long time. I don't believe they would give me that respect if I had not excercised my authority. The company I work for is a small business. I only have 5 full time people on my staff and 2 part time people. I am, however, somewhat responsible for other employees in other departments because what they do affects the accounting for the company and their direct managers know nothing about accounting. Also, I have been with the company longer than any other employee at this store so the owners depend on me to set standards. (I have been with the company for over 10 years although only 6 in this position. This store has only been open for 6 years. I moved from another store.) This said, I truly do understand the other side of this story. The people I work for can be micromanagers. I had to fight to keep most of my staff. They believed that because there were some flaws with some of my employees that I should just get rid of them and start over. And they made it very clear to me this is what they wanted. I hear this quite often when an employee makes a mistake. And I really hear it when I make a mistake. AND I DO! They are seldom at our store. Their idea of management is what I consider to be micromanagement because their focus is on the small things and not on the big picture. When I go on vacation I can depend on coming back and hearing how one of my employees spent too much time on a personal call or another spent too much time talking to people in another department. What they might fail to realize is that the person that spent so much time on the personal call was actually talking to her family about why she was not attending her Grandmother's funeral. This being because I was gone and she is my right arm. And the person who was spending too much time talking to people in another department was actually trying to resolve a problem with an invoice that she felt we were being billed too much for but my bosses happened to walk up on the conversation when she was being polite and asking how the other person's day was going. The people I work for however, are not morons. They are just uninformed about the basis of good business. They don't want to hurt anyone personally. They just want to protect themselves. And in their ignorance, they believe they can do this best by always surrounding themselves with a staff that does "exactly" what they would do. And they can really be very aloof. They haven't learned to accept their own faults. They fear failure, as most micromanagers do. I feel sympathy for them. In this way, I deal with their faults. And have even learned to see that they mean well most of the time.

Posted by: MickiB | Nov 30, 2005 10:17:15 PM

Every single thing you folks have said above is a daily occurence at the "four words" I mentioned above. Minute by freakin' minute.

Posted by: beenthere | Nov 30, 2005 10:18:52 PM

Post a comment

Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Remember personal info?




Comments: