Your ways of handling a Micro-Manager

[Scarpozzi]

I'd pull him aside and tell him that you're getting annoyed with him checking in all the time. Tell him not to take it personally, but that you'd rather setup either a weekly or biweekly meeting to discuss projects and goals to get all the communication out of the way so you can concentrate on your actual work better.

If he can't handle that, schedule a meeting with him and his boss and discuss your future with the company.

 

[Ns1]

the biggest issue is these status updates are in person meetings. It's not a "hey print me out an excel file/email me it." They are 60-90 minute meetings where he asks us what we have done for the past few hours, what we plan on doing for the rest of the day, then setting up another meeting for the end of the day, or the following morning.

I just met with him again at 1pm. He wants to meet again at 3. Kill me.

oh. i had a manager like that; I transferred departments.


but really, you gotta keep track of how much time you're spending at these meetings and then escalate if your boss is a dick/doesn't do anything about it.

120-180 minutes of status a day is ridiculous.

 

[vi edit]

I just met with him again at 1pm. He wants to meet again at 3. Kill me.

Oh god. No. Just no. My 1:00PM update would be "I'm preparing for a 3:00PM meeting". And then the 3:00PM would be "I'm preparing for a meeting in the morning".

Talk about a vortex of productivity and morale suck.

 

[MongGrel]

"Still working on it...I'll let you know as soon as I'm done....did you need anything else?"

Go back to folding pizza.

 

[z1ggy]

oh. i had a manager like that; I transferred departments.


but really, you gotta keep track of how much time you're spending at these meetings and then escalate if your boss is a dick/doesn't do anything about it.

120-180 minutes of status a day is ridiculous.

Yeah I can transfer, but the department I am trying to go to, does not have any room for more people. I hear a rumor though that there will be in December. You bet I am applying to the spot.

Oh god. No. Just no. My 1:00PM update would be "I'm preparing for a 3:00PM meeting". And then the 3:00PM would be "I'm preparing for a meeting in the morning".

Talk about a vortex of productivity and morale suck.

Yeaaaaaaaaaah...

It's also a delicate thing because most of us think he's a high functioning autistic. Just the way he communicates, feels, talks etc is a little off and I honestly don't even know how to handle him sometimes.

I like the suggestion though of logging all of the time spent being status'ed by him. If it's more than a few hours a week, I know for a fact his boss (my manager) will not like that.

 

[OverVolt]

Over-reporting can work, but you have to be careful about it. In the past I've reported every time they have required me to but often asked a difficult question about the project that would add work to their plate to respond. That helped in a hurry.

I like your style.

 

[OverVolt]

I quit. Loved the job, loved the people, loved the awesome pay, hated being micro-managed. Stayed there for far too long.

Me too man. I was even warned about the place by ex-workers, family, friends of people who worked there, etc. This one girl graduated college, her mom is the assistant director of this place, she applied and got a job there. Her mom said DO NOT ACCEPT THE OFFER WORK SOMEWHERE ELSE. Not exactly a glowing recommendation. But I was desperate for a job and didn't care. I really learned my lesson the hard way. I'm taking more time to actually choose a decent job next time.

 

[z1ggy]

I like your style.

It's a method we use to facilitate large teams of people who have disagreements. One way to get a person to back down is to ask them a challenging question about the very subject they are deliberating on with you. At the very least it gets them to think/talk about something else.

Funny note, he just walked into my cube as I had this page up Lulz wooopz. He didn't see, I exited out right away. I managed to get out of my 3pm status update, but I have to update him tomorrow morning on the progress I made since our 1pm.

I see it going like, "So.. I haven't finished anything, because I've worked 3 hours since we met last." *crickets*

 

[Ns1]

Funny note, he just walked into my cube as I had this page up Lulz wooopz. He didn't see, I exited out right away. I managed to get out of my 3pm status update, but I have to update him tomorrow morning on the progress I made since our 1pm.

oh. so you can't meet your deadlines cuz you're neffing on ATOT.

 

[z1ggy]

oh. so you can't meet your deadlines cuz you're neffing on ATOT.

Hahah, no.. I was waiting to hear back from this lady at work who was supporting my current task. I had no other work to go other do really, and even if I did, multi tasking can limit productivity in certain cases.

I'm leaving work now in 30 minutes and I don't see the point in starting my next major task because it involves much more than 30 minutes worth of work, and a few other supporting resources.

So for now, I Neff away!!!!

Edit: Also, none of these are "deadlines" either. As far as I'm concerned, I have 3 major tasks I need to complete by Oct 5. These are multi day long things, with smaller little tasks to do to help complete the larger ones. I don't need 2 or even 1 meeting per day. In fact, 1 per week would be fine and when I have "important" updates to something, I am more than willing to go see him myself.

He came into my cube 4 different times today to ask me questions about the project.

 

[CraKaJaX]

oh. so you can't meet your deadlines cuz you're neffing on ATOT.

I smell jealousy.

 

[angminas]

You report to him what he wants reported to him at the intervals he requested. I am not sure what the problem is,.. oh, wait - it's you.

If you don't like it, go find another job. This particular job requires you to perform in a specific manner. I doesn't matter what you think is right or wrong, because you aren't the boss.

Now, you COULD come up with a proposed suggestion, like; "Hey, mind if I report to you twice a week on the status of the projects you gave me?" Or, "How about a daily meeting for 30 minutes on where I stand?"

Instead, you are looking to fuck shit up in some manner. It will make things worse, not better.

Except that making the company better is part of what he's getting paid for. Sometimes that involves training your superiors.

 

[Jeff7]

13:54 - Shitting
13:57 - Still shitting
14:04 - Wiping
14:06 - Not done, more shitting
14:13 - Sweating profusely
14:25 - Initiate soft moaning
14:37 - Denial
14:45 - Anger
14:48 - Bargaining
15:14 - Depression
15:32 - Acceptance
15:48 - Wiping
15:52 - Skipped washing hands
15:53 - Made fresh coffee.
16:10 - Fresh coffee's ready.
16:11 - Drinking coffee

Fixed

Oh god. No. Just no. My 1:00PM update would be "I'm preparing for a 3:00PM meeting". And then the 3:00PM would be "I'm preparing for a meeting in the morning".

Talk about a vortex of productivity and morale suck.

 

[shortylickens]

Do you people think jobs grow on trees?

 

[Jeff7]

The interruptions really are problematic though.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/magazine/meet-the-life-hackers.html

Your boss is probably having a measurable negative impact on your productivity. His boss should be mentoring him on this. You can't really (professionally speaking) do more than lay a few hints about "Constant interruptions, from, you know. People."

Maybe write a script that automatically generates your status reports for you?

When Mark crunched the data, a picture of 21st-century office work emerged that was, she says, "far worse than I could ever have imagined." Each employee spent only 11 minutes on any given project before being interrupted and whisked off to do something else.

Yeah, that sounds right.
You get interruption Inception, too, like peeling back an onion.
Interruption leads to something else, which then uncovers another problem. While I'm fixing those things, two other problems get added to the pile to be addressed. What I was working on during the first 30 minutes of the day usually ends up being what I try to start on the next morning because I never had a chance to work on it again for the rest of the day.

Computers even take a performance hit when multitasking. They're a bit more streamlined for it though.
We humans like to think that we're good at multitasking, but that imagining is as far as it goes.



Wow, and that article's 10 years old. Now with smartphones everywhere, that 11 minutes is likely a nonexistant eternity.

Sure, the high-tech workers grumbled and moaned about disruptions, and they all claimed that they preferred to work in long, luxurious stretches. But they grudgingly admitted that many of their daily distractions were essential to their jobs. When someone forwards you an urgent e-mail message, it's often something you really do need to see; if a cellphone call breaks through while you're desperately trying to solve a problem, it might be the call that saves your hide.

Or "I broke a thing because I didn't read the directions you gave me. It needs to be fixed in 15 minutes."

Later, psychologists determined that whenever workers needed to focus on a job that required the monitoring of data, presentation was all-important. Using this knowledge, cockpits for fighter pilots were meticulously planned so that each dial and meter could be read at a glance.
...
In the modern office we are all fighter pilots.

And yet anytime an office worker shoots at someone, everyone in the country loses their shit. The article's full of lies.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Do you people think jobs grow on trees?

For the proles? No. For STEM Ubermensches? ()

 

[lxskllr]

Do you people think jobs grow on trees?

Yes

 

[Humpy]

"Fuck if I know. I just push buttons"

Haha. I actually say that to my coworkers sometimes. :|

I usually listen to the guy who can potentially fire me. Everyone else is dealt with how I see fit at the time. Fortunately I'm pretty good at getting stuff done so most people are cool with how I handle things.

As soon as I'm done with this post I'll invite the guy waiting outside my office to come in and have a seat so I can tell him to ah heck off till morning.

 

[kranky]

Wow, just wow. I've seen micro-managing but this is nano-managing. Do you have any insight into what is driving him to do this? Is it just so he looks like he's doing something? Is he truly afraid if he doesn't bother you multiple times a day that you would do nothing? If you could understand why he's doing this it would help a lot into how to stop it.

Would there be any chance of having this conversation?
"Boss, I realized I'm not as productive as I could be if I could spend longer stretches of time uninterrupted. I know you like to be up to date on the work status and I want to propose that we meet first thing every morning for 30 minutes to get caught up. It would help me do a better job if we didn't have the multiple meetings throughout the day. Can we try that for a couple weeks to make sure it is working for you? I'll make sure the morning meeting gives you all the information you'll need."

 

[ImpulsE69]

My favorite reply is, update on what? You never told me to do that. Most times they can't remember

I kid though, my boss is actually pretty good.

 

[Attic]

Long story short, my boss is a micromanager. It's really annoying. Every day, multiple times a day he wants status updates on every little thing I'm working on. We have to fill out an action item matrix for every little thing the team is doing.

Only way I feel like I can get him to back off is to troll him and update him on what I'm working on every 30 minutes, or every hour maybe. But, I don't want to end up pissing him off and making my life a nightmare. I'm also not really inclined to tell his boss (whom I actually like, and knows this guy is a tool) about it, because he basically already knows.

In the past three hours, he's pinged me twice on the status of some task I'm doing. I work at a huge company, even simple tasks take hours to get done. Jeeeeeeez.

Rise up. Kill em with kindness.


Your position here doesn't really have any leverage for passive aggressive BS against a superior.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Except that making the company better is part of what he's getting paid for. Sometimes that involves training your superiors.

Training as in sabotaging / screwing up the updates for retribution's sake?

Or, training as is in sitting down like and educated professional individual and recommending an alternative that is more reasonable?

I would not trust my company's progress in getting better to some temperamental shit that can't follow simple directions and bitches about it on the Internet to validate his temperamental shittyness.

But if that is how you would like to run a company, good news; you've found an employee of the year.

 

[z1ggy]

Rise up. Kill em with kindness.


Your position here doesn't really have any leverage for passive aggressive BS against a superior.

That's generally what I do. I'm accommodating like 90% of the time. Other times when he asks me to do something that's reeaalllllyy a waste of my time, I just don't do it and hope he forgets. It's happened before.

This whole situation is exacerbated too because we have the deliverable due on Oct 5. So now it's basically a week off and he's getting OCD and anxious to make sure we deliver. When we were 4+ weeks away, he didn't come over for statuses multiple times a day, it was maybe a few times a week, which is acceptable. The thing is... He doesn't get that these stop my productivity and makes things worse.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I think I'm going to write down in a notebook all the time I spend having status update meetings with him, and if it exceeds more than like 2 hours a week I'll probably talk to him about it.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Plan on meeting at 0800. I want to know where you stand with the new project you're starting today. I've booked conference room 03B. Bring beer.

 

[MongGrel]

Multi-tasking is a myth to begin with.

Human brains do not operate that way, why driving while talking on a phone is so stupid. It's been proven many times, all you're doing is switching from one task to another and probably not doing either well at that point.