Micromanagement

[Another Fan]

Anyone have to deal with at work? 

 

If so how did you cope 

[LeviF]

Micromanage the way their teeth are arranged.

[WhoTom]

For my first two careers, my bosses weren't capable of doing my job, which made it easy to avoid micromanagement issues. Not that they didn't try - at one point I had a manager who was bugging me about a timeline. This project was late before I got involved, and I was the only person in the company with the right skills to work on it. (The previous engineer who started the project left on short notice, due to the boss being a jerk.) I looked at my boss and said, "Can you do this?" He said no, so I added, "Then let me get to work and it'll be done that much sooner." He left me alone and never bugged me again. Funny thing is that I was also looking for another job;  I got an offer six months later, which I took. My second career was college professor, which was, at the time, pretty autonomous. I retired when that started to change.

 

In my current career as a freelance writer, I had one client who micromanaged everything. I eventually dropped that client, even though the contract was pretty lucrative. My other clients just give me a project and some loose guidelines and let me run with it, which is what I like.

 

 

[teef]

raise the volume of your voice while stating, "i've got something for you to MACRO manage" and point to your junk.

[Jauronimo]

52 minutes ago, Another Fan said:

Anyone have to deal with at work? 

 

If so how did you cope 

Start asking a million questions.  Like about every decision to be made no matter how inconsequential.  When they finally say they don't care or tell you to decide you ask "are you sure? It seems like you have a very specific vision for this project".  Then ask 50 more questions about what size and color the font should be.  List all the options.

[Max Fischer]

As with most things, healthy communication is the key. Most bosses lack self-awareness and need a productive reminder of how things work best.  Express your concern that under the current process the project will not get done on time or on budget. You are happy to hear their feedback but you need a bit more of a freehand to get things done efficiently.  If it doesn't get better, then you know there's a problem that might not get fixed.