This is what has been bothering me all day / week and just before I clicked this. I cannot stand being micromanaged. I'm being driven crazy by it now, and it makes me want to go back to entrepreneurship.
Can I ask you a question. Is your boss able to (in practice) fire you?
I have been a manager in situations where I could fire at will and others where I had no ability to fire. When I could fire I could just explain to my reports what needed to be done and leave them to get on with - when I couldn't fire the only way to get the work done was by micromanaging. I hated every moment of micromanaging, but there was no other way to get done what had to be done. Responsibility without power is a nightmare.
BOSS::Make those sales numbers! You have 12 dealers in that territory who should be feeding you leads!
ME(1997)::Uh, boss about that. Those 12 dealers hate my program because they get 10% commission instead of 30% commission like they usually do. They actively work against me! Instead of feeding me leads, they are trying to sell competitors product because they make more money!! They hate my program! They make less money!
BOSS:: (hits loop phase of discussion) You have 12 dealers in that territory who should be feeding you leads! Make those sales numbers or your fired!
ME:: well, shit.
<proceeds to make sales numbers by not telling dealers anything>
When money fell from the sky, dealers didn't seem to care if it was 10% or 30% money because it showed up like free money. 0 effort for them. It was hell working with a group that not only I couldn't fire, the corporation could not even discipline them. They were independent dealers. I could make a sale, and they could refuse to process it (happened a few times). In those cases it was then a no-sale. I had to sell the customer and the dealer. Or do the deal without the dealer knowing about it until they received the check. After a year of free money, the worst dealer became the best dealer. He had been around 30 years, a grumpy old codger who was king of his area and all his customers trusted him 100%. His change in opinion (in his area alone) was worth about $25,000 a year in commissions in 1998. Thanks again Bob!
I vowed to myself to never get in a position where I had all the responsibility to make something happen, but none of the authority to make it happen. That vow has kept me out of some situations, and whenever I break it is when I get miserable again. Then I re-vow ...
I can concur with this. I actually have responsibility for two teams at present in a way - one team I can fire all of and the other that even people three levels above me cannot it appears because of contractual relationships that are stronger than anything else. Even though someone had one of my team members fired, he couldn't fire everyone because both of the teams I have some responsibility for are different contracting companies.
The team that I can't fire is the team that I consider a net negative amount of work performed because I or another person I delegate has to do their work for them repeatedly. They have shown no capacity to learn (we have to write runbooks for them still to the detail that we should just write a shell script with the time spent, so now we have unreliable humans that are executing bash scripts).
> Miles leaned forward into the vid pickup. [...] "If you surrender quietly, I can control what happens. If ImpSec has to detain you by force, it will be up to chance, chaos, and the reflexes of some overexcited young men with guns and gallant visions of thwarting mad Komarran terrorists."
> [...] "If you unleash ImpSec, the consequences will be your doing," said Cappell.
> "Almost correct," Miles agreed. "If I unleash ImpSec, the consequences will be my responsibility. It's that devil's distinction between being in charge and being in control. I'm in charge; you're in control. You can imagine how much this thrills me."
-- A standoff in "Komarr", by Lois McMaster Bujold
Micromanagement is so corrosive to my motivation. I've worked retail for a long time, and it seems that managers with that tendency are usually pushed out. Telling people how to do Every. Single. Little. Thing. is the surest way to foment dissent and resentment. I'm tired of the inconsistency of the skill of people with authority over me, so am now fully pursuing an entrepreneurial lifestyle. Freedom, autonomy, I suddenly realize, are paramount to my contentment.
I seriously doubt if he ever would (not only "you" but pretty much anybody). And IMHO it tells a lot about both parties involved in a micromanagement situation (and - to an extent - about the situation itself whose creation they have been active/passive part of).
