Angry boss - Micromanager?

[HybridSquirrel]

if you have to stay up all night to meet deadlines, then your management is terrible because they have set unrealistic expectations and deadlines.

this.

 

[Humpy]

Well, I forgot to state that he is the president of the company.

Based on the above, you do not pay attention to detail, fail at determining relevant facts, and do not communicate effectively. Your boss is rightfully angry (mostly at himself) and has determined that micromanaging is the best course of action resulting in either improvements to your work (unlikely) or you quitting (best outcome for the company).

 

[gorcorps]

if you have to stay up all night to meet deadlines, then your management is terrible because they have set unrealistic expectations and deadlines.

depends... did somebody procrastinate and underestimate how much work something was going to be?

 

[purbeast0]

depends... did somebody procrastinate and underestimate how much work something was going to be?

that is true, which in that case the person doing the job sucks.

my point is that having people work all these extra hours to get something in by a deadline is a sign of a piss poor ran company.

 

[Vdubchaos]

if you have to stay up all night to meet deadlines, then your management is terrible because they have set unrealistic expectations and deadlines.

Actually, to his defense, MOST companies now days will keep you working to the extreme (as much as you let them).

It's employees responsibility to say no or manage their workload.

Overloading resources and making unrealistic deadlines/expectations is probably step one for any upper manager now days (it seems that way anyways).

It's as bad as THE PERSON allows it to be.

 

[Vdubchaos]

Depends what you do.... Not everyone works where there is a 5:00 bell that rings and you are all dismissed. You can laugh at him all you want on him slowing you down, if it keeps me up all night working it is my loss because I have to finish shit by deadlines.

I'm sorry to hear.

But it's still YOU that takes "pulled out of ass upper management deadlines" seriously.

They are all random "things" to get you to do the work FAST. If it takes your LIFE over, that's not their problem...as long as they get what they want.



Your welcome

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I'm sorry to hear.

But it's still YOU that takes "pulled out of ass upper management deadlines" seriously.

They are all random "things" to get you to do the work FAST. If it takes your LIFE over, that's not their problem...as long as they get what they want.



Your welcome

Meh, there is no way in hell you're ever going to make senior manager (let alone partner) without general sacrifice in life. I guess the majority in here do not know the life of the consultant. Most being 98%.

The majority of consultants also move to industry because they can't take it either, so - it's rough to say the least. Either way, it's different because you are often depended on to get shit done....

 

[Vdubchaos]

Meh, there is no way in hell you're ever going to make senior manager (let alone partner) without general sacrifice in life.

This is true, where we differ is that above might be your goal of some kind.

And above is NOT my goal at all. You go ahead and be that guy......good luck.

I guess the majority in here do not know the life of the consultant. Most being 98%.

The majority of consultants also move to industry because they can't take it either, so - it's rough to say the least. Either way, it's different because you are often depended on to get shit done....

Don't assume your situation applies to everyone......or that people here don't work with consultants (or are one).

It's different from company to company and sector to sector. There is no "one way".

For example, our consultant is the highest paid employee on the payroll, while they are also they worst on paper and have a LONG history of not delivering on time or proper. Based on THEIR OWN commitments which THEY defined.

Yet they sustain (don't ask)

Quite opposite from your situation isn't it?

 

[Zstream]

Find a new job. He'll never change and you can't do anything about it if he runs the place.

I left the company in October of last year. I now have more free time, double the salary (yes this is real), and more importantly, love what I'm doing.

While over reporting worked for a short time period, it felt that he wasn't impressed, regardless of the output.

 

[Zodiark1593]

I've had a Micromanager before. Bit of a pain, but keeping up-to-date reports at the ready, strong progress in my tasks, and a professional, friendly demeanor and she eased up quite a bit.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Those types are insane, and can't be changed or reasoned with. They live in a totally different world. I was an IT sysadmin contractor at our local hospital and the IT manager there was basically my boss. This guy was completely insane. No matter what/how you do or don't do something, it's wrong. If the next time you do it the way he said, it's still wrong. At one point he wanted us to log everything we do throughout the day. Was the stupidest thing so we even logged bathroom breaks. The whole log thing kinda just died out after a while though. Honestly I'm not even sure if he ever read them.

I could go on about this guy, he was just completely insane. And you know how sometimes you wonder "maybe it's me and not him?" Well with that guy, almost everyone thought he was insane. It's always reassuring when you know someone else considers a person as insane as you do. I'd get lot of sympathy from users. "oh you work for him? So sorry."

I think the only real solution with these types is to

1: Count on them retiring soon or getting fired. Rarely do they get fired, they know how to play the game and upper management actually think they are doing a great job. When you think they will retire, often they don't. So don't count on that either. These type of people keep going up the corporate ladder and getting bigger and bigger bonuses.

OR

2: Look for another job. Or even another department that will be under a different manager. This is probably your best bet.

I actually turned down a 80k job so I can get away from the crazy guy I worked for. Basically he was insourcing his IT so as contractors we would not be needed anymore but we were probably almost guarantee the job if we applied for it. But it was not worth it... and I make almost 80k with my current job anyway because of shift differentials and stuff. I actually hit 80k last year. This job was the best decision I ever made.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm sorry to hear.

But it's still YOU that takes "pulled out of ass upper management deadlines" seriously.

They are all random "things" to get you to do the work FAST. If it takes your LIFE over, that's not their problem...as long as they get what they want.



Your welcome

Those types will also take credit for it in management meetings.

Manager: "All the other companies took 6 months to do this and I was able to streamline the process and get it done in under 6 weeks!"

CEO: "That's great, but 4 weeks would have been better."

Manager: "I've ironed out all the issues and we can easily do it in 3-4 weeks next time"

 

[thesmokingman]

Well, I forgot to state that he is the president of the company.

lol, he's doing it wrong as the owner of any company.

 

[Miramonti]

I hate micromanagers, and they hate me. I've found them generally to be less creative, and I always felt in a box with them. My approach has been to try to concede to some of their concerns, while building cred with everyone else in the office as a team player, great coworker, so they loose confidence riding me and hover less. Games people play, but usually I'm not the only one who resents them.

 

[Blue_Max]

It's been my experience that micro-managers are often: insecure yet domineering, incompetent, uncreative, and barely capable of doing their jobs. They're the worst. OTOH, someone not doing their job and getting hounded back into line is going to usually say they're being micromanaged and resent it. Without knowing more details it's hard to gauge just how bad things are or what's really going on - already starting to get some mixed signals.

Now, on the "over-reporting" idea, how hard do you think it'd be to rig up a spammer email bot to send out a random "doing work" type of update every 15 minutes?

 

[Red Squirrel]

I found the best reassurance that someone is crazy is when other people think he's crazy too. Then you know it's not just you. :biggrin:

 

[Imdmn04]

Is he micro-managing other people as well?

From a manager's perspective, a lot of bosses don't like to micro-manage (because it is actually a shit load of work and not scalable), but has to on certain people that are not measuring up to the tasks assigned. This is usually a step before getting rid the employee during layoffs, or straight up termination.