Hi Reddit! Long time reader, first time poster.
From reading a lot of posts on these kinds of threads, I guess I should say a few things before I start:
- I'm not sure if this is the best thread to post this on; please let me know if there's a better thread.
- I'm going to keep quite a lot of details vague to maintain anonymity. I'm sure the people in this story won't ever see it because they don't use Reddit, but I know some friends that use Reddit that might see it.
- All names are changed.
- If I get private messages with help/advice, I may share less vague details if it helps.
- TL;DR at the end.
- I'm not writing on my phone and English is my first language so I really hope I haven't made any mistakes lol
- Sorry it’s a long one!
Cast:
Me – me (24y/o)
Company I work at – Comp
Boss – Bob (mid 60s)
Line Manager – Liman (late 40s/early 50s)
So, my boss (Bob) micromanages me and it's infuriating. It's gotten to the point where I really want to address it because it is negatively affecting my output and general work ethic, but I'm not sure of the best way considering how he is as a person and things I know about how he behaves when given constructive criticism or even ideas that he disagrees with.
Some backstory. We're in the UK. I work at a company (Comp) that does jobs for various clients away from the office (I'll call them off-site jobs, or OSJs), and processes the off-site work we've done back in the office. Bob's dad founded Comp with him at an opportune time some 50 years ago, when just the two of them did this kind of work for a few clients. Comp grew well and still does well today, and when Bob's dad passed away Bob took over as the owner and CEO. When Comp was at its “height”, it employed just over 40 people. However, because the industry has changed a lot over the years and there is quite a bit of competition, Comp now employs just 16 and not a single person is dispensable. A number of OSJs and some processing jobs are outsourced to other contractors, particularly if the OSJ is abroad.
I did my degree in a subject pertinent to the industry that Comp works in, and as part of my degree I did a placement year (aka a “year in industry”) at Comp. I did all of the OSJs that weren't outsourced to other contractors, and a small but important part of the processing at the office as well as odd jobs around the office. Unfortunately, the placement year started in the middle of 2019 so when March 2020 came… you all know what happened. Fortunately though, despite Bob being quite tight-fisted, he did not lay off a single person (nobody is dispensable after all), and he also kept me on the payroll for my placement year until the end of the 12 month contract. We weren't able to do any OSJs, but the processing of jobs we'd done up to that point and a bit of backlog continued with everybody working from home, and Comp stayed afloat. I worked for nearly 8 months before finishing the remaining 4 months at home. I was good at my job, and Bob was very happy with my work… so much so that he agreed with Comp's financial director to give me a bonus at the end of my placement year.
I went back to university and finished my degree, and towards the end of my degree Bob offered me a full-time job at Comp once I'd finished. He was even happy for me to not start straight after finishing university and have a bit of a summer holiday.
Some details about Bob so you can gauge his character a little. As I mentioned, he's quite tight-fisted. He also wants everybody at Comp to be working at the office. He himself is in the highest category of “at-risk” people (one of the first to be contacted in the UK to receive the vaccination), so he is serious about Covid and being safe. But, despite this, and despite Comp having one of its best financial years from 2020-2021 with everyone working from home, he insists on everybody returning to the office. He started with a 2-day rota, then upped to a 3-day rota, and we're currently on a 4-day rota (before Covid, it was Mon-Fri, 09:00-17:30). When lockdown started, only 2 people actually had to be at the office for the company to continue operating. So, for over a year, Bob could see that the vast majority of Comp's workforce could do their jobs remotely and the results were better than when people were previously in the office. Anyway, I’ll move on before that becomes a rant of its own.
Bob also worries about EVERYTHING. Every little detail of every job we do as a company, he worries about it.
And, he's a micromanager.
Some details about me and my role (and a bit about Bob's and my Liman's role). I am currently renting and don't really have a space to do my work, so I have to come into the office 5 days a week. Since I live close by I don't mind it, and it's a lot quieter in the office than my bedroom. There is technically a day of the week I could work from home but it's more hassle than it's worth taking home the things I need from the office for one day, only to bring them back in again for the other 4 days. The only other people in the office 5 days a week are the two people that had to keep coming in during lockdown.
As I mentioned about my placement year, my role is going on OSJs and a part of the processing in the office. I'm usually working on more than one job at any given time when in the office. To differentiate between my kind of work and others’, I'll call it A-processing. All of my colleagues do other specific things, but I'll band that all together as B-processing. I'll call Bob's work M-processing (managerial stuff, as well as overall administrative work).
Bob does some OSJs, as that's what he's done his entire life and he's very good at the work he does out on the OSJs. However, he doesn't do any of the A-processing work that I do. He used to do it when it was just him and his dad of course, and in the very early days of the company. However, technology has changed so much and with the company growing and the industry changing, he hasn't done any of the A-processing work I do for many years. He understands some of the details. He cannot operate the software we use for A-processing.
To briefly mention my Line Manager (Liman) now, he is the only other person on the payroll that does A-processing work, and he does the OSJs that Bob doesn't do (usually smaller OSJs). I have less responsibility off-site… I guess you could liken it to Bob/Liman being a senior site manager while I'm an assistant site manager or something.
So, when I say Bob micromanages me, it's not necessarily in the typical way that you would read if you Googled “why is micromanaging bad for productivity”, and read some of the top articles. Due to the nature of the work we do and the nature of the A-processing, it's not like he's coming in making suggestions or changes to my work, nor is he scrutinising details of it (it would have been Liman's job whilst I was on my placement year to scrutinise my work, and if it was bad I wouldn't have got a job after I graduated). Bob, Liman, and I all know that Bob can't do A-processing.
Bob also trusts that I am able to do my job, and I am indeed good at it. I confirmed this in an appraisal with him recently where he said “I have no issues at all with your work, your A-processing is up to scratch… Liman is my eyes and ears in that department and he has no worries either”. So, there isn’t a lack of trust in my ability to do my job, nor do I doubt my ability to do it.
I do my A-processing work in a room by myself and in order to do this work, I can't have other people in the room with me. However, Bob often comes into my room (without knocking) to see “what I'm up to”, or to talk to me about upcoming OSJs or just random stuff that somewhat involves me but isn't crucial information that's worth interrupting me that couldn't go in an email.
Because of the nature of the A-processing work, interruptions break my focus. And on another psychological level, it's reached a point where I feel like I just have to look busy when he comes in (“look busy, the boss is coming”… I've gotten good at it). I'm way more distracted than I used to be, my productivity and efficiency is worse now than ever. I saw this meme on Reddit that really resonated with me: https://redd.it/uq7hcb
Unlike the meme though, I'm sure Bob doesn't doubt that I am actually working, because it would be obvious if I wasn't doing A-processing. It's a big cog in the company machine, so to speak. We also have monthly progress meetings with pretty much everyone in the company attending.
I'm not really sure what he feels he's achieving by interrupting my workflow? Is he lonely in his office? He also goes to the other part of the office where most of my colleagues are doing B-processing (doesn’t require individual rooms so is open plan) and stands around like he's watching over them. Again, he’s not making suggestions or changes. He sometimes talks to specific people about specific things, but… he does a lot of watching. I know from talking to some of my colleagues that they hate it, it makes them feel uneasy (especially when he doesn't really have anything to say and just watches).
The thing that tipped me over the edge and had me write this super long post was a WhatsApp exchange last week. His day of working from home is Friday. On Thursday, he came in as usual to do nothing but just see what I'm working on. I, as usual, just have to stop working and say something like “yep, this is what I'm working on…”. I'd just had some material come back from a client that very morning which meant I could continue working on that job (let's call it Job X), so there I was, working on it. I showed him the length of a document I received from the client relating to the material, which indicated I had quite a bit of work to do. He left after a few minutes and I continued working. On Friday, the next day, at about 14:50 he sent me a WhatsApp and the following exchange happened:
Bob – Hi, How's it going today? Did I give you the files from Client Z?
Me – Not bad, still working on Job X. I've heard that Client Y has no comments on Job Y so I can work on that too. I haven't had the Job Z files.
Bob – OK. I'll send them to you.
That took place over about 1 minute. He emailed the Job Z files to me shortly after. Then, on the same day, at 16:15 he sent me the following message:
Bob – Hi, so what news today?
I was a bit dumbfounded by this. I thought about not responding; I think the only reason I did respond was I thought he might have sent it to the wrong person…
Bob – Hi, so what news today?
Me – What about?
Bob – What have you done in other words, how is Job X going? Did you get the Job Z files?
Me – Well I'm just working on it [Job X]… Aspect 1 is slow because the original OSJ notes were lost before I got the material. I got the Job Z files but haven't downloaded yet; it is for January after all.
If I was dumbfounded before… Christ, I was furious after his next message. I just slammed my phone down and yelled “just fuck off!!!” (Nobody heard me… I hope).
We have regular deadlines to meet, and we are practically never ahead of them. We are often down to the wire with processing jobs and often late for deadlines (though the tide is turning fortunately). Every interaction with him in person or WhatsApp slows me down, and my work is time-sensitive (remember, big cog and all). He's asking me about files for a job (Job Z) that I don't need to work on for months! And he saw himself that I only got material for Job X yesterday, and he knows that I have to complete my work on Job X and Job Y in only a couple of weeks (upcoming OSJs will mean I realistically have less time to work on the A-processing of X and Y).
I'd like to get to a point where he doesn't come in and disturb me unless it really is something urgent that I genuinely need to stop working to tend to (there are few occasions where this is the case).
If it's something he wants to chat about that's coming up, send me an email with something along the lines of “when you've got a moment, I'd like to chat about…”. I do take breaks during the day for coffee, going to the toilet, getting some fresh air, whatever; at those points when my focus is broken or I've reached a convenient place to stop, I'd be happy to chat to him about anything.
If there are any files or material I need for a job that I haven't got, I will ask for them. I'm not stupid. I know how to prioritise my work and I rarely miss deadlines for my own work unless it's because of delays out of my control.
As I mentioned, we have monthly progress meetings. Everybody involved gets a comprehensive run-through of all of the jobs being worked on, jobs coming up for the next 6-8 months, their progress at that point in time, information to be aware of… Minutes are taken and we all get a full written report of the meeting afterwards!
The jobs do always get done, and whenever I complete a job I pass on relevant documents and files to those that need it, and send an email to the colleagues that need to know it's been done and I always copy in Bob. I don't understand why he feels the need to come in and disturb me working every. single. day.
About Liman… He's worked at Comp for at least 25 years now, and, coincidentally, joined the exact same way as me (did the same degree, did a placement year, got a job after graduating). When we've been on the road together to OSJs, he's ranted a fair bit about Bob being this way, and it seems like he's been doing this for a very long time. Liman also hates Bob disturbing his work, but Liman recently moved to the other side of the country and because he's invaluable to Comp and Bob knows he won't find another Liman, he's still working but basically comes into the office once every 2 weeks or so.
Coming back to addressing this with Bob; I mentioned right at the start of this behemoth of a post that I know he doesn't respond well to criticism. He's kind of like a child in this regard; when others before have brought something up that they're not happy about or want to change, he generally gets upset and ignores them for like 2 weeks until something else upsets him and he forgets about it. The notion of some people (who commute up to an hour or more) working remotely went down like a lead balloon.
I think in Bob's eyes we have a good working relationship, and honestly apart from this issue, I don't have any problems. When we go on OSJs, we spend a lot of time travelling together, just him and me, so I'm used to being around him in close quarters and it's fine. I am really just worried because of the effect this micromanaging in the office is having and will have on the work I produce for his company.
I am aware that however this goes down, it won't be an overnight change. I'm sure it won't be a smooth and plain-sailing conversation either!
I should also just say… I know I've just posted this in r/Antiwork, but I do love this job. It is basically exactly what I want to do for my career since I started my degree. I have good job security, I have assured career progression to have more responsibility on OSJs, and I enjoy all aspects of the job. I would not consider leaving over this. It's just this fucking micromanaging is getting on my nerves more and more and I feel less and less productive at the office.
Does anybody have some suggestions on how to broach this with Bob in a tactful and diplomatic way?
Thanks for reading, sorry it's so long.
TL;DR – I love my job, but my boss micromanages me by coming into the room I work alone in and disturbs me working and breaks my focus. It's affecting my work ethic and I feel less and less productive. I'd love some suggestions on how to approach it with him, but worry about how he'll handle it.