I work as an IT Technologist on a team with a handful of other people. Our boss has always had a bit of micromanaging tendencies (mostly just making sure we've done tasks that we do regularly), but recently has gotten much worse. It's gotten to the point where two of the original team have quit over it, and I'm seriously considering it myself as it's causing my mental health to take a hit.
This would be cut and dry for me if he was micromanaging about everything, but he isn't.
You need a day off and tell him 20 minutes before your shift starts? No issue whatsoever. Got sick and need to head home early? Go ahead and go on home.
But anytime it's about work, it's an absolute pain. For example: “You didn't read an email for 2 minutes? Hey, did you see that email? Here's what to do about that email.” He's been like this since I started working for him, but it's recently gotten way worse and more frequent (to the point where every time we talk with him, it ends up him micromanaging some part of our job, even if the conversation does not start out work-related). He's also tried micromanaging what we wear to work, even if it's still considered work appropriate (for example, tennis shoes, jeans, or t-shirts are a no-go on high step days or when we're moving a lot of equipment around for setups). He doesn't want us talking to other teams without himself present, or even eating lunch with a team we work closely with because of “gossip”.
Would love to hear some advice about how to go about asking him to stop and trust us as a team, or at least tone down on it. I love the place I work in, and the co-workers are amazing, it's just that he gives me so much anxiety with how much he does it, I'm not sure if it's worth staying if it keeps up.