tl;dr; – Switched jobs to work for a micromanager my wife warned me about… switching jobs again because my personal life has been fully infiltrated by constant micromanaging.
So, time travel back 6 years, I worked for a company that did consultancy software development. I was hired on as a senior software engineer. I was tasked with working with a client directly for a period of 1.5 years. During that time, I had a good relationship with the CTO, however, he was a serious micromanager. He loved to be on meetings together, co-working together all the time, cutting into my own dev time. Even the simplest tasks, it would be time for a slack call w/ screenshare. I'd be on the call 'Hey, where's the video?!'… 'Hey, what are you doing, can you add screen share so I can look along'…
I put up with it because they were the client of my boss and I remember specifically now that I look back on it complaining to my boss that I was frustrated by it, but would stick it out for the duration. Then… the client was dropped by us and while I maintained a decent relationship with the guy over the years, I had forgotten about the constant meetings/screenshares/video chats…
Fastforward to a few months back. I was asked to come on to his team with a pay bump and new position (managing architect). Timing couldn't have been better as two weeks after I accepted, the company I worked for folded. My wife, when I told her, asked me if I was sure I wanted to accept the position working under 'Zack'. I said of course, we had a good rapport, we've worked together before, yada yada. It wasn't long then all of a sudden it was 'hey, lets get on a call'. Then 'hey, where's the video'. 'Do me a favor, can you turn your screen share on?'.
I ended up hanging with my cousin mid-week one week and worked from his cabin upstate. He was privy to the time I spent on calls and remarked that he can get me in at his company (He knows I am a more than competent software engineer) easy. So I said sure, am meeting with their head of engineering today, and if offered will be giving two weeks immediately and peace-ing the fuck out.
Not much of a lesson or anything here, but damn, just wanted to vent it. I have been frustrated for the last 4 months working here and am gladly leaving first chance I can get.
Edit: For clarity, I don't mind screen sharing. I do mind trying to work while all day long I am asked to screenshare so someone on the other end can see what I am coding while I am working. I was ASKED to be put in this role because I know what I am doing. I didn't seek it out. I was sought out because I am skilled at what I do. Have you ever tried working while most of the day your boss is literally over your shoulder asking WHY you wrote a particular line of code? And they know LESS than you do.