Stress-induced migraines caused by micromanager makes me want to quit
From the moment I arrive at the office, (I work at the bank), to the moment I leave, I was stressed out every second of the day. I constantly take pain medication for my migraines and I could physically feel the stress eating up my body. It’s not normal for someone to feel nauseous and dizzy 95% of their work day, under no conditions. I can’t eat when I get home until I’m shaking from hunger and force myself to eat dinner so I could go to bed. I feel sick to my stomach from the stress I’m under.
I’ve been hired as a new associate since February and recently came out of training. And I’m already thinking of quitting. The work itself isn’t difficult but my branch manager makes the job SO MUCH MORE STRESSFUL than it needs to be.
He absolutely has no trust in me in the beginning. I understand that I am new to the job, but I also haven’t given him a reason to view me as incompetent and needs to be treated like a child.
He circles around my office and checks on me every hour. He over-explains every task, claimed that he’s always there if I need any support, but whenever I come to him for questions, he replies in a rude, condescending manner such as “I thought this was covered during your training? How come you don’t know anything?”
Whenever something doesn’t go his way, he gets stressed out EASILY, he begins to act aggressive towards everyone. He also has a habit of speaking very loud, especially when he verbalizes his frustration.
Example: I was observing him when doing wire transfer with the client sitting in front of us. He called the company to confirm the wire instructions that was provided, when it went to voicemail, he immediately blurted out “NO no no that wasn’t supposed to happen.” He proceeded to dial the number again, aggressively, at least 3-4 times, while shaking his head, hyperventilating. At this point, I also became stressed out and I could sense that when looking at the client. He was smiling and going on his phone as we waited until he noticed my manager’s behavior and began to look worried. He finally told the manager to stop dialing and that he’s confident with the information provided. The manager immediately started apologizing profusely, which the client insisted was unnecessary. He said that my manager was simply just “stressing him out for a simple task that he thought can be done easily by the bank.”
In addition to frequenting my office often, he also wanted to control little things such as where I put my personal belongings, he wanted me to put my handbag, car key, wallet, etc in a drawer, locked with a key (which is attached to a wrist coil that I must wear on my wrist at all time). The company doesn’t require this and I always try to have my belongings tucked away from the client’s view. You’re telling me I need to lock up my matcha latte from Starbucks with a key and whenever I want to take a sip, I need to open the drawer, have the sip, immediately put the cup back in the drawer and lock it with a key? It’s unnecessary and it makes no sense to do it. Whenever I meet with an associate from another bank for any service, I personally don’t look at someone’s coffee cup on the desk and automatically think they’re “unprofessional” and want it out of my sight.
For my first time meeting with a client, which I spent a lot of time preparing for it, he forced me to call the previous associate who was my mentor during training to ask him to PHYSICALLY sit with me through the entire process when I meet with the client. My mentor was in my role and got promoted to move to another branch 40 minutes away, it’s inconsiderate to make him drop all of his responsibilities to “babysit” me. I insisted that I could do it and would call the mentor on the phone if I have questions. He got really mad and started calling my mentor on the phone, with his fingers smashing the number keys while dialing, when my mentor picked up, he immediately yelled out “I THOUGHT YOU SAID YOU WOULD HELP HER. SHE NEEDS YOU.”
Not only his yelling and aggressive behavior is unprofessional and unacceptable, his lack of trust in me has knocked down my confidence in my ability to succeed at my job.
Yes, I’m new, I will be slow and I most likely will make mistakes at some point. It shouldn’t be a shocker to him. Sometimes, he interrupted my meetings with clients to inform that I am new, and he apologizes IN ADVANCE for their experience with me. WHAT??? I haven’t made any mistakes or done anything that upsets my clients. How can I build rapport and trust when he’s telling MY clients that I’m not capable of doing my job right.
He takes incredible pride in working hard, dedicating his life to the bank and the branch, he wants EVERYTHING to be perfect for the clients. I respect and admire that. But his micromanagement is hurting his employees (everyone else has said the same thing about him). We’re stressed out all day and at this point, most people at work are afraid of upsetting him (he will argue/yell at you in front of the clients) than the clients themselves.
I feel like I’m going through training twice with him forcing me to do every task, which needs to be done as he is literally standing behind my back and watching. I can’t work with clients properly with him always insinuating to them that I am incapable at doing my job right. He also has a habit of telling my clients that the process will take [X] amount of minutes without understanding the actual time commitment that a specific process typically requires. I always get stuck with clients holding me to that time limit and getting frustrated when I can’t finish within that timeframe. Then comes the part where he would rush in, apologizing profusely to the clients for my “mistake”, wishing he could make everything right for them and didn’t have to “waste their time”.
I’m completely at my wits’ end with him. I have tried communicating with him about how his behavior can affect my performance but he said that he wants me to acclimate to the job at a faster pace because the branch has always received high reviews for their performance and although he did expect to be a drop in these numbers during my first month on the job (it’s common and expected for branches with new associates starting the role), he was “hoping that I would go above and beyond to provide the branch with the performance that they have always been able to achieve under the previous associate”. It’s unfair to expect me to perform at the level of a much more experienced associate when I have only been at the job for 12 weeks (10 weeks was for strictly training alone and I wasn’t allowed to interact with clients during this time).
I have considered finding new opportunities and leaving this job with him being the sole reason of me not sticking around and enduring his horrid management style.