Am I being Micromanaged?
I have been in my organization less than a year. My boss is obssessive-compulsive and he already admitted that to me. I am the only one he is supervising right now and I work in IT (Information Technology). My boss and I have cubicles right next to each other, so I see him and hear him ALL the time. BEFORE he comes in to work, he calls me on my office phone to tell me: 1) his job-related worries, 2) things he would like me to do, 3) some new technology news, 4) other IT related crap, just ANYTHING job related. The calls are not everyday, more like 3 or 4 times a week on mornings… He calls me while he is on the freeway to work, or even in the parking structure 5 minutes before he comes in. I get into the office 2 hours before he does and that means he stays 2 hours after I leave. Sometimes he calls my office phone in the evening while he is alone at work (6, 7 or 8 pm) and leaves me a message saying, "Hey I know you are going to get this in the morning, but I have been thinking and you should do blah blah blah…" He calls me the next morning BEFORE coming in to work asking if I heard the voice message that he left the night before and if I am working on whatever he talked about. I was soo angry recently when he called me on my day off to talk about work. He has minimized the amount of calls to me on my personal cell phone on the weekends and evenings, but I just don’t answer anymore. He also called me while he was on vacation, as if things will collapse in his absence… On days he doesn’t call the night before or morning off, he walks into my cubicle, stands behind me and asks, "Hey, what are you working on today?? Maybe you could do this and this…"
It was just yesterday that he humiliated me in front of senior staff when I showcased a tool (I work with computer software) that would automate some of their work. BTW, I spent a great deal of time on those tools… So while I showed the demo, he walks by and said, "What, that is what you are showing them?? My gosh, you should make it easier for them by doing this and this… Oh my God, Jennifer… See this is what happens when you are going "Gung ho again" and trying to do things on yor own…" He turns to the Senior staff and says, "Yeah, I haven’t reviewed all of Jenn’s tools yet, and yeah I should have reviewed them…" I respond and say, "Okay fine, do you want me to stop this whole thing and wait until you teach me the right way of doing these things?? He says, "No, that is okay, just continue it…" And then he taps me on the shoulder saying, "Oh man, there are so many things I have to teach you little grasshopper…" Grasshopper is a name from a martial arts movie where "grasshopper" was the apprentice of the grand master or something… That name didn’t bother me before, but now I am offended a great deal. It was difficult for me to continue, because my confidence was shot to hell. After the demo, I felt horrible because I was slammed in front of people, and I was so close to losing my cool. The tools work fine, it was just not deg=signed the way HE wanted them to be.
The very next day (Friday, which was today) was his day off and I was at work, and his calls started again. Since I had caller ID, I knew it was him and I did not answer the phone. Screw it. I was angry and humiliated, and if he doesn’t want me to be "Gung ho" and take initiative, then I will not put my neck out on the line ever again nor be innovative, until he tells me to do it, fine, I will be a freaking, lazy worker, because apparently if I go out of my shell to do something before he tells me, I get slammed and humiliated. He actually called me twice today, but I didn’t answer, because I wanted to enjoy a peaceful Friday. If it was THAT important, he should leave me a voice message. If he asked why I didn’t pick up, I will be clueless (since I usually visit clients and I am usually away from my desk anyways). So I will be clueless, "What you called? Sorry, I was away helping clients… Why didn’t you just leave a voice mail?" All I am thinking is… Man, doesn’t he have anything better to do? Out of all the people in the world that he knows, why the hell is he calling me, all the freaking time??? So yeah, is he micromanaging me or what?? Thanks for listening.
Tagged with: absence • boss • computer software • cubicle • demo • evenings • freeway • God • information technology • Jennifer • job • new technology • news 4 • next morning • parking structure • personal cell phone • phone • quot • structure 5 • technology news • voice message • work • worries
Filed under: Tech News
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Ok girl, i feel your pain. I work with a girl now who is ocd, and that sounds exactly like her, however she is not my boss so i have no issues telling her where to go and what to do, we get along pretty good actually, but if she were my boss figuratively speaking, it would not be ok! Ok, second i used to work for a guy who felt that he was top notch in the buisness we were in, however, he was horrible!! No one would go to him, we were constantly cleaning up the messes he made and covering for him because as co workers we wanted to look out for each other, well low and behold someone above him would come along when something really good was going down and he would litterally say "thanks! i did this!" He never gave us any credit, told us we were doing a good job nothing!! it was awful!! To make matters worse he liked to tell us, very professionally and matter of factly what we were doing wrong, what he would do, and how he could make us better if we just did everything like him, because although he only had three years experience on me, his way was the only right way. I loathe him till this day, i stayed under him to move up in the company, luckily it only took me two years to get out from under his grasp and we were equal and i made sure i let our superior know how everything was while working underneath him, taht was my sweet revenge, in your case though, you need to decide if sticking around is going to help your career and be worth you putting up with his crap for future career moves. Also what he said to you was and did to you was belittling, unprofessional, and disrespectful, i am going to guess that he is older and probably ten years to retirment? Yes he’s your boss, and if you stic around then yes you have to deal with it, but if he is going ot be disrespectful to you, there is no reason that it would be innappropriate to let him know you will not be answering your phone on your days off, if he happens to say to you, i called why didnt you answer just say " i dont answer my phone on my days off" Now being in IT i would think you would be able to find another job fairly easier, tech are needed everywhere, if you feel its worth it and you can stick it out and you think it will benefit your career then just deal with it, but i was young, 19-24 years old, and i wish that i had just quit during the two years i worked for that pompus ass because although it furthered my career to stick with it, i could have done it else where, so if your going to do it, do it now before you invest anymore time into this place. good luck!!!
im 2 lazy 2 read this, i speak normally but its leik 12 and im tired.
After reading your whole story, i came to only two points decision,
He is either trying to over-react with you, and want you to believe he is your boss every time
Or he is too concise with his job so you take irritation that way, but imagine if you would had his place, what you had done.
It sounds to me like you are – but more than that – it sounds like your boss is definitely:
1. Taking out his OCD on YOU – possibly without realizing it – and
2. Insecure (otherwise he wouldn’t have slammed you in front of everyone).
Your boss might also be lacking some social skills.
It doesn’t sound to me like your boss is angry with you (is he?). If not, maybe you can sit down and have a nice chat with him. You might have to try to put some boundaries around your time. For example, you can ask him to contact you if there is an emergency, but let him know that you’d prefer that if he wants to call you about something that is non-emergency – that maybe he can call you at work and leave it on your voice mail. Or send an email. Perhaps you can also talk with him about what happened today. You’ll probably be able to head this off at the pass by vetting things through him and maybe getting him to sign off on something or sending him an email and asking for his feedback by email. That is kind of the sneaky way of vetting something and keeping a paper trail.
But, I’m wondering if you vet it through him if he’ll try to redo your work?