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How to deal with increasing micromanagement on the job

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Most folks have seen me talk about my current job situation, and how the environment has become one of lack of respect and reversal of assurances made to me by management.

At this point however, the micromanagement has gotten so bad where I work that now timekeeping is asking me on my submitted hours if my time with no marked lunch means I took no lunch.

To this, I should have said 1 word: duh.

It’s bad enough that I have to provide project statuses frequently, and that I (as a salaried exempt employee) am still required to turn in a timesheet as though I am punching a clock.

I am often called a “computer professional” because I am “white-collar” and degreed in a technical field and all of that. But, I feel treated as though I am untrustworthy or incompetent or unprofessional in some manner because any little thing that does not fit the “norm” is questioned.

I feel as though if I don’t fit the cookie cutter image, I face an inquisition as to why I don’t.

I don’t know how you all feel about your current situations, or what they even are. I would be interested though to hear what other peoples’ situations are like.

I’ve never been treated this way in another position, and don’t know if I’ve just been lucky in the past or if I should be even more diligent to find some professional relief through other opportunities.

Hopefully, I can get some idea of what other people in development face and how their management is and the flexibility their allowed without question.

Topic

Requires some prep work to do this

In reply to How to deal with increasing micromanagement on the job

Tell them to f**k off.

It’s the only way to be sure.

Prep work is of course to have another job lined up.

I’ve done it twice, once made management take a backward step and let me do my job, the other, meant I didn’t use them as a reference for my next one.

I don’t get micro-managed, but the goal post moving, double standards, and short term constraints are beginning to get right on my teats.

I’m working on the prep part

In reply to Requires some prep work to do this

As I said, got some folks pointing me to other opportunities. One would be about a 50% increase in pay. I would just have to relocate 1300 miles from where I am now. But, I have nothing against driving a U-Haul or loading/unloading it.

As for the f**k off part, I’ve been ready to tell them that (in a more demure way) for months now.

I don’t like “making a deal” with someone, then having their end of it go away while I’m still expected to keep mine and then have more constraints given to me.

This place is on mine. For sure.

Well if it’s subtlety you are after

In reply to I’m working on the prep part

print off employee kills boss articles at work for your scrapboook in a highly visible manner.

😀

bwahahaha

In reply to Well if it’s subtlety you are after

Now *that* would get me arrested for sure. :p

Besides, I don’t want to kill him. I just want to leave him with his jaw on the ground as I hand him the resignation letter.

Like I told someone here once. If he had kept up his end of the bargain, I’d have no problem.

But since it seems that he has selective amnesia with what he remembers saying (what was required of me) and what he doesn’t remember saying (what freedoms I would have), I am feeling less remorseful on a daily basis for having been looking for other opportunities.

The self-employment gig is looking more and more attractive as time goes on. As soon as I get somewhere that there’s a decent client base, that’s going to be my next move.

The place sounds

In reply to How to deal with increasing micromanagement on the job

Like the only way it knows how to survive is to consume itself. You are a part being eaten.

Yeah

In reply to The place sounds

It is definitely trying to do that. But, it’s like a newt. It loses a limb, but seemingly the same one grows back in one form or another.

Actually, it’s more like a mutation. they’ll chop off a limb, but then part of it reattaches elsewhere and usually it’s the half dead part that never worked well in the first place.

You cannot manage what you can’t/don’t measure

In reply to How to deal with increasing micromanagement on the job

My group used to be seperate from other Development groups, so I didn’t make anyone fill in time sheets other than contrators. They did have to fill in absense forms and overtime forms to get paid.

But when we joined the main R&D group, they have a tool to track what projects are being worked on and which tasks are being done against those projects. This is mainly for planning, but there is a “productivity” aspect as well. We expect that the staff spend a minimum % of time working on “main” projects as opposed to side stuff.

It does involve work, but we hardly micromanage. I approve the time weekly, and at the end of the month I get a report. Its helpful to know how much time is spent on support issues, bug fixes, maintenance versus new project development work. But I’m looking for trends, not how every second was spent. Its also helpful at the end of the project to review the plan versus the actuals. Most of my staff spend about 5 mins a day to fill in the times into the app.

Basically I do trust my staff. I trust they will do the right thing and manage their own time reasonably well. I trust if they have a time conflict or a deadline they can’t meet, they will come to me and we will work it out. If I couldn’t trust them to do a “reasonable” job of managing their time, I wouldn’t keep them on. I am not a nanny.

James

yeah

In reply to You cannot manage what you can’t/don’t measure

I understand that things have to be metered somewhat.

But for example: I’m on a project currently using a programming language I haven’t used in about a decade, and programming in an environment I’ve never been exposed to. 3 weeks ago (4th week of the project), the boss comes to me and says “You need to wrap that thing up.” and I was like “What?”. There was no more discussion past that. It’s as though I was to absorb through osmosis the entirety of a new platform, all the methods of it’s programming framework, learn the new programming environment, and remember all the programming language syntax I hadn’t used in so long…in just a few days.

If things were done the way I want, we’d have sit down meetings, plan projects, etc. However, I am usually told “This is what’s needed. This is what you are going to write it on. Go do it.”.

Sounds like you’ve become…

In reply to yeah

..a coding monkey to the eyes of management. Its not job for the experienced programmer. I would expect that from a newbie or outsourced work.

Now I’m not in programming, but sounds like you’re in a bad situation more than the norm.

TCB

A failure to plan, is a plan for failure

In reply to yeah

Not all of our projects are planned to the same degree. But i never publish a date without review the team first, and this involves asking if its a realistic date, what are the risks, and what can we do to mitigate (lower) the risks.

I just hired a new programmer, smart guy, but he doesn’t know our systems, processes etc. I give him at least a month before he is fully productive. Its even longer in support, because our products are really complex. If you don’t factor these things in, you are guessing.

James

Since we now get paid for over-time hours,…

In reply to How to deal with increasing micromanagement on the job

the only thing ‘they’ need to know is how many hours I’ve worked. Not what time I started, how long lunch was (if any), nor what time I stopped.

THEY’RE starting to treat us that way here now also and I’m getting tired of it. I may not be ‘exempt’ anymore but I’m still a salaried professional with 30 years experience, don’t treat me like a minimum wage clerk.

exactly

In reply to Since we now get paid for over-time hours,…

I feel treated like my every minute has to be accounted for on a sheet, and whenever there is any discrepancy I am put through an inquisition as to why.

For example: One day, I had gotten here about 7:45am and had no breaks and no lunch time because I had two issues I had to deal with that day. It was 4:10pm and I was ready to leave so I did.

The next morning, the boss pulls me in and asks me “What time did you leave?” and I said “About 4:10pm, because I had no breaks and no lunch and I was hungry.” and he just replied “Oh.”.

Evidently, someone else in the office made note of it to him as though I had left early without cause. So instead of looking at my timesheet (which is saved on a server and he knows it, because I’ve caught him parusing them before), he goes into Dick Tracy mode.

I, like you, am sick of being treated like a peasant. I have over 17 years in the business post-degree, and more than 25 if you include all the consulting I did while in high school and university for which I was paid to do work for businesses.

It angers me that I get expected to act as though I am a respected, educated, informed professional, but I am not given the professional treatment of trust and respect from my employer.

But, I guess that’s the world nowadays.

wet feet

In reply to exactly

Do you periodically step in pudlles when walking about the Office? This does appear to be a sinking ship.

Does it seem you are another victim of the economy?
Do you see other signs of cutting back in the company, or do you just feel like you are being singled out for some unknown reason?

[Author]

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