This article dovetails with the “bad manager” article comments posted last week. Micromanagers are one of the worst type of “bad managers,” as they lack trust in their employees, need to always have ultimate control, and over-manage their every task.
The sad thing is that micromanagers don’t think they are micromanaging. I had a family member whose company did an employee survey for their department. Every employee and lower management staff complained of micromanagement by the managers above them. They were detailed – you micromanage use to death, crazy micromanagers, when will you stop micromanaging, why don’t you trust us (you get the drift). The management staff ignored it stating “I don’t know what they mean, we don’t micromanage,” and they really did believe there was no issue. When brought up to the management group by executive level management, they just blamed it on employees not liking the extra hours they were working. Not the first time I have heard of this type of denial, and I doubt it will be the last. The executive suite should have taken notice to the point of action, but never did. To them, as long as the work was done, they didn’t really care.
If You Can’t Trust Your Employees to Work Flexibly, Why Hire Them in the First Place?