I used to think micromanagers were just control freaks until my 3 month stint under Donna at the main post office

Back in February I got transferred to a bigger station with a supervisor who checked every single scan I did before I even left the building. I was ready to quit after two weeks because I thought she didn't trust me at all. Then one day she pulled me aside and showed me how my route had been mis-sorted by the morning crew for months and I was losing 45 minutes every day fixing it. Her checking my work wasn't about controlling me, it was about catching the system failures that were making my life harder. After she helped me build a new loop order I was finishing my route by 2pm instead of 4pm. Now I actually ask her to double check my new routes before I run them. Has anyone else had a boss who seemed awful at first but was actually saving you from a bigger mess?

2 comments

2 Comments

mila_sullivan10d ago

Yeah but for every Donna there's ten bosses who just love watching people squirm. Her finding one problem doesn't mean the whole micromanaging thing was worth it.

lunaw7210d ago

Three years at a company where my boss checked my email drafts taught me that sometimes micromanaging hides the real problems, not fixes them. @mila_sullivan you're right that power trips are common, but I'd push back on the "everyone's bad" angle. One manager I had was a control freak who found a typo in a client report that saved us a contract, so I get the Donna argument. But most days, that same boss spent hours redoing spreadsheets that were fine, killing team morale over small things. The real issue is that micromanaging is a symptom of bad leadership, not a tool for good discoveries.