Micromanagers

My boss sent me an email today, just to let me know how she phrases a particular type of email that she sends all the time. Before she sent me that email letting me know how she phrases it, she spent no less than three minutes telling me how she phrases those emails. Not the why, just the how.

I realize that three minutes doesn't sound like a long time. But just sit there for three minutes, and do nothing.

See that? Boring and annoying at the same time, right?

Good thing they pay me at work, or I just might not go. And with any luck at all, she'll become more hands-off as I gain competency. I can't tell how it's going to work either way at the moment.

I don't know if I'll ever really understand the impulses that would drive someone to even want to micromanage. The more hands-on you are with the people you're supposed to be supervising, the more liable you are for their mistakes. And, as they build competency and you keep telling them the same things, you're going to breed resentment. And, in an environment where the magnitude of the mistakes that you can make - and the consequences of those mistakes in terms of work added - are muted, there's not much point to that.

That is to say, more resentment than just telling people what to do all day long will, which is quite a bit, depending on how much respect those coworkers have for you. And odds are, if you micromanage, that level isn't very high to begin with.