#micromanagement

I recently returned to work after taking FMLA leave. Within my first week back, my manager began closely scrutinizing my schedule, availability, and office presence.

He asked me to specify my working hours, identify my usual desk location, and notify him whenever I sit at a different seat. He has also questioned where I am and made comments about my availability. This level of monitoring feels noticeably different from how things were before my leave.

More recently, I was verbally reprimanded for taking time off using my remaining PTO. On the first day of return from FMLA I did mention I may need to use my PTO and I gave him 3 weeks of notice for my PTO. He said as a new director (I was hired as an individual contributor) in the team, I should explain what happens to my projects when I take time off. That I should obtain his permission before applying for leave. That I should come up with a strategy and plan on how my work should be done and who should do it. I’m new to the team (6 months).

I explained that I already gave him a heads-up on my first day of return, and I'm an individual contributor, not a manager, and that I am entitled to use my available PTO. I understand that I have a responsibility to document project status, communicate outstanding tasks, and provide handover information. However, I felt that the conversation was more about making me feel guilty for taking time off.
He hasn't given me a great performance review this year.

The working relationship was already strained before my leave. Now I feel constantly watched, questioned, and evaluated. I dread going to work and find myself overanalyzing his messages and interactions.

Could this sudden increased scrutiny indicate that the manager together with HR is documenting to let me go?

All I’ve heard is Gibbs is destroying everyone and heritage Product Solutions managers are micromanaging and pushing out the Upstreamers

Morale is struggling, so naturally the answer is more tracking, more reporting, and more micromanagement. Let's help leadership out and crowdsource some new ideas.

I've got a few to get us started:

Require all reps to share their phone location 24/7.
Distribute mandatory Apple AirTag necklaces so management never loses sight of anyone.
Require reps to check in from a bookstore landline every morning and every afternoon.
Install a dashboard showing how long each rep spends parked in a parking lot.
Require hourly selfies with customers to prove relationship building is occurring.
Daily Teams meetings to discuss progress made since the previous Teams meeting.
Mandatory "enthusiasm score" submitted at the end of each day.
GPS-enabled company shirts so leadership can track employee engagement in real time.
Require reps to livestream campus visits so managers can coach every conversation.
Weekly reports explaining why last week's reports were accurate.
Issue smartwatches that vibrate whenever a rep hasn't entered Salesforce data within 15 minutes.
Create a Power BI dashboard tracking Power BI dashboard usage.
Require manager approval before entering and exiting every building.
Monthly morale surveys followed by mandatory coaching sessions for anyone reporting low morale.
Introduce a "trust but verify" program where nobody is trusted and everything is verified.
Install QR codes throughout campus. Reps must scan one every 20 minutes to prove they're still working.

Maybe we're overlooking the obvious solution. If morale isn't improving after six months of increased oversight, perhaps the answer is even more oversight.

After all, nothing says "we value our employees" quite like treating them like parolees with Salesforce licenses.

Even if I don’t get laid off, which would be a miracle… going forward the work culture here will be that of slavery; longer hours, micromanagement, faster pace, less beginner friendly, riskier to take PTO/sick/maternity leave, etc.

I doubt this is the only company with this idea. I hate this direction we’re moving towards.

Why does every little thing have to turn into a bureaucratic nightmare? Even the managers are being micromanaged from above, so nobody can actually get anything done.

The micromanaging is getting on my last nerve, (not figuratively speaking). I’m so fed up and frustrated. How do I manage and train my brain make micromanaging a growth experience. It’s literally making me less efficient, and it’s making me worry and stressed, it’s giving me anxiety, and I never had anxiety. Any suggestions for coping?

There's no stability here, and we're expected to figure out new responsibilities with little training or guidance. Between the layoffs, constant management interference, and endless reorganizations, getting anything done is a miracle.

Layoffs gutted our department, and the following reorganization has made the work harder instead of better. There's more micromanagement and more toxic behavior, and it only keeps getting worse with every new layoff. I know this will just continue the toxic cycle.

I just want to do my work without someone constantly overseeing every little thing. Even managers who start out reasonable seem to end up worrying more about control than letting people get on with the job.

My manager emailed me to say that they want to review my self-evaluation draft before I submit it in the system. DO NOT SUBMIT IT UNTIL I REVIEW IT A, I was told.

What is this cluster fu-kery? In over 10 years here I've never had a manager ask me to do this. Has anyone else experienced this?

Are all CM departments this micromanagey? Like having to tell the whole team when you’re going on breaks/lunches, group texts on personal phones if they’re running behind etc??

How is the HIS Division? It is always cameras on to watch you work and micromanagement or is it more it is fine as long as you get the job done? How are the working hours and meeting hours? Any pressures from the separation announcements

My life has become a he-l.

The VP is micromanaging every minute of my life and behaving I am responsible to ensure he does not get laid off and lose all the RSU he has accumulated in millions.

Anyone hear about 100% RTO for everyone in Smithfield beginning in March? I have no idea where they would fit everyone but people in my organization seem to think it’s going to happen. Can’t wait for the 30 min + it takes to just get off campus to increase. My group in Institutional is incredibly micromanaged now and each change they implement undermines our ability to service our clients. It’s horrible.

This is so cutthroat right now. Really sc-mmy so unprofessional below Fidelity’s caliber this FT RTO. Pouncing on people like a land owner for all their serfs and indentured servants.
I’m not quite sure the full vesting is worth my self respect.
These people have stocks up their 🫏 they’re so uptight.
Should we all have a time card system now like the coal miners?

Isnt it ironic how we were all forced back into the office supposedly for collaboration in person but now the new metric being tracked is screen time and keystrokes?? Apparently the focus is no longer RTO reporting as people are either complying or have been let go.

Now the new metric is tracking productivity which is starting with hours and then expanding to things like keystrokes and mouse clicks. Our director literally advised us to screen share by utilizing laptops for in person interactions. Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous?? We have to be chained to our computers now so no time for in person interaction or events then what is the point of RTO???

Ironically I know our leaders often are not online at all cause they’re ‘traveling’ on the company dime or just dialing it in though their work phone. This company literally disgusts me. The only people left are those who are stuck with no options at this point.

It is virtually worthless to us worker bees but how amazing it’s working for management to micro the F@cl out of us

Oh look, already a Microsoft replacement for MJs spot. Shocked. Buckle up for more micromanaging

There's a set schedule.

There are going to be more layoffs, a lot more restructuring, and a lot more consultants and the Corporate Clueless micromanaging stuff they don't understand. Mission Simplify is just getting started.

Bumping this from @fs+1m3a32zbw for info.

Zero opportunities for growth and there was so many pricks up in personal business who cared about being a desk slave in the office and physical optics more than the work you do and help your team with!! Bunch of pathetic leaders who cannot lead and focus on all the wrong things

Scene: Doors of the Canonsburg office swing open. Three members of the Lollipop Guild emerge, wearing matching puffy vests, untarnished hard hats, purple sneakers, and holding enormous lollipops. Behind them, a banner reads: "Congratulations on your retirement! Please don't come back."

Lollipop Guild member #1:
"Yinz gather 'round. The day we dreamed of has arrived!"

Lollipop Guild member #2:
"Wake up, you sleepyheads, get out of bed! The nightmare of meetings and micromanagement is dead! "

Lollipop Guild member #3:
"No more surprise calls at half past three! No more, 'Let's circle back' endlessly! No more impossible deadlines to meet! No more getting tossed under the bus in the street!"

Lollipop Guild member #1:
"They would ask a bunch questions and change plans on Friday after four, then ask why the numbers weren't better than before!"

Lollipop Guild member #2:
"To your face, they would treat you like family with a smile so sweet, then cut three departments before we could eat"

All in song:
"Ding do-g, the exec is gone!"

I’ve seen multiple posts about layoffs in different departments, I wish there was a way to know how many there have been. Now that we’re coming up into the fall I find myself wondering yet again if there will be an early retirement offer I think I would’ve said there was a good chance earlier in the year, but I don’t think there really is a good chance anymore. It seems like management has become very micromanaging. Yes, I understand that there are probably departments and employees and teams that needed better oversight. I’m not complaining about oversight. I’m questioning the kind of oversight for example, the utilization review department is required to do 12 reviews a day there isn’t enough work for us to do 12 reviews a day. Yes, there are some nurses who do get that kind of work based on different facilities that they have access to, but the large majority of nurses do not get that work and I would venture to say the average reviews are probably closer to seven or eight a day. We have no control over that. I know team leaders say we should be asking for Work if we need it but you can’t pull Work out of a hat and now it seems that people are getting reprimanded for lack of a better word for not asking constantly for additional work, they’re getting talked to for only having seven reviews and many teams are telling people that they should have around nine reviews. Maybe I’m blind. Maybe there’s some other utilization review nurses on here that can shed some light on that, but it sure doesn’t seem like there’s enough work for that at least they’re certainly isn’t on my team or on several other teams that have brought up that I’ve spoken with my point is I’m certain there’s going to be a layoff there would have to be we have likely 150 to 250 too many nurses. I seriously doubt since we’re losing 600K members were going to miraculously come up with those 600 K plus an additional tens of thousands more to create enough work come January. So I guess the question is is there going to be a layoff or will they offer early retirement? I realize this is a long post. It’s just something that weighs heavily on every nurse I know. And after the employee survey came out today, multiple nurses have been saying about how discouraged they are so it’s brought it up again. Any inside encouragement anything would be greatly appreciated. I am just going to apologize right now for any type of graphical errors in this. I know it’s a long post and I’m just simply exhausted and discouraged after this day of yet another group of confusing, emails and policies and procedures and changes and taking back the changes and making more changes and taking them back again, utilization a few management simply just does not want to know what they want, and don’t want to proofread it.

The moment you spend everyday worrying about a layoff is your personal red flag to get out of that position/team or out of this company.
I am so glad I moved on.
No more micromanaging cr-p and no more unrealistic expectations. Gotta do what’s best for you.

If you believe in working hard, helping your team, and learning from mistakes, you're probably going to have a rough time here. Mistakes get held against people, while micromanaging and corrective action seem to be the main culture.

They can't keep new hires. Employees are retiring and quitting. Everyone hates it. Not enough employees to do the work. Everyone is tied to their desk with constant threats on idle time. Constant changes being implemented making it impossible to keep up. Your expected to take all your calls and still get your work done which is impossible with the amount of calls coming in. The micromanaging is tremendous. Its complete missery. Instead of firing those that need it, they make their good employees miserable. The good employees are constantly having to do others work. The burnout is real. I'm planning to Ieave as soon as I can.

micromanaged after FMLA leave ! Noticing a pattern.
So at my current BOfa job I was under some stress at home and at work and decided to take some intermittent FMLA time for stress. After 6 years of getting Meets or exceeds ratings when the Mid year rolled around in July and I was given a Partial Meets. Part of it was due to not meeting the in office day requirements vs remote days . I got dinged there.
Boss mentions that she was given an option to give me a PIP or monthly follow up meetings . She had understanding of my situation and felt I could get back to more productivity so I was told we would do monthly follow ups.
I started to notice I was given feedback like your completing the work but require follow up, Or your completing the job but these are the easier tasks. Or you are not completing things as fast as we want. This is due to being out on an FMLA day.
I'm also asked to submit summaries of How I plan to do individual assignments to the boss, something I never had to do in all these years.
Does this mean there is something going on here? If its no the dreaded PIP why is there this sort of scrutiny? Anyone else experience something similar?

I know it's to micromanage us to death but the fact that we need a dozen apps to put cookies on the shelf is hysterical. This isn't some fancy job it's a simple physical job. Order cookies. Put cookies on shelf. It's ridiculous.

Previously, we had a Manager who failed to manage effectively and merely offered praise to the 'assistant' manager on the team, who contributed very little. Now, we have a manager who focuses on overseeing the fonts we use in our emails. Wells Fargo really knows what they are doing.

I like to talk to my reports and go out to lunch with them. I think it's important to keep a close eye on these projects so that timelines don't slip. I have a pass they can take when they need to use the restroom and that way no one wastes company time.

Don’t work at Daly unless you love to be micromanaged.

This should be the next survey question. Why would you wish WF success? The bank's very publicized plan for success blatantly excludes thousands of US employees, after ruining or at least significantly disrupting tens of thousands of careers eo Tuesday for the past 5-7 years. They dont want you to work here any more.

Why would you, after all of the gaslighting, the fake reviews, the micromanaging office time down to 5 minute increments, the soon-to-be-increasing RTO requirements,

"Together we'll go far.......but not with you!"

• Charlie & his squad of goons

Go ahead and downvote me, bootlickers! this is the truth and you all know it

We post so much about the micromanaging the layoffs , those people don’t care. More money for them.

I don't know what happened, but the culture seems to have shifted. My manager went from being one of those horrible micromanagers to minding his own business, we backfilled two positions which made everything so much easer on all of us, and there has been no talk about layoffs for a while. I don't want to jinx it, but credit where credit's due.

The micromanaging has begun I believe! In the last 2 days we have received emails about a pattern of attendance-related activity like too many call ins when the last 2 months have been so stressful and we are to update teams every time we step away from our desk for some reason. This has not been an issue before but is now?!?

There’s been this huge crackdown on my team within care management recently on performance and policy compliance. We’re all getting flack for our idle time, call avoidance, taking lunch too late, and on and on. Used to be no one ever checked Verint unless there was some concern about metrics, but now everyone is in the hot seat. Lots of formal coaching and PIPs all at once for objectively very minor offenses. Is it some directive from senior leadership? Maybe they’re trying to thin the herd of less productive associates before AI implementation increases our productivity expectations?

Upper leadership overseeing the remaining stores in Texas is asking store managers to submit daily digital locker entries for every representative. The setup involves management assigning a daily objective per person; required behaviors must be met to reach the target, and any lapse, miss, or achievement of sales are recorded. In my location, the whole team feels demoralized and singled out, unable to dismiss the question of who is next (termination and layoff). They also recognize that digital lockers serve as a rapid path to termination because they function as an HR instrument. I wonder whether your side of Verizon is doing the same. Has micromanagement grown in your side of the business?

I’ve been VTOing and requesting PTO in my IEX for the last 2 past weeks. Centene has really stressed me out. I don’t feel like clocking in or participate in my weekly team meetings. Supervisors and team lead states there’s nothing to worry about and to not stress. I call bullsh-t. They been on my di-k cause my stats/metric have changed recently, my AHT is higher than usual and I’m overly annoyed their slick a-s comments about my performance. Is anyone else experiencing major micromanaging issues? Enough is enough, at this point I’ve applied for FMLA because I can’t take handle the energy and fake empathy from my supervisor.

It’s official. A manager officially announced they installed software to monitor offshore folks. Ended up cutting 6 of them. Stated not watching FTEs but that’s a bold faced lie. If you go to the bathroom too long you’ll start being micromanaged be careful out there!

They are definitely going to micromanage people out so they don't have to pay! Getting a lawyer to be on standby. But if the PL can at least have a heart and stand up for us and know we will be out of y'all's hair asap and to please please not set us up to be let go. I have seen it happen too many times.
Noone cares. Trust my noone does.

No surprise that reports are wrong, nothing new, this place has been dealing with that for years. Systems don't work, are not examined for the root cause of bad data and reports. More micromanagement but wait....now so many of us are on a correction action plan as a result and everyone is miserable.

This is what lack of leadership looks like, don't dig in and find out what is wrong and then communicate/educate. Instead just assume we are lazy id--ts and let the punishments begin. And they wonder why morale is in the trash.