“I wasn’t motivated to keep going, to voice my own opinions, or to do anything out of the norm,” Shona Ryan, an employee relations specialist, tells ABC RN’s This Working Life.
But it wasn’t until later that she realised what she was experiencing was micromanagement.
Most employees regularly receive feedback from managers about their performance at work.
However, there is a difference between taking on the guidance required to do a job well and receiving unnecessary feedback in the workplace.
University of Sydney lecturer James Donald describes micromanaging as when “a leader is exerting excessive focus on observing and controlling people’s behaviour in the workplace”.
More than a decade ago, he was on the receiving end when he worked with someone he remembers as a “well-intentioned manager”.
“But I would say there was a tendency, at times, towards over-focusing on the processes of things and the more minute [and] less strategically important [things],” Dr Donald says.
That had a negative flow-on effect in his work.
“It creates this sort of sense of self-doubt … where you’re looking over your proverbial shoulder with every decision or action that you take,” he says.
It can also make people slower in their work and less likely to make decisions.
“No-one wants to be a bad boss. No-one sets out to be a micromanager at the beginning of their career,” he says.
Staff rely on their bosses to provide clear expectations, but it can sometimes turn into a slippery slope.