'If she wanted to micromanage me I would make her work for it': Employee manages a micromanager by only doing what they're explicitly told to

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jul 1, 2023 12:00 PM EDT

Dealing with a micromanager is a burdensome experience, with the complete lack of autonomy and self-determination totally sapping any motivation you might have once had for your job. To make matters worse, it almost always comes from a manager who should have never been promoted over you, who has far less of an understanding of their role (and yours) than they seem to think they do… maybe that's the core of the issue?

This employee shared their experience of managing their micromanaging boss. Their job was "fairly easy" for them, but when their supervisor went on extended leave, things got a whole lot harder in the form of a new supervisor who loved micromanaging. Things escalated when the new supervisor told the employee, "You need to do what I tell you to do and not what you think you need to do," this opened the door for an easy route to malicious compliance—and a way of managing the micromanager.

Read on for their account of events and the reactions it generated in the original thread when u/No-Language-7256 shared it with this popular Reddit community.

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  • 01
    Font - Posted by u/No-Language-7256 20 hours ago 23 How I managed my first micromanager LOC Back in 2010 I was working in a training management area within a government Department. The job was fairly easy for me. When my original supervisor went on extended leave, so I got a new supervisor that we will call Agatha. Almost immediately Agatha started to micromanage me even though she didn't really know my job that well, or even half of what my role entailed.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 02
    Font - Now I will say that I didn't particularly like Agatha as a person, but I tried to get along with her. Even when her management style started to show. In hindsight I should have worked some internal politics to be removed from the area, but hey, no one said I was smart at 19.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 03
    Font - The section started to have some underlying tension until one day she called me into a meeting and, long convo cut short, said the magic words "You need to do what I tell you to do and not what you think you need to do". She even followed it up by emailing me words to the same effect. Now I did two things on the heels of that meeting. Firstly I printed out the email to keep in my bag, drawer, pocket, and on my wall. Secondly I started to do what she said, and only what she said.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 04
    Font - At first she would just tell me the jobs that needed completing. But she only got worse when she noticed the work wasn't getting done and started to tell me how to do things. Again I complied and only did exactly what she told me and how she told me to do it. If she missed a step in her instructions I would either skip it if I could move on, or ask her to explain again as I "couldn't" figure it out.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 05
    Font - I was a damn good employee, I even went out of my way to start asking her what I should be doing and how. After EVERY task. If she wasn't in the area, which was very common, I would just wait for her to come back. If she wanted to micromanage me I would make her work for it. She was getting nothing done, we were getting further and further behind. This went on for about a month. The reputation of our section was tanking internally and externally.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 06
    Font - Enter Michelle, Agatha's boss. She noticed all my questions and the general drop in productivity, morale and reputation. She pulled me aside and asked me what was happening considering I am normally so competent/efficient and don't ask many questions about how to do the work.
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  • 07
    Font - Small aside, Michelle was a fantastic boss and generally preferred a more hands off approach when she could. She clearly was giving Agatha enough rope to either make a ladder or...something else. Ok back to the story.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 08
    Font - I explained to Michelle how Agatha was managing me and I was just trying to help her management style by leaning into it. I also showed her Agatha's email. At this point I estimated I COULD get everything caught up in about a week without working any extended hours if things changed.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 09
    Font - Michelle, being a good boss, simply asked what it would take for me to go back to working the way I always have. I only asked to not be managed by Agatha anymore. I could have been much more insidious with my request, but I only wanted to be left alone to do my work. To my surprise it worked, I immediately started reporting directly to Michelle. I got the work caught up in 3 days, surpassing even my own expectations.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 10
    Font - As for Agatha, she started to have her work examined a lot more closely. Including her overall output since, I found out later, she was trying to blame me for her low work output. It turned out that I was in fact the solution, Michelle ended up sharing Agatha's workload between the two of us and we didn't really notice much difference. Agatha however did notice a difference as she was shuffled into another area of the Department. One with a lot less responsibility and a whole hell of a lo
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 11
    Font - I ran into Agatha again after I had moved around the country a few times. I ended up back in the same office, but a different section. Agatha was still in the same shitty position. Same level too. Her personal reputation was so bad that only a handful of people would actually work with her. It felt good to know how stuck she was/presumably still is. TL:DR new manager tried to micromanage me so I only did what she said and nothing more until her boss stepped in.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 12
    Font - Kript +3 19 hr. ago The ingenuity of some people impresses me. Michelle gave Agatha some rope, and Agatha somehow used it to make a shovel and dig herself into a hole. YankeeWalrus Vote djmcfuzzyduck 13 hr. ago Reply Share Vote +2. I haven't seen that phrasing before; it fits exactly to a situation at my work. Reply Share
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  • 13
    Font - +1 · 14 hr. ago ZombieLHKWoof I had a situation similar to this, as a lead computer tech I oftener multi-tasked, assigning tickets, remote fixes, imaging... I was good enough to earn my own office away from the bullpen. My boss and I would often butt heads on some of my shortcuts, but I was highly effective and pretty much gave lip service to some of his demands.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 14
    Font - So one morning he calls me at my desk (as usual) and gave me strict orders not to do a damn thing but image a laptop for some muckety muck. I try to tell him no problem I'll take care of it, but he doubled down and emphasized to do NOTHING but image the laptop. So, started the image, which would take at least an hour to install and just let it run. No tickets assigned, no emails answered, no phone calls returned.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 15
    Font - He gets in about an hour later, comes by my office and the image is still loading, he wants to know why the Queue is full of unassigned tickets. I point at the laptop and told him you said do nothing but work on this. I will always treasure the look on his face and arrange of emotions he went through, and after about 15 seconds walked away without a word.
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 16
    Font - He never gave me that kind of directive again. We actually became good friends in the long run and still get together after I left a few years ago. 4 Vote Reply Share
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  • 17
    Font - Radiant_Evidence 7047 18 hr. ago I had a new boss who told me to CC her into every single one of my emails. To the extent people were phoning me asking why k keep escalating matters by copying in my boss! I of course took it to the extreme. Simple emails about office football events I copied her, there was a bingo thing they did monthly, I copied her in, I had a super high email volume and she must have been going mad with the number of emails I had her included in. Vote Reply Share
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 18
    Font - Xenos85_VS 19 hr. ago "It was Agatha all along" ♫ It was a risky move but as long as you had some trail, she couldn't do anything. She failed herself. Vote Reply Share
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 19
    Font - harrywwc hmmm.. thought process of boss' boss +3 20 hr. ago • OP worked fine, new boss comes in & OP's productivity tanks, I wonder why... and well done OP for not asking "the world", as that may have been a step 'too far'. Vote remember, the best revenge is to live well. Reply Share
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 20
    Font - SkwrlTail +3 · 20 hr. ago A risky move, but sometimes hobbling yourself works. ✩ Vote Reply Share Omikapsi 19 hr. ago As long as OP had full documentation supporting their course of action, there was no risk. ↑ Vote Reply Share
    via u/No-Language-7256
  • 21
    Font - 19 hr. ago You manage things/projects but lead people. Mangers who manage people are mangling their rep. ✩ Vote maerchenfuchs Reply Share
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toxic-manager micromanager manager malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit managers Reddit
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