'People got passive aggressive': Micromanaging boss asks employees to give more updates, they maliciously comply to prove a point

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Aug 26, 2023 2:00 PM EDT

Any time a micromanaging boss tries to implement something new, the effects are often counterproductive. Take, for instance, sending daily updates. Sometimes, there is not much to discuss, especially with long-term projects that take some time to develop. Another instance is the act of setting up meetings that could just be emails. No one enjoys this, except for your micromanaging boss, of course, who would understand that if he had an ounce of self-awareness. 

 

This thread was posted to Reddit by u/Big-Brown-Goose who explained that his boss did not approve of the fact that there weren't enough updates in the team's group thread. However, OP went on to explain that things were more than productive; it's just that his boss felt like things were only productive if the chat was filled with a constant flow of updates. The problem? Updating everyone takes time, especially when the updates themselves are not material ones. Furthermore, updates are distracting to everyone else in the chat, and the information overload that accompanies a constant stream of updates can easily lead to people missing actually important messages. 

 

The best part of this story is that these employees were completely unafraid to prove to their boss that this idea was useless. How did they do that? They updated him on everything, and I mean everything. That means unnecessary status updates, messages about people arriving home from work, etc. One person in the comments section even suggested that OP should have taken a picture of the restroom whenever he was using it.

 

Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. For more stories like this, here's one about an employee who got in trouble for leaving a little bit early.

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  • 01
    Font - We are told to increase our communication with management... SOC We use whatsapp on our work phones for communication between departments. We've been told to implement "visual communication" and to share pictures of every activity/project we work on. They started saying we weren't sharing enough,
    via Copernico
  • 02
    Font - We are told to increase our communication with management... SOC We use whatsapp on our work phones for communication between departments. We've been told to implement "visual communication" and to share pictures of every activity/project we work on. They started saying we weren't sharing enough, and the management never knew what we were doing at any time of the day. We all thought we were communicating pretty well and our direct supervisor dont think it was an issue but their boss wante
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 03
    Font - Basically our chats became cluttered with way too many puctures and updates. Like instead of stating "test machine started for 15 minute cycle" we were getting updates that it was still running every few minutes. This gets really redundant and makes you get information fatigue and you start to miss actual important stuff.
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 04
    Font - So people got passive aggressive and started posting updates like "walking to the front door" or "i am leaving work at 5pm today" every morning (when we always leave at 5pm every day). It got really silly when we started getting pictures of people's cars in their driveways when they got home after work with "i have arrived at my living quarters in preparation returning to work upon the next shift". One guy actually got fussed at because he kept making what are slessentially posts in the g
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 05
    Font - stating "So-and-so in on their way to pick up unit, i visually confirmed on ny way to work today". I even got brave enough to send them a picture of my dog in front of our laundry machine once to announce I finished a load of laundry with my dog's help.
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 06
    Font - They lowered their expectations after a few months of this on what we had to report. Basically we are back to succinct and important posts only rather than play-by-play details of our every move.
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 07
    Font - incidel 6 hr. ago TLDR: how your managment finally had access to people having a life and then lost it again
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 08
    Font - Big-Brown-Goose OP. 6 hr. ago It was a definitive attempt at micromanagement. Luckily it faded out. But we still can get micromanaged in person unfortunately
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 09
    Font - virtualchoirboy 5 hr. ago +1. Please tell me someone had a coworker take a picture of them on their phone and sent that to the group chat with "Updating chat with current progress..."
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 10
    Font - +3.4 hr. ago And then add another pic of the screen for infenite recursiveness fizzlefist as you update every 5 minutes...
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 11
    Font - Kelvin_Inman 1 hr. ago . Just have several coworkers line up for a photo shoot, each one taking a picture of the last one looking at their phone, till the first one takes a pic of the last coworker and it starts all over again. "Bob updating the chat." "Jane updating the chat about Bob's update." "Tim updating the chat that Jane is currently updating the chat." "Bob is updating the chat to indicate Tim is currently updating the chat."
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 12
    Font - 4 hr. ago A FEW MONTHS?!?! I can't believe this lasted more than a few days! HBHT9
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 13
    Font - dwehlen 4 hr. ago Bold of you to assume upper management was actually looking at the posts, and not just seeing the uptick in "productivity".
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 14
    Font - Big-Brown-Goose OP . 3 hr. ago This is very likely. It's actually weird how much stuff gets ignored then they will randomly hammer someone about a random specific update they made 5 days ago.
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 15
    Font - Kelvin_Inman 1 hr. ago Sounds like when watching a movie with someone who keeps falling asleep, then they jolt awake and react to the last line of dialogue as if it's really important, to seem like they were paying attention.
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 16
    Font - HBHT9 . 3 hr. ago Omg you're absolutely right. They saw the uptick and thought "boom problem solved"
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 17
    Organism - wlfwrtr +2.4 hr. ago I'm surprised no one sent a picture of their toilet, 'What a s day!'
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 18
    Font - Big-Brown-Goose OP. 3 hr. ago I got really close one time of a picture of the bathroom stall but I figured that would make me look stupid like I actually thought I needed to post that.
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose
  • 19
    Rectangle - KingSuperJon 2 hr. ago Why were you all sharing home stuff when off the clock?
    via u/Big-Brown-Goose

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management boss workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job work horrible-management workplace Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit toxic-work-environment
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