'Micromanagement isn’t cheap': Manager demands detailed reports from IT consultant regarding their daily work, causing the company's IT bill to double

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Mar 24, 2026 10:00 AM EDT

Getting what you asked for often proves how ridiculous your request was in the first place.

After you meet and deal with your first micromanager, you get to experience firsthand how much micromanaging doesn't make any sense. The more micro the manager gets, the less actual work gets done, but they never seem to come to that conclusion. They need the control, and they don't really care what they sacrifice to achieve it. 

That is exactly the case in the story below. This IT consultant provides IT services to a few companies, charging by the day. Every day they work for a certain company costs a set price, and the consultant divides the weekdays according to how many companies they currently work with.

At one company, this IT consultant had the misfortune of working with a micromanager. This manager wanted to know everything the consultant does during their days with the company. He demanded full reports about their every action, basically as an excuse to throw his authority around. But here's the thing. If you force a worker to spend precious hours on meaningless reports, you are going to have to pay for it. At the end of the day, this IT consultant bills the company according to how many days they worked that month, and if they are forced to spend a big chunk of their days crafting reports for a micromanager, the company must pay for this waste of time.

It wasn't long before this manager's director noticed the doubled price of the IT consulting services and confronted the consultant about it. Luckily, the consultant was well prepared to prove that they were simply following the manager's directions. This left the director no choice but to put the manager in his place.

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  • Micromanagement isn’t cheap

    I'm an IT consultant. Customers pay my employer for me (or my colleagues) to work on their IT systems.
    via No_Bit7786
  • collaboration and analysis by business people working in modern office
    via Getty Images

    collaboration and analysis by business people working in modern office.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • It's not cheap (around 1500 per day), but we're good at what we do. We bill by the "day" which should technically be an 8 hour shift dedicated to a single customer, though in reality things are kinda fluid..
    via No_Bit7786
  • I might need to e- mail or have a quick meeting with another customer during the day and make the time up elsewhere etc.
    via No_Bit7786
  • All my customers understand this, and they trust me to get their work done/ not rip them off.
    via No_Bit7786
  • In 8 years, I've never had a complaint. I was midway through an 18-month project with a long-term client.
    via No_Bit7786
  • We billed them 2 days a week, which pretty much lined up with the work I was doing for them.
    via No_Bit7786
  • The project was progressing nicely and everyone was happy. Then they hired a new project manager.
    via No_Bit7786
  • young broker in formalwear listening to his colleague and making notes in notebook during interaction at meeting in cafe.
    via Getty Images

    young broker in formalwear listening to his colleague and making notes in notebook during interaction at meeting in cafe.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • From the get go he was a nightmare and clearly wanted to throw his "authority" around/ show off for his new bosses.
    via No_Bit7786
  • He wanted to micromanage all my work.. putting in twice-daily meetings, constant emails, the works. After a couple of weeks, he decided they weren't getting their money's worth and demanded a detailed breakdown of exactly how my time was being used.
    via No_Bit7786
  • Fine by me. I started tracking every single minute: * Meetings he scheduled * Emails he sent * Time spent responding * Time spent logging all of this The bill nearly doubled.
    via No_Bit7786
  • His director (who I had a good relationship with) called me directly to ask why costs had suddenly spiked.
    via No_Bit7786
  • I explained I was just following the new PM's request for detailed time tracking and regular "updates".
    via No_Bit7786
  • About 30 minutes later, we got an email saying we could go back to the previous arrangement and that the new guy had been "reallocated to another project", a few weeks later I noticed his account had been disabled.
    via No_Bit7786
  • CotswoldP Some managers just don't understand consultants. One memorable day I'd finished. planning a server rationalisation, and checked in with the section lead if he had anything urgent before I went to the next item on my list. He asked me to sort through the junk cupboard, there was a box of rats nest cables, and he wanted me to untangle them all to see if any were reusable. I tried to point out it was a stupid use of my very expensive time, but he was adamant. So I popped on a podcast and
    via CotswoldP
  • No_Bit7786 Original Poster's Reply It's insane isn't it?! Another one of mine "really needed" an in person meeting rather than over teams. So instead of 2 hours they had to pay for 6 hours travel, overnight accommodation, and the 2 hours meeting (which could have been an e-mail tbh haha)
    via No_Bit7786
  • Mad_Maddin I'm an electrician and work in making the final checks on charging stations. We had some issues of third parties telling us their work was done and we could come check. We asked for a photo of it as we had issues with that in the past. They said "No worries everything is done". So I drove over there. 2 days planned for two stations as they were super far away. Both stations were not in fact connected. Yeah they got the bill.
    via Mad_Maddin
  • No_Bit7786 Original Poster's Reply Classic It's always this sort of customer who claims they have no budget when actual work needs doing as well
    via No_Bit7786
  • tsian It seems a little insane that tracking would double the bill... feels like you are not charging enough ;) Hah!
    via tsian
  • No_Bit7786 Original Poster's Reply It was more him constantly putting in "catch-up" meetings and sending giant Al generated e-mails asking for updates on things.. Though tbf we probably weren't billing them enough to start with, they're a good customer and we have a pretty good relationship (usually
    via No_Bit7786
  • ZirePhiinix If the work makes you happy and motivated, the discount is well worth it. You save the detailed invoicing for the _..__-hole fees.
    via ZirePhiinix
  • No_Bit7786 Original Poster's Reply Yeah, we like to build a solid relationship with our clients and we go the extra mile for the good ones. There's a mutual trust but in this case the micromanager didn't believe in it.
    via No_Bit7786
  • algy888 I am also an electrician. At one site they needed some trenching for pipes around electrical vaults and due to the existing, ancient and very delicate existing conduit (old asphalt, tar and probably asbestos pipe from the 1950s) they couldn't use machinery. Had to be dug by hand and they would pay our rate rather than have their own labourers dig. About a $20/hr difference in wages, but if their guys dig, it would take twice the time and they would have two guys off with injuries. Seriou
    via algy888

  • All this consultant had to do was follow the orders they received, to ensure that this micromanager learned they shouldn't throw their authority around. This behavior has consequences, ones that the manager is now dealing with.

    How would you have dealt with a situation like this? Would you have acted as the IT consultant and let the compliance do its thing, or would you have taken a different approach?

     

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boss workplace-stories micromanager employee manager job consultant it bill workplace company report
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