At some time, you have probably experienced a boss who micromanages. They constantly check your work and tell you exactly what to do.
Sometimes it feels like it is your fault. Sometimes, it’s clear that the boss is worried, out of their depth, or they simply don’t know how to deal with professional white-collar staff.
The result? Staff will be irritated. Some may become angry. Some, particularly Gen-Zers, may quietly quit. They will not put their heart and soul into their job, which will probably lead to reduced results putting more pressure on the boss to make their team perform.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭
As results begin to fall, a door is opened to something the micromanager should fear most of all. When the organization decides that, after cost-cutting and other efficiencies have been tried, it is time to layoff staff. So, who will they target first? For many organizations, it will be the middle manager. And the main target could be the micromanager.
They will call it “unbossing”, but it is really a way to flatten their organizational structure and to get rid of poorly performing middle managers.
According to Live Data Technologies, layoffs of white-collar staff in North America from 2018 to 2023 fell while for managers layoffs rose from 19.69% to 31.54%. Those figures are significant as the sample covered more than 6.5 million job changes in which the person did not start a new job within 60 days.
More recently, most layoffs this year appear to be in the professional and business services sectors, with USAFACTS reporting the main focus being in “accounting, legal, architectural, engineering , and consulting services.”
The numbers of staff sacked in 2024 may have risen considerably as suggested by the layoffs from Airbus, Amazon, Alphabet, Cisco, Microsoft, Meta, Goldman Sachs, PwC, Tesla, Google, and Nike.
So, anyone micromanaging and causing their team to produce worse results would be top of the list for the sack.
𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐔𝐧𝐛𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 (𝐒𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠) 𝐁𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭?
My guess: government, which is also the area where the fewest layoffs occur. However, if Donald Trump wins the election, and Elon Musk joins his team, that situation could change drastically.
So, micromanagement may be the worst thing a boss could do, not to their staff, but to themselves.
The great advantage that a boss receives by dumping micromanagement is that they don’t have to be a "boss" anymore. They can empower and give autonomy to their staff to focus on achieving team goals and organizational objectives.
Most importantly, unbossing themselves can allow a manager to be a true leader.
I believe that micromanagers’ situation will become increasingly worse.
𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦?
#MercurySays #Management #HumanResources #Micromanagers
