To think this is poor management?

[BasinHaircut]

My line manager today asked that she is cc’ed into every single email I send or receive on a particular workstream so that she is aware what is going on.

She has form for micromanagement and undermining me. Cc’ing her on everything means that she will start ‘suggesting’ that I do things the way she would do them even though the way I am doing them works just fine and gives the same result.

There are no issues with my work, I’ve been doing this job for 4.5 years and I am the ‘lead’ on this project.

If anything I have a history of double checking things with her that really I could sort myself because the work stream is quite high profile. But I’ve been trying not to do that (on her advice) and have a bit more self confidence. I’m a bit disappointed that she seems to have no confidence in my judgement on minor operational details. I am fairly senior.

She reckons that she was not ‘sighted’ on something even though yesterday I briefed her on the issues before a project meeting that she subsequently decided not to attend, and wrote her a note after the meeting to make sure she knew the latest.
There were probably 20 emails on the detail of a document we were sorting out but someone as senior as her should not be getting bogged down in such detail and she only needs to see a final version for sign off.

I’m getting so tired of this micromanagement, it’s so boring.

Does she mean ‘sighted’ (have sight of a document maybe) or ‘cited’ (be referred to). If the second then maybe she is trying to get credit for your work? Is there a higher line manager or HR you can talk to? If your work is good then you shouldn’t need to be micro managed.

Talk to your manager about how it makes you feel and listen to their perspective. It’s not nice being micromanaged, can be considered bullying in extreme forms and is usually poor management unless you have a very inexperienced person taking on a very complex task.

YANBU. It's ridiculous and terrible management. As to how to deal with it...you could do it and secretly enjoy the knowledge that they're just giving themselves a ton of pointless extra work. Or tackle and say you know what you're doing and suggest e.g. regular updates to keep them up to speed with key points would be more efficient.

I'd suggest a regular weekly catch up so she is fully across where the project is at and current issues. When I've done this, I've kept it to a single page - to be done; in progress; completed. Identified dependent tasks etc so they were aware of anything that might cause a delay and noted how they were being managed.

I’m wondering if someone asked her about the detail of the project, she blanked, embarrassed herself, and is trying to blame you for not “keeping her updated”.

I agree with suggesting you send her a weekly update with latest progress or similar - agree that surely she should have better things to do with her time than read every single email you send? I don’t know about you but sometimes i’m sending hundreds a day!

It’s not just me then!

This morning there was a small operational issue and so I dealt with it , cc’ing her. Then literally 20 mins later it was resolved and she was cc’d. Then she came back with ‘have you also checked x, I don’t understand why this wasn’t correct originally’. I mean come on, give me some credit that I can actually do my job without you checking everything I do. Apart from allowing her to get involved and waste time on something she didn’t need to do or even know about (was a v minor thing that was a result of a small human error), I see no point in it. My actual job is to manage this shit!

To add, error wasn’t mine it was an IT thing. No impact on business outcome.

I think you need a cards on the table chat.

“Manager, while I am of course prepared to cc you into everything, I have some concerns about this request. 1. It makes me anxious that you don’t trust me to get the job done. 2. It seems inefficient. 3. It may compromise ways of working which actually save me time and energy. 4. It risks undermining me to others. Can we discuss the reasons for this request so I can understand why you believe it’s necessary?”

Massively undermining and shows no confidence in your abilities

Has she been in trouble where another person didn't check? It may be that her manager expects her to know the details.

Additionally, is it that you have not communicated sufficient information to give the appropriate comfort. I would suggest that if you don't want questions then you learn what it is they want to and need to see and make sure it is there first time with appropriate positioning.

Eg
What the problem was
Root cause
Checks/investigation outcomes
Remedial actions
Forward fix / recommendations to prevent in future.

YANBU.

She needs to get on with her own job and trust you to do yours in a supportive fashion. If she doesn't understand how destructive her behaviour is, she shouldn't be line managing anyone.

My manager did this. He wanted to be CC'd into every single bit of communication I had with a client on a specific project.

It turned out that the client had complained to my managers boss (company director) about managers lack of involvement in said project (I'm much more junior than you by the sounds of things and shouldn't have had to project manage).
When director questioned my boss on it, it was clear he had no knowledge of any of the day-to-day workings and was basically taking credit for all the positives and blaming me for anything that didn't go according to plan.
He then also started making suggestions after things had been resolved, or querying irrelevant things.

Don't take it personally. It's a reflection on them, not you.
And at least they can't turn things round of you and say they weren't aware of anything.

maddening that’s what I do now with any significant issues that she needs to be aware of. But that’s apparently not good enough so she wants to know about everything as soon as I do and doesn’t even give a chance for me to get together the relevant info to provide reassurance, she’ll jump straight in and start questioning for the sake of it and undermining everything. Because she is more senior than me people will obviously take more notice than her and that causes more work and wastes time for everyone, but me especially.