oh no, a micro-manager...AIBU to write back a cheeky response....

[justhereforthecraic]

My boss emailed my team this morning and requested the location of a document. Easily sorted, My colleague kindly emailed her back with the document attached as she had used it recently. My boss then asked if this could be "re-jigged" to include one more item ( which she listed). I like creative tasks so I replied saying i would happily play around with it to which all agreed. My colleague was delighted for it to be out of her hands as she was busy dealing with an emergency so thanked me for helping!

I did as requested by my boss and even made the document more "user-friendly". My colleagues all replied back when I sent it to them and agreed it was perfect and we moved on with our day. Our little team is usually good at coming together on tasks like this and we like to get things signed off quickly.

However, I've just had an email from my boss saying she has made a few small amendments to the document. I went into look at it and I barely recognize the document. She deleted 80% of what I had written and added in her ideas. I really want to respond and say, WOW where is the document I created and why did you bother agreeing to me doing it and then changing it ?!?!?! but that's not professional...

AIBU to write something back....if so what could I say that would get the point across without being rude or cheeky or should I just say nothing and move on with my day.

I understand. But did she ask/ want you to play around with it?

I dunno, I can honestly see it from both sides. I think you need to communicate your frustration (see my post above) but it can be very hard to give feedback on a document/ someone's writing style, especially if that's not the main thing you do in your role.

Maybe she simply didn't know how to approach feeding back on it. Managers are people and they're not perfect, and you are allowed to give her some gentle feedback that it would be helped you if she had told you what she wanted and let you edit it.

Compassion on both sides always helps.

And I refer you back to my original post. A shame your management style couldn't benefit from your wind up merchant tactics... ah well.

Move on and get on with your day. Maybe she didn’t like your input once she read it 🤷‍♀️

This!

I’d have to say something tbh

id say you did what they originally asked to be altered on the doc - you don’t have the time to do any more on it.

id suggest that your not a pa!

so what if they are your boss? Does that mean they can’t be called out for shit?

I didn't say you were a bad manager now. I was agreeing that what you described as your behaviour as a new manager was indeed poor management. Many of us have been there before.

I did this to a colleague the other week. The document I asked for was slap-dash and didn’t make sense.
I felt awful making corrections, but it had to be done.
There was probably a reason why your document was changed, sorry. A good manager however, would let you know why they changed it.

I had a manager like this. The most frustrating thing about it was that she would spend ages amending things which really weren’t that important. She just couldn’t help herself.

That would then mean she didn’t have time left to do some of the stuff which was actually important. So we’d end up with beautifully drafted internal guidance documents that hardly anybody used, whilst decisions weren’t being taken on significantly more important projects and we were being asked by senior managers why they weren’t progressing.

I tried the diplomatic approach suggested upthread first, but then I just left the team. It is really hard to work for a manager like that.

“Write away”?

I think I may be spotting some of the issue.

I wouldn't whinge about her rejecting your changes but it would be legitimate to raise the issue of scope creep, or to say you haven't budgetted the time for these additional tasks. Had she signed off the previous version, and did her changes affect just what you changed or the original version?

OP wasn't asked to make any more changes though so I don't see how 'scope creep' could be an issue?

My understanding of what happened is:

• Manager asked for a small thing to be changed in a document
• OP changed the small thing, spotted a few more things wrong with the document so changed a lot more about it as well (using initiative etc).
• Manager wasn't keen on the other changes OP had made, so amended the document herself rather than sending it back to OP with feedback.

It seems to me like the manager should have fed back why she did what she did/ why the document wasn't up to scratch... but as for 'budgeting time', the manager actually only asked for one small thing to be done. OP made the decision herself to do more than asked, and she wasn't asked to do any more than that because the manager did it for her (rightly or wrongly).

It's likely new manager had no idea about the actual skill level of OP - it's very possible she expected your standard of work to be a lot higher - you need review the changes she made and try to understand why she made the changes - if you can't figure it out and ask her how you can improve.

I disagree that this sort of thing isn't micro-management. If the document works as is, you let it go and move on. It's not a good use of the boss's time to spend time completely reworking a document that the rest of the team think is good.

Interesting that most of the first respondents on this thread thought you were being unreasonable and must have done a rubbish job. Shows what sort of managers they are, or would be. You all need to learn the 80-20 rule.

That is likely to be a predictive text issue. As I said, you can instantly see the people who like to find fault on here.

are you a manager by any chance? can you come work for me 😉

Do you think your manager's changes improved the document?

The problem is, it is quite a rare workplace that actually trains or teaches managers on how to manage. They usually promote someone who is good at a thing (often a technical role) and then are surprised when they aren't magically good at managing those below them

Yes that is very true - it is a particular problem in the legal profession.

I honestly hope you don't have any line-management duties....

The public sector promotes anyone as a “manager”. Most manage no one. If you are able to write succinctly they think you’re trying to get one over on them. Fact

😂 I am, and in this situation I would advise you speak to your manager, maybe in your next supervision.

Tell her that you would have preferred if she had fed back to you with changes she would like and reasons for them, so you can learn from it, rather than doing it herself because that is demotivating for you and doesn't give you a chance to improve.

She probably has a million things to do, just thought she'd quickly tick this off the list and hasn't even realised that she has upset you to be honest.

I agree with you here. Don’t be so keen to help or amend, especially as you know what she’s like and it’s a waste of your time.

I did work for a micromanager who when I called her out on it said “yes she micromanaged as it was how she’d been shown how to do things but a previous manager”, she was also quite young so I don’t think she’d had experience of other management.

If someone is a new manager then they need constructive feedback, not passive aggressive staff refusing to help. Behaving this way makes you no better than the manager you are complaining about.

Better communication is needed on both sides.

This happens all the time and is really bloody annoying so in one sense you aren't being unreasonable to be miffed in this situation.

However, because these things DO happen all the time, I'd just suck it up to be honest. But then again, I'm extremely unlikely to say anything in scenarios like this, a braver person might go to the manager and ask to receive feedback next time instead of a complete rewrite job.

For context I'm in the middle in terms of seniority in a writing-heavy job - I both manage, and am managed. I certainly wouldn't just rewrite someone's work without having a call with them to explain why, in detail. It's just the better thing to do.

Out of interest OP, would you say, or do you think your colleagues would say, that the changes she made improved the final outcome/document for the intended purposes?

If not and your ideas were better, then yes it would be annoying for her to give you no recognition or explanation, but overall if her changes/edits were better it could mean she took the final result of whatever you/the team did from good to excellent - which is her job.

The work you did would not have been wasted as it is always easier to build on something, if it is good, than start from scratch - but she may have had her own ideas of what the final outcome should look like based on the overall business goals/objectives.

Personally, I would talk to her about it, otherwise it will create a 'root of bitterness' in you. She may have legitimate reasons, whereas you are telling yourself a 'story' of why she did it, which might be 100 miles from the truth. Just say "Could I speak to you about the document, I put some time and effort into it and thought it met the instruction you gave, so it would really help my own development to know why it changed so much?"

Perhaps email back and say 'OK great, no worries. I'd be super grateful to get some feedback about how I can improve for next time, so I can get it perfect for you. I enjoy creative tasks, so would love to get it spot on, so you don't have to amend anything'.

If your boss has just done it to make a point of 'This was too perfect so I'm going to change it up to show who's boss', then the response above may work. Or if it's actually just cause it wasn't good enough, then it may help you to improve! Not meant in a rude way, but I agree, some sort of super polite response, which may help for future reference is warranted.