To be getting micromanager vibes from my new boss?

[anotherworkone]

Fully prepared to be wrong here.. I have a new manager after 1.5 years of very hands off managers so have become very used to self managing somewhat!

Manager has been here a matter of weeks.. and is getting my back up slightly. Starts every call we have with 'so what are your priorities this week' and wanting detailed updates on individual tasks. (In contrast previous bosses barely knew much at all until there was a crisis!)

I also feel like she's meddling a bit as I've gone through hell on a project for months and finally weeks away from launching it and finally achieving something from it etc. she wants to pull me off on to something else which the business sees as less urgent, because otherwise she will need to do some of the preliminary work for it.

I am a project manager and the project I currently have is urgent so I think important to complete and hand back to the business. But also not used to this level of getting involved in my work either!

Am I being over sensitive here? I am just struggling to click with her already as always feels everything is in her interest rather than any support for me.

Oh god, I have this exact situation. Have been TUPED and new manager is a micromanager to the nth degree. She monitors Teams to see when you are on red / green etc or away from desk. I've worked pretty much autonomously for the last ten years. Worst bit is I can't actually see what she does in terms of her role.

I'm interviewing for a new role!

Are you me? I have a very similar problem ATM. No idea what to do either. I'm doing everything in the hope she'll leave me alone once the project is done. Also have a lower priority project she wants me to focus on. If I find any answers I'll let you know

So your manager wants to know the status of an urgent project? I can’t see much wrong with that, all PM’s should be reporting project stayus and weekly priorities.

Any manager that micromanages clearly has not got enough work of their own to do - ergo, they are cunts.

I know this fully. My boss (that was previously my colleague) was like this. I used to pretty much work alone under direction of the main business function. This woman literally started leaping out from behind potted plants to try and catch me out in some way, asking me what I'm doing all the time in minute details. When I went for a cigarette for 10 minutes she was texting me, emailing me saying 'where are you' then when I told her I was having a fag she said 'where did you go?' None of your goddamned business you stalker.
She ended up backing off and eventually got demoted for bullying after 4.5 years! I did make a complaint against her to our Director in the end.

We have a reporting system for that which I keep on top of, I am competent to know what I need to be doing.. so it's not like it's not being done

I’ve had this in the past. Sounds like she’s my ex-manager. Are you in the NHS?

My ex-line manager was a project manager and instead of managing the project she would just manage me/my tasks. She insisted on weekly 1 to 1’s and wanted to physically see a written “action plan” from me, even though it would be the same every week as we were working on a long term project.

We had 1 office day a week and rest of the week work from home. The senior managers could pick and choose if they went in the office but everyone else had to go in every week. 1 week I had back to back Microsoft teams meetings (with people across the country - not in the office) so I decided to work from home and informed my manager. She responded with a massive essay on why the office days are important and insisted that I send her my calendar each day and a time sheet so she could monitor me.

She drove me absolutely mad and I would have left if she didn’t end up going to a new role. So you have my sympathy.

Oof some of these stories! This is where worried this is going!

My manager used to be the director until they brought in an additional level. We have a good relationship so I will raise it early if needed.

I guess I'm trying to work out if she's still finding her feet or if it's going to escalate!

It sounds like there's been a lot going on, OP. If you used to report directly to the Director and your new manager has been only in post a few weeks, I'd be tempted to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. There's always a bit of an adjustment period in a new manager / report relationship especially if you've had passive rather than active managers in the past. They might also be feeling like they need to "make an impact" if they are new to the business - i usually get through this phase with copious eye rolling once the teams camera is off 🤣. In my experience, more often than not, everyone susses out their role and it all settles down to be more hands off.

The priorities thing doesnt bother me - my manager asks me this in our weekly catch up and i ask my reports. More so that we all know if there is anything urgent that has come up. The detailed tasks thing might be a bit overkill but it might also be if they are new they are just trying to understand the processes etc? I'd be tempted to watch and wait.

Some the stories above sound awful but not really the same as what you describe in your OP. So hopefully it isnt heading the same way.

Why do you think they have brought in an extra layer of management, OP?
I’d be worried that senior management don’t think you are as fine as you do. Perhaps new boss has been asked to be more heavily involved because the previous Director didn’t have time?
If you have a good relationship with the Director, I’d be asking these questions - but it would perhaps have been better to ask before the new manager was employed.

Obviously I might be reading this completely wrong! Just a thought - why did the business feel an extra management layer was needed at all?

Sounds like your previous manager was useless and they've brought in someone who actually manages.

I'd like to think they'd get rid of me rather than hiring a high up role to mind me if that was the case 😅

But no, the business is growing fast and the role is probably needed (it's not just me she manages, there is a team), and I excelled at performance review, thankfully.

For context this is a fast growing business and there are new roles like this all the time across all departments and business areas.. this is not a 'Claire is shit, let's create a role to keep an eye on her' thing.. I'd be concerned if any business would use that strategy? Seems costly to me, not to mention hardly a good role for the one doing the watching 😅

Sometimes bad management decisions are taken! And particularly in quickly growing businesses. Staff are hired and then reorganisations happen when senior management realise some of those staff are underemployed.
How many of your colleagues are as competent as you? If your new boss is micromanaging, it could be a sign their role doesn’t have enough to do.

Or…new boss is just trying to understand your role (as any good manager should) and will leave you alone once they fully understand what you do and how you do it.

Yeah I completely agree, and I'm trying to work out which way this is going. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt for now, she seems nice enough, but the task watching just really gets my back up! And the priorities for the week felt like she was assessing if I was busy enough, what I am doing hour by hour etc kind of thing. I may be wrong, nobody has ever asked it quite like that before.

I definitely don't think she has enough to do; I am hoping it is a bit of both of those things. I think we do definitely do that, get people in as we think we need them and they may not have much to do once they are here. Totally different to my previous company where we were crying out for resource and had to jump through so many hoops just to get it, even just to direct replace a role had to go through the entire process for reapproval. Madness!

I'll see how the rest of February goes, and hopefully things will be clearer.

Hope all goes well. Nothing worse than a micromanager, even they have good intentions!