Just that really. I am run ragged at work by a team who seem to be unable to do anything without checking with me. I’ve never liked being micro-managed, personally, and really don’t think I come across as a person who wants to be involved in all the tiny details.
I’ve spoken to team members individually and in groups about being more confident and pro-active. I’ve told them outright that I don’t need to be copied into every single email, that I have confidence in them and their instincts are almost always right anyway – and if they are not, we will look on mistakes as a learning opportunity. I’ve made clear that I will always publicly support decisions that they make. I’ve referred to their job descriptions which make clear that the day-to-day work is carried out autonomously and they are trusted to make decisions in the majority of cases, escalating only the most complex of cases.
I’ve held training sessions, looking at issues which frequently come up in order to categorise these as “complex” or not. I’ve trained and re-trained them on systems and processes. I bring this up at every annual review meeting. I’ve set up buddy schemes within the office to encourage colleagues to work together and work out problems with a colleague before coming to me but nothing sticks.
Whenever I take leave, I always come back to hundreds of emails from team members where they are advising the customer (I use the word loosely, our “customers” are internal colleagues), “I need to run this by Turtle so can’t give you an answer until she is back from leave”. When we were in the office, and I’d appear after several hours of meetings, it would be like meerkat heads all popping up and then vying to get to me first with a list of queries to ask me. Now that we are wfh, I get dozens of emails and teams calls every day. It’s driving me to distraction.
On the odd occasion, I’ve hired a genuine self-starter, they’ve gotten visibly fed up with the culture in the office and have left, so I’m stuck with a core group of staff (4 people) who cannot function without being hand held. They are all bright people and these are not entry-level jobs. I have a 5th person who joined the team 3 months ago and showed signs of being very proactive but she now seems to be getting dragged down by the rest of them and following their lead in copying me and checking with me on everything. Not only is this impacting on my time but it also infuriates me as I couldn’t imagine working like this.
I understand that I am their manager and I do have a responsibility to train and help them. I also have a massive job of my own to do – managing the team is only a percentage of my remit, and I’m constantly getting criticised from my own boss about being too hands-on with the day-to-day work and not having enough time to take on larger projects which fit better with my grade and remit. On any given day, I spend 5-6 hours in meetings so the small amount of time I get back at my desk needs to be used well but I end up working 10-12 hour days as standard because my team are so needy.
I've been managing teams in various jobs for almost 20 years and this is the first time I've come across this. Most people hate being micro-managed. I've been in this job for 3 years now and I feel I've tried everything to get these people working independently. Please help.