Am I being micromanaged? And what do I do about it?

[Allornothing9]

Hopefully this isn’t completely outing.. but..

I’m an Executive Assistant. I’ve been one for 8 years in various companies, so I’m confident at this point I know how to do my job. I started with my company almost a year ago, at which point we reported to our Executive as our line manager.

A few months after I started they employed an Admin Manager, who is now mine and my fellow EA’s line manager. We have weekly meetings where we relay our workloads to her, she asks us to create spreadsheets to show what we are doing hour by hour each week. She checks our diaries and questions who our meetings are with, what they are about. She asks our Execs for feedback on our performance. She reads our emails before we send them to ‘sense check’. We now have a central inbox as opposed to individual ones so she can monitor our workloads.

It all just feels.. a lot. I’ve never ever had this level of management, I’ve always reported to an Exec that was too busy to question that level of detail, but I am run off my feet busy most of the week.

Others who have been EA’s probably understand the role is very busy, fluid and varies day to day. Something totally left field can come in and it’s difficult to plot your week on a spreadsheet. I’ve spoken to my colleagues who all agree it feels heavy handed. I’ve spoken to my Exec who has said they are very happy with my performance/support and have no issues.

Is this a normal level of management? I plan on having a conversation with her to voice how I feel but I don’t know if I’m being a bit unreasonable or if in other roles this is usual.

Open to any opinions.

Do you mean you have to have her approval before you can be trusted to send an email? Is that what "sensecheck" means because I've never heard of that term before and I would be asking her to clarify exactly what she means by that

They sound like a complete jobsworth. Find a new job.

@Iamallowedtodisagreewithyou honestly I’m still not really sure. It’s not every email, but ones that are being sent to particularly high profile people/relating to difficult situations, she checks. It feels as though I can’t be trusted.

Why don't you & the other EA's get together. Agree what you are willing to do, then have a meeting with the pita.
Tell her we are happy to do xyz. (Nicely) you can go whistle for abc. It's adding to our already considerable workload and is unnecessary. We are perfectly capable of doing our jobs. We will come to you if we need help.

Thank you @CoffeeBeansGalore - this is a good suggestion.

It’s all under the guise that she wants to understand our work, what we do etc. but we have an hour long team meeting and an hour long 1:1, I feel like she gets enough information as well as seeing the shared inbox.

I’ll arrange to speak to the others as a group.

Why did they bring in the admin manager? It sounds like her job is to manage the EAs - does she have any of her own work to do? If not then she’s doing the job she was recruited to do and is probably applying some processes from a previous job. The spreadsheets of tasks sound like something reasonable and standard in some jobs though the email sense checking is silly. She may be struggling to create a workload if she’s not really needed, or she may be doing this annoying management oversight rather than something more tricky that should form more of her role.

It might be that her role is to streamline stuff if there are lots of EAs working in silos and they think they can reduce EA headcount by sharing workloads, using a shared inbox and employing a coordinator instead.

But adding in one more level of bureaucracy sounds counterproductive and annoying if the intention isn’t to cut costs ultimately.

There was someone like this in my old workplace. Thankfully she didn't manage me, but she made her staff email her at the end of every day with details of what they had done that day. They couldn't send any external emails without her seeing them first. I don't know how they put up with it. She eventually got fired for bullying (unrelated to the micromanaging issue)

I wouldn’t like that at all. Time to start looking elsewhere?

It’s just a shame because I really enjoy the work. It’s just such a culture shock after basically managing my own workload for 8 years and there being no issues.

I think a lot of what you’re saying is right @WhatDidIComeInThisRoomFor. I don’t actually know what else she does other than manage us and one other team. In the back of my head I’m thinking am I going to be made redundant here.. last in, first out. Maybe it’s time to start looking elsewhere.

I'm an EA and this seems totally bizarre to me - what is the purpose of all this?

the inbox thing is very odd

it would be a shame to leave if you like your job so I would speak to your executive and tell them how you feel

Oh my! This sounds like a wanna be top 4 accountancy/tax company where my brother used to work. He left because of the toxic micromanaging in tax. I wonder if it's the same place? 🙂🙂

I'm an EA we have shared inboxes so we can cover when we're off. My LM is similar to yours but doesn't query the e-mails we send from our shared inboxes. The spreadsheet thing is weird and I think these would only probably used in my role if you were underpeforming. We have a team meeting once a week and 1:1's about once every 2-3 months. My LM occasionally micro manages and we all grumble about it, but I think it's because we all prob do it without execs as we all work in a similar way.

You are completely being micro managed.
Line Managers should trust their team members unless specific issues have been raised.
I certainly don’t check calendars or any e mails.
if issues are ever raised guidance is provided.
i would definitely feedback your concerns.

You are being micro-managed - low trust, low autonomy. If things don't change, please consider finding a new job as this kind of work environment will quickly reduce both your confidence and your skill level.

Awful. I'm an EA and wouldn't take a job that didn't report directly into an Exec I support (though I know you've had no choice in your situation). I know my job, I don't need a middleman monitoring me. I'd be looking for another role I think.

I was an EA for years. Hell would freeze over before I would put up with that level of micro managing bullshit.

The job is incredibly busy and fluid. It's impossible to complete a task as you generally have twenty things on the go at once. How on earth do you have time to fill in spreadsheets?

I'd be looking for a new job.

That sounds awfully like micromanaging @Allornothing9 it's a recognised hallmarks of workplace bullying. Watching over someone, not giving them the dignity of getting on with their job, feeling like they're breathing down their neck and giving no space or freedom of movement are all bullying tactics, designed to oppress and control.

And when they say "oh I just wanted to help and support you", "let me know what I can do to assist", when a person is clearly qualified and capable of doing their job job without intervention, then you know it's them exerting their pressure.

what to do - keep a watchful eye to see if it's their management style. Maybe the novelty will wear off. If not I would definitely be looking for another job, otherwise it will eat away at you and stop you meeting your true potential.

Thank you everyone - this is really helpful. I genuinely felt like I was going a bit insane. The thousand and one questions in between trying to do the work itself almost doubles the workload. I think I’ll start making notes of everything she asks/what’s discussed in our meetings should it end up going further. I love being an EA, mainly because I’m (usually) in complete control and I feel like that’s been whipped from under my feet a bit.

Surely the major part of an EA's role to manage their executive's diary, correspondence, admin etc...
So, it seems ironic that someone is then micromanaging the EAs' diaries, correspondence and admin...

@VivX quite! There is some serious unrest in the team at the moment. Less so from me as I don’t really know any different in this company, she joined relatively soon after me. Everyone else is pretty up in arms about it, which makes for a crap environment.

That's a ludicrous degree of micro-management OP and I'd be looking for another job simply because I couldn't tolerate that - it must be very undermining. (When I managed a team of five EAs I had 1:1s with them once a month - that was it.) The hour-by-hour spreadsheet reporting of your work output is bonkers, not to mention having your emails checked before sending them. And what does she need all this information for? What is it meant to achieve? (Apart from adding to your already heavy workload!) What is her remit? These are the questions I'd be politely asking her and explaining that as you're all experienced EAs you don't need this level of management and would like to understand the purpose of it.

@Allornothing9 I imagine they are, as they've gone from being treated as experienced professionals to first-jobbers.

IME, a micromanager doesn't really get any better. Occasionally, they find different outlets for their micromanaging tendencies but the underlying distrust and control-freakery never really goes away, and often gets worse at particularly busy or stressful times.

I'd be tempted to fill in parts of the spreadsheet noting all the time it takes me to fill in the spreadsheet...

Ah yes
I had a manager once who had no tasks other than to manage. Complete nightmare.

I was lumped onto her tram and there was nowhere else to put me and she had no experience in my role yet micromanaged every inch of the role, questioning every decision and nit picking.

The spreadsheet of my time was awful and I am cringing thinking back.

best thing I did was leave!!!

I hear you OP. I actually quit my job today due to the micromanaging of a slightly senior colleague. It came as a complete shock to my boss, which is odd, as I've raised this issue 3 times in the mere 5 weeks I've been employed...that's how long it took to demoralise me to the point where I couldn't take it any more.