Micromanagement

Why do we hire very smart employees and then start to treat them like they are stupid?

When I joined a certain company sometime back, we sat down with my employer and agreed on what the expectations were on both sides before I began. We started off well, however, it wasn’t long afterwards that I started feeling useless. I literally did not like where I was and soon, my mental health started to deteriorate. My employer monitored my every action; they told me what to do and how to do it, all I was required to say was ‘yes’. I did not have any authority to make any decision. As a matter of fact, I was the HR only by name, the rest of the HR decisions would be made by the ‘management’ and then the same was communicated to me, that’s if they remembered. I felt trapped, I hated my job, to some extent I began to hate myself and soon realized that I was not doing myself a favor so I quit. The question however remained; why would you hire me to help you but still hold on too tightly?

The problem with micromanagement is that it breaks the trust between an employee and employer. You begin to treat each other with suspicion and then commitment and loyalty stops to exist. My boss did not have faith in my capabilities and I on the other hand treated them suspiciously and only interacted with them when I really had to.

Micromanagement makes employees to depend entirely on you. It sips the creativity juice off of an individual. They no longer have the ability to think on their own and even when they have a great idea to share, they would rather keep it to themselves because after all, you have shown them that you know it all. The extra effort that any employee puts in their work stops. They begin to show up only because they need a salary at the end of the month.

It results into increased employee turnover. As a matter of fact, this particular employer had very high turnover rates, I did not know when the next staff would leave. Of course, they would be replaced but the replacement would soon exit before the rest of the staff even knew their middle name.

Micromanaging staff leads to reduced performance as the organization remains on the same spot it were before. When you hire a professional to do a job, certain changes are expected. However, when you keep telling the professional to maintain doing things as they have been done before, there will not be any improvements.

Micromanagement causes stress to the employee. This is the reason some staff suffer from depression, especially those who feel there are no other options for them other than stay there and ‘manage’. When an employee comes in with great expectations and the will to do great things and challenge themselves only to realize the employer does not desire any changes, it’s a huge disappointment.

If you want to have workers in your company, micromanage your staff but if you need leaders, trust and train your employees.