What is micromanagement? A negative term that refers to a management style characterized by extremely close supervision and control of the minor details of an individual’s workload and output. Micromanagement of an individual’s work has been around for centuries, it is a word that feels like slavery, the days when the plantation owners used to closely supervise the ‘bumboclaat’ slaves to ensure that they had completed the day’s work. But one should ask the question, ‘are we really emancipated from mental slavery?’
Why do employers feel the need to micromanage employees? Could micromanagement be pathological? Is it a certain personality trait that managers possess in order to maintain power over their subordinates? But at what cost? Micromanagement consistently fosters ‘bumboclaat’ anxiety and stress in the workplace. It causes an employee’s well-being to be at risk and creates a negative environment. So why do employers keep on doing this? Don’t they see how this will affect productivity and our mental health in the organization?
And yes, I do agree from a different perspective that there are times when managers may come under intense pressure to achieve results in their departments from top management and there are employees who have to be closely supervised so that they perform at their optimum.
But not all of us require micromanagement.
Some of us as employees know how to work on our own initiative. We work at our optimum when we are not being micromanaged. All we ask is for management to give us the freedom to work, without feeling like we have a ‘ bumboclaat whip over our backs’.
Micromanagement is not the solution to achieving better results in the organization. It creates a sense of ‘bumboclaat’ lack of trust and fear in the relationship between managers and subordinates. In order, for managers to create a more positive environment in the workplace, I recommend making employees feel like they are a part of the decision-making process. Motivate your employees by creating competitions and providing incentives for meeting deadlines in a timely manner. Just create a better environment as a manager, that’s all we are asking for because micromanaging your employees is not solving the problem at all.
