I don't expect anything to change so this is really me
Just venting. We have a lot of freedom at my job. I'm a blue collar worker for a state entity and all those government work stereotypes are true.

Anyways, my boss had a project assigned to him five years ago that he has just refused to do because he can't handle stress well. Well he got a new boss about a year ago who is cracking down on this "kicking the can down the road" stuff. Myself and two other guys took initiative, went out and got started. We made a lot of progress in two days but then my boss came out to the job site. He's acting shocked that we accomplished so much but now doesn't want us doing anything else without him. Here's the thing. He comes out at 10 and then wants to go eat at 11. We get back from lunch at 11:45 and then he goes back to the office at 2.

As you can deduce from the math, that's little time to actually get any work done. The two other guys and myself know what we need to do and we have a plan, but he refuses to just let us work. And it's driving me up a wall.

Additionally, he's started going behind me complaining about all the work I've done because "Oh this that and the other. Well that's not how I would have done it." Listen man, if you hired me to do a job, just let me work. If you're just gonna follow me and gripe, go do the work yourself and save us both the trouble.

Thanks for coming to my complaining session.

Well, if its good enough for government work

Become the boss and this is no longer a problem.

Unfortunately, it sounds like you are in the thunderdome. Two men enter and one man leaves. Nobody gets fired from government jobs, so one of you has to leave. Dude isn't going to change. That is who he is. Not saying you have to leave the government, but you should probably look for a position in a different department or something. Good luck. Don't let one ******* get you down.

Thanks for the advice everybody. I'm trying not to let it get me down. I graduated A&M in 2015 and caring about my job and work is just part of who we are. Sometimes it's annoying lol

Welcome to about half of your working life.

I probably had about 75 to 80% of my working history suck in one way or another.

Luckily, I'm in the 20 to 25% with my current job, which is why I've never going to quit the university.

How do the incompetent people keep getting into management roles? Sad to think it's gonna be half my working life like this.

TheDecadeSapling said:

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How do the incompetent people keep getting into management roles? Sad to think it's gonna be half my working life like this.

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No clue. Micromanagers suck. I'm trying to start my own side hustle (food trailer) so my wife can quit her job. Her manager is the the worst micromanager (I used to work at her company, so I know first hand).

In my experience, the bad managers were solid individual contributors at some point in their career. They performed at the task and someone incorrectly assumed that meant they were fit to oversee and lead other people.

At our company, front line production/sales managers are expected to keep doing a scaled back version of the job while also managing 5-7 people. It keeps your skills sharp and seems to fend off the temptation to delegate everything to reports and fall into complacency.

The worst micromanagers seem to be the most personally insecure and are the most fearful of others also having success.

MRB10 said:

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The worst micromanagers seem to be the most personally insecure and are the most fearful of others also having success.

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This tracks with my boss

MRB10 said:

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In my experience, the bad managers were solid individual contributors at some point in their career. They performed at the task and someone incorrectly assumed that meant they were fit to oversee and lead other people.

At our company, front line production/sales managers are expected to keep doing a scaled back version of the job while also managing 5-7 people. It keeps your skills sharp and seems to fend off the temptation to delegate everything to reports and fall into complacency.

The worst micromanagers seem to be the most personally insecure and are the most fearful of others also having success.

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In my wife's boss' case, her dad started the company, and she now runs it, so she likes everything done in certain ways. She "writes" procedures for every part of work, using "complex" verbiage only a weirdo could understand.