Micromanaging boss set 'ridiculous' rule for coders but their perfect response turned the tables on him
'And as for me and my team? We made sure to celebrate our little victory with a well-deserved happy hour...'
When a micromanaging boss forced everyone to follow the 9-to-5 shift, the team obeyed, and everything quickly went downhill. An employee, who goes by u/thebigcahoona43 on Reddit, shared the story on May 14, 2024.
The employee was working at a mid-sized IT firm as a software developer and loved its work culture. They said the company focused on results rather than the hours they were working. "Our projects were delivered on time; our clients were happy, and our team morale was high," the employee said. However, things changed when a new project manager, Dave, took charge. He was from a "highly regimented" corporate background and loved micromanaging everything. "He'd schedule unnecessary daily status meetings, demand we fill out hourly work logs, and insist that everyone strictly adhere to 9-to-5 office hours with minimal breaks," they said. The situation further escalated when Dave sent out an email, instructing all coders that they must do all the coding within the office hours to ensure supervision. "If you think you can find a loophole, think again. Follow the rules, or we'll find someone who will," the email read. The team could predict the consequences of this ridiculous rule and so decided to follow it religiously.
"I coded strictly between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM, not a minute earlier, not a second later. If I encountered a bug or was in the middle of a complex piece of code? Too bad. 5 PM means the end, no matter what. My teammates, fed up with being treated like schoolchildren, followed my lead," they said. Within no time, everything went downhill; projects that could be completed in a few weeks took longer, directly affecting the overall productivity. "Dave noticed, of course. He had to answer to upper management for the 'sudden drop in productivity and lack of commitment,' which he knew was a result of our dissatisfaction with his new policy," the employee explained. Consequently, the upper management called for a Zoom meeting at 4:30 PM, but to comply with Dave's 9-5 shift rule, everyone logged out of the meeting exactly at 5 PM. Management realized how Dave's policy was impractical and needed changes immediately. "And as for me and my team? We made sure to celebrate our little victory with a well-deserved happy hour... after 5 PM, of course," the individual concluded.
Working under a micromanaging boss obviously frustrates the employees, and that, of course, leads to a substantial decline in productivity. In fact, a survey by staffing agency Accountemps found statistics that strongly support the notion. They revealed that 59% of employees have experienced working under a micromanager. Among them, 68% noticed a decline in morale, and 55% said their productivity dropped.
Meanwhile, reacting to the Reddit story, u/ok_entertainment4959 commented, "There should be a new rule for all new managers or supervisors: Don't try to fix what's not broken until you've thoroughly understood the current workflow or procedures."
u/an1ma119 wrote, "The guy was doing everything he could to justify his own existence. Project managers tend to not have any technical skills and are middlemen at best. Everything was to make sure he had a reason to exist in the corporate sense. In my experience, it helps if your supervisor is someone who has the same background because they know the job, unlike Dave, who is a simple paper pusher. My current one is, and that’s why people are happy because he prevents bulls**t and just lets us do our jobs while understanding the minutiae of the work. Good for you for sticking together and standing up for yourselves. I hate micromanaging pricks like that."
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