Why do bosses micromanage?

[Anonymous]

Even when you’ve worked here long time or a seasonal job where you’ve worked before and are known has a hard worker

[Cynicaldreamer]

Ugh, I had a manager like that- most of us have unfortunately.
I find managers or bosses like that micromanage as a way of "checking in on you" or making sure you're doing your job.

The irony is, they usually micromanage the wrong people!!! Instead of watching the slackers or lazy workers, they seem like they bully the ones that are working.

As I said above, I had a manager like that- I was in that department for years and knew how to do my job and did it well. But once she got there, she would constantly check on me, shadow me, make me second guess my work...
The same work no one else had a problem with before she got there.

Long story short, I got sick of being bullied and harassed and found a boss that did appreciate me. I'm not saying you should do the same; that's your choice. But to answer your question- they're incompetent.

[jennifer_bloom]

Yeah, I had a boss who got fired shortly after I started working who was annoying and weird, like I was new and she would not take the time to guide me so I had to guide myself and later had to cut corners to get my job done faster and she blamed me for not following her instructions perfectly when I would have been 20-40% slower if I had done my job her way and not my way and it was her fault I had to break the rules to make sales because she refused to train me and I wasted 2.5 hours trying to train myself and that cut into my delivery time

[bean2k21]

micromanaging is a term made up by employees that carries no meaning whatsoever, except that the employee feels overly managed. from a business perspective, a manager is someone who owns the responsibility for the business making a profit, and from that perspective there is no such thing as over-managing a business because it takes continuous attention. most managers know that employees are just there to make enough money to pay their bills, do their shift, clock out and don't care about much about the business beyond that. the manager is simply doing his job to ensure that business objectives are met.

[AviatorTom]

Not all bosses do. I've had several bosses in my career, some micromanage me. Most, though, just make sure I have things to do and are available to help if I need them. Those are the best bosses to have.

[Ms_Vanderquack]

Three reasons I can think of. All three are reasons they shouldn’t be in the position they are in.

They don’t know how to delegate.
They don’t trust people.
They don’t know how to properly train people.