Micromangers

Having worked for a few I was planning to write up some notes, which I will. But I found this.. http://www.softpanorama.org/Social/Toxic_managers/Fighting_corporate_psychopaths/index.shtml which makes for intersting reading.

I think the hardest part of working for a micromanager is the systematic destruction of ones soul, ones core being.

One is not valued, does not know where one stands and is required to domean ones professional integrity complyping with ever changing illogical unrealistic demands to suppy increasingly meaningless and pointless updates at the cost of the real work whilst knowing that the project is completely outside their scope of comprehension. After all they do say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Escape is the only path to release and recovery.

Recently I have been reading Creativity Inc by Ed Cutmull (Pixar) in which an interesting point is raised that managers who lack the understanding of the creative process move to fear mode and want to see progress in some form of measurable results. Ed writes of the struggles to understand the managements of the creative process, and whilst centered around film making, many of the principles apply to abstract engineering, such as cutting edge electronics and software, the professional world I inhabit. Well worth the read.