3 Ways Micromanagement Ruins Productivity
Evaluating How Micromanagement Kills Productivity
Micromanagement is over-supervision of workers, limiting their involvement in task management and decision-making.
I know most people who have worked in corporations or anywhere really have encountered micromanagement at some point. Micromanagers are the worst control freaks alive; I would know I have struggled with control myself.
I haven’t 100% mastered letting go and trusting other people with tasks, but I’m better than I was a year ago. My issue is the need to accomplish activities a certain way for utter satisfaction, and some of my friends think I have OCD.
Last year, when my baby sister was over at mine, she observed how I maneuvered and told me I (mommy) people: a polite phrase for micromanaging what she explained I was doing.
The need to have things in a specific way pushes me to crave control, but I’m trying to diversify my satisfaction scope.
Last year, I worked a corporate job as a merchandiser under an extreme micromanager, and it was exhausting. The limited entrusting of decisions and tasks and excessive supervision were draining and demotivating.
Having an authority figure breathing down your neck every two minutes is a major mood killer. People in leadership roles undermine the significance of freedom and entrusting employees, and in doing so, they kill productivity.
Let’s look at three potent ways in which micromanagement destroys productivity:
Demotivation
When an employer is constantly on your case about unnecessary reports and extreme verbal intimidation and humiliation, one is bound to lose interest and zeal. It kills the morale to enjoy the work, fosters disengagement, and encourages the accumulation of avoidable mistakes.
Demotivated employees work on autopilot and care little for improvements or innovations that propel and heighten productivity. They produce faulty results and shun addressing unsolved problems, hindering productivity.
Trust Breakdown
Micromanagement breaks the trust between management and employees and alters employees’ respect for the employer. It creates tension, which affects the ease of the flow of activities.
It creates a hostile environment, is unconducive to productivity, and promotes inactivity among the workers. The employees begin to see the employer as a nuisance and a cruel authoritarian dedicated to making their lives miserable.
Once employees feel exploited and undervalued, they ignore productivity and try to make the employer’s life miserable, too.
Wastes Time
Micromanagement kills lots of time, especially with unnecessary reports and supervision. It steals chances for innovation and creativity that could have augmented productivity.
It keeps the employees busy avoiding and escaping from management rather than being productive, which declines productivity. Employees spend their day hiding from authority instead of getting their work done, which kills seamless work flow and productivity.
Nobody wants constant supervision, let alone verbal bullying and humiliation. Micromanagement demotivates, kills time, breaks much-needed trust between employees and employers, and derails productivity.
Any successful venture relies on productivity for prolonged and long-term success, and micromanaging your employees and staff will only lead to a hostile environment that hinders and ruins productivity.
