Pain-In-The-Arse Boss & Her Micro-management

ChipZilla

Hi. Any suggestions on how to deal with my psycho bitch of a boss who seems to have suddenly flipped? In the last few weeks the levels of micro-management have become unbearable for everyone under my boss, not just me. Dunno why though, maybe personal problems or a chemical imbalance in her brain or something?

Problem is, everyone else seems to passively accept having someone breathing down their necks for 7.5 hours a days, whereas I've noticed myself subconsiously going out of my way to stand up to her whenever possible, which makes me stand out like a sore thumb. And before you say "Oh you just have a bad attitude", I've worked for this company for the last four years, and her for the last three years. Things used to be chilled, the work got done, we were happy, she was happy, her bosses were happy. But recently there seems to be an aura of tension in the air which others notice too.

She is determined to inflict her will onto people at every opportunity. It's actually at the stage where she will butt into a non-work-related conversation to give her tuppence worth, or remind you every two minutes of some trivial thing which needs to be done IMMEDIATELY (like printing out and filing a timesheet which has already been done in SAP :rolleyes: ). The biggest pain in the arse for me though is that she's been bad-mouthing me to one of her bosses (who I actually get on with), telling them she's had complaints about me.

When she had her little chat with me to tell me of the "complaints", she had no evidence of any kind, butting in every time I tried to say something. So I can't get a word in edgeways and roll my eyes - she then goes off on another one, telling me that me rolling my eyes at her is typical of my "attitude" and ending the conversation with something along the lines of "You better get your act together or....". Now my performance hasn't changed recently and I get on very well with the people I deal with in the course of my job, so I know the accusation is bollocks. Looks to me like she's trying to browbeat me into "getting with the program" like the rest of her minions (very nice people really - I get on great with all my co-workers). Now I don't really give a sh1t about the long term effects of her power trip, as I've been planning on getting out of here for something which pays a bit better for a couple of months now anyway - the new year is my deadline.

I suppose the question is what can I do to make life "interesting" for her in the mean-time? As far as I'm concerned, she's lost the plot and any respect I might have had for her. The only thing is I don't want to leave on bad terms with her boss, as this is the guy I'm going to be looking for a reference off, not her. Or do I have a bad attitude and am just over-reacting?

loz_the_boz

i'd take a greivance up with her boss - explain what is happening - sounds like a bit of bullying.

Beruthiel

well it could be one of two things
she could be having personal problems or health problems which are on her mind
or
perhaps she has been put under pressure by her boss, would that be possible?
is it possible to ask her
"is everything ok? how come you are being like this when I've been doing the job perfectly well for 4 years now?"
perhaps this comment will make her take note,
what you are doing now will only wind her up further as she is your boss and can't be seen as backing down
do you have a HR you can go to with your complaint?

leeroybrown

The next time she has a go at you ask why she has suddenly started taking issue with you and your work. You may already have done this. If she can't come up with a reasonably explanation then you can go to your HR Dept or a more senior member of management and complain. Management can't let her harass you.

koneko

Yeah there might be more workloads or pressure from above so she's reacting to that, but I'd have a talk with her boss.

Make sure to not make accusations or come across as angry or hostile ("she's such a cow!"), just concerned and all that she's behaving like this and you haven't changed your working methods or attitude, and that your work is suffering because of the negative attitude.

Sounds like she's being unreasonable in any case.

ChipZilla

Thanks for the replies folks. I've made my feelings known to her boss, who said he'd look into the whole thing, but I won't hold my breath. I told him to look back through my old jobs to find the complaint (which are all logged) but was told they don't have the time or money to do this. The most f**ked up thing of all is that when her boss is in the office she's all sweetness and light.

It does smack of bullying alright (or should that be attempted bullying...). She seems to be more frustrated with me by the day. Her behaviour must not have been getting the reaction she hoped for, so the last resort appears to be trying to get me in sh1t with her boss.

leeroybrown: I did plan to ask her where these complaints had come from when she had her first little meeting, and why my work had taken this imaginary downturn, but she refused to let me get a word in. I didn't bother pursuing it with her as she was incapable of holding a level-headed, civil conversation.

Beruthiel/koneko: she definitely not under an increased workload. She makes work for herself to look busy (like the above mentioned timesheet thing). Another favourite of her's is to spend half the day on the phone yapping to her mates upstairs about Coronation street or the price of nappies, then heaving big sighs in the evening when everyone's going home, and saying how she's got loads to do/how she's going to be at her desk for a few more hours/etc. Who knows? Maybe she's got problems at home, but that's not my problem. You don't bring that to work with you, or at least I wouldn't. Maybe she's a control freak and she's pissed off 'cos I'm the only person she can't control the way she wants.

I'll wait and see how things turn out with her boss. If there's no joy there I'll just have to make a complaint to the HR dept and see what happens. It's going to be passive-aggressive work-to-rule for me in the mean-time... or maybe I'll just leave a big bag of dogsh1t in her desk when I leave. Thankfully I'm not in despair or stressed or anything, as my contract renewal is at the end of the year and I'd already planned make a move before this started. I'm more interested in the reference than anything and don't want her poisoning her boss's ear with works of fiction.

pebble

ChipZilla wrote:

Beruthiel/koneko: she definitely not under an increased workload. She makes work for herself to look busy :

No Offence, but I really don't think you are in any position to say that with any conviction.
Unless you are monitoring your manager on a 24/7 basis, then you don't know. And if you are doing that, you are not doing your own work

But seriously, I think most people get defensive when someone tells them that their proformance isn't up to standard. Sure, you come out with the 'but we always did it this way' type answer, but at the same time, what if your proformance was always poor, just not mentioned?
Or what if the standards of before are no longer good enough. Companies change, and people have the hardest time of all when things change.

I'm not saying that any of this applies to you, its just my own observation.
Personally, I don't see why you dont just keep your head down and get on with doing your job to the best of your ability. After all, you have said yourself that you go out of your way to be confrontatinal...

Johnny Versace

I think it's called "Irish Woman".

Yes, maybe her bitchiness was delayed for 3 and a bit years, but it hits them all at some stage.

Short girl with dyed blonde hair by any chance?

PS to anyone who says I am generalising or not being helpful, I am afraid there is little use trying to understand the average Irish bitch. You just have to accept it's just the way it is

RicardoSmith

Johnny Versace wrote:

.....Short girl with dyed blonde hair by any chance?

PS to anyone who says I am generalising or not being helpful, I am afraid there is little use trying to understand the average Irish bitch. You just have to accept it's just the way it is

Funny I had the exact same experience with a girl of similar build. We must PM and see if the same person. That said I've had the same experience of about 70% of female managers. One girl spent 5 hours on the phone talking through a problem with some in an office 5 mins walk away. Another had me make trival modifications to everything. For no good reason. I used to test her by giving her back stuff she'd already corrected and she recorrect it again and again, never noticing it was stuff she had written herself. I could moan for hours about these kinda people, but I'd get depressed. Some are vindictive, anal retentive and petty. But most are just clueless.

I could give you loads of tactics to deal with it. But in truth I don't know how to deal with these people. Generally I juIst grit the teeth and get on with it. But at the first opportunity I move away from that person to another dept or job. You won't change these people so its futile to try.

ChipZilla

pebble wrote:

No Offence, but I really don't think you are in any position to say that with any conviction.
Unless you are monitoring your manager on a 24/7 basis, then you don't know. And if you are doing that, you are not doing your own work

No offence taken Pebble. But like I said (and I wasn't exaggerating) she spends a substantial amount of time during the day yapping about non-work-related stuff on the phone, which is hard for not to hear as I sit about 15 feet away from her.

pebble wrote:

But seriously, I think most people get defensive when someone tells them that their proformance isn't up to standard. Sure, you come out with the 'but we always did it this way' type answer, but at the same time, what if your proformance was always poor, just not mentioned?
Or what if the standards of before are no longer good enough. Companies change, and people have the hardest time of all when things change.

Believe me, with the person in question, I would have known long before now if I had been slacking before recent events. And if the standards I work to had been changed and more was expected of us, I would expect someone in authority to communicate that to the workers.

pebble wrote:

I'm not saying that any of this applies to you, its just my own observation. Personally, I don't see why you dont just keep your head down and get on with doing your job to the best of your ability. After all, you have said yourself that you go out of your way to be confrontatinal...

Cool, but I suppose some people don't respond to having the same "carrot" dangled in front of them as others. What works on one person will not work on another. C'est la vie.

Johnny Versace wrote:

Short girl with dyed blonde hair by any chance?

Strange you should mention it.

RicardoSmith wrote:

I could moan for hours about these kinda people, but I'd get depressed. Some are vindictive, anal retentive and petty. But most are just clueless.

I know what you mean. I suppose I can console myself that she'll still be in that sh1tty job long after I leave...