I'm thinking the snarky responses worked because we went from 5 emails to 0 in just one day. Ima just do that if this arises again.
FWIW, I would act differently if I were pursuing a lengthy career here.
Would you react differently if your boss were a man?
What are your relative ages? Would you react differently if your boss was significantly older (i.e. maybe more experienced) than you?
I don't know, I've never had a male micromanager boss before. At my previous employer I had 9 different bosses in 9 years, 2 of them female, and I got along with one great and the other not so great, but at least she wasn't a micromanager, we just didn't agree on the direction of the department. Of the 7 male bosses I really liked most of them. One I hated for legitimate reasons. One I ended up not liking because he was a failure as a manager, but like I'd have beers with him or whatever, no hard feelings or anything. Good guy otherwise.
She's older than me, not sure of her age, maybe like 50 (I'm 34). She has worked her way up from like the blue collar side of the business, and I can respect that. This is the first time she's managed folks with a college degree.
I am in management (one boss above me in the organization), and have just over 70 staff directly under my supervision. I do not micromanage, as I trust my folks to do what they are hired to do. And I manage the reviews honestly and directly. On a day-to-day basis I am clear in my expectations, and conference with those who are not meeting them.
However, I don't want to go to any meetings where I will be surprised by the folks under my supervision. I expect communication prior to meetings, particularly if I sent out the agenda in advance. I have staff much older than I and some who were not born when I started by career. I don't think it is unreasonable to communicate both directions; my staff knows they may be honest with me about their assessments of my decisions. They also know that as management, the decision becomes mine after getting whatever input is shared. From the outside I may appear to be hard to work for, but I believe that most of my staff is confident that my decisions are always based on what is best for the organization and the folks we impact.
