Micro managing (Page 2)

Wow.  Really?  Seems pretty bold to me.  Quite honestly if any of my employees said anything even remotely like that to me then I would help them look for a new job in 2 minutes flat... by giving them all the time they need... uh bye, bye.

You do realize that part of your manager's job is to ensure that you get your work done properly and on time, right?

I was always taught that a manager's job was to ensure that their people had the resources they needed to work effectively, to listen, and to deflect BS from above. It was extremely rare that I'd have to check someone's work unless they asked.

... which begs the question -- how does the manager notice if you've "failed to provide your work on time and properly"?

There needs to be some verification in place -- either asking the customer on a periodic basis (as mentioned above), or a tracking log for activities, or the manager asking a question now and then (or keeping an eye on the email account for errata).  That's not "babysitting", that's not "constant supervision", that's accountability.

I do agree that asking "how is everything going, is there anything you want to discuss" is unlikely to be useful.  It might help unearth employees who are afraid to ask how to do a task -- but highly unlikely to unearth a shirker.

Absolutely all part of the job... but so is ensuring that the work is getting done properly and on time.  As a manager you don't want to find out that your staff is shirking their duties by having your manager come to you and say WTF why is this wrong (late, not done, whatever).  

I'm not saying babysit, I'm not saying micro manage, I'm not say doing their job for them,  I'm not saying going through every single TPS report with a fine tooth comb, I'm just saying checking up.  

Research, at least in industry, is a little different because you pretty much work in teams and people go through each others work as peer review. Plus you have group meetings and progress reports. Scientists are pretty self-motivated. I can only name one person in 21 years I had to talk to about getting work done. And in the end it wasn't me, it was HR who caught the brunt of that. Oh, and I caught the dud admin once when I changed organizations, but that was short-lived. You all know in big corporations that people don't get fired, they just get shuffled somewhere else, right?

The bottom line is that a manager is responsible for all work assigned to them. Managing their resouces and people is their responsibility. And how ever you want to label that, or to what degree of "micromanaging" you want to atach to it, does not change the fact that the buck stops with them for everything under them.

Ensuring their people are doing what is asked of them is called "doing their job", and is most certainly not micro managing. I am a pretty hands off manager. But just because I am not standing next to you holding your hand, or getting in your face over what you are doing, does not mean I am not dilligent about ensuring my direct reports are performing their duties in an acceptable timely manner. I can assure you I am. Some need more watching, one needs none. But I know that because I do my job and ensure they are doing theirs.