Man Says Bosses Who 'Have To 'Micromanage' Employees Are Incompetent — 'It's Not Their Job To Be Authority Figures'
He says that if you have to breathe down an employee's neck, you're the problem — and experts say he's exactly right.
There are many ways managers can't be terrible to work for, but nothing quite takes the cake like bosses who micromanage. (I once had a boss who made us show him every email before we sent it—every. single. email.) Jobs are stressful and taxing enough without a boss breathing down your neck all the time.
Of course, most bosses who micromanage would say that it's employees' ineptitude that forces them to be that way. But one man isn't having it, and says it's the other way around.
A TikToker says bosses who micromanage do so because they are bad at their jobs.
TikToker @bbebard, known as Ginger Jack on the app, has had it with bosses who micromanage and had some pointed words for them. "If a manager has to breathe down your neck, they're a sh-tty manager, and they shouldn't be a manager," he said.
He says that if bosses feel they need to micromanage bad employees, it's their own fault for hiring them.
That's a hot take, but it's pretty difficult to argue with. After all, it's not us workers doing the hiring. They hire us, right? To illustrate his point, Ginger Jack used his own boss as an example. "My present manager at a job which I love is also the owner. He's crazy successful," he said. "Do you know what he spends most of his day doing? The exact same job as everybody else on the floor."
He went on to share his boss's "simple philosophy" on micromanaging. "If he has to micromanage someone, then this isn't the job for them," he said. Of course, there are exceptions to this—some employees just truly are bad workers.
Ginger Jack addressed this in his comments when a man pushed back on the notion, asking, "Is the manager still incompetent if everyone else doesn’t have to be micromanaged?" Ginger Jack agreed that in that case, the employee is definitely the problem.
Of course, there are also people who lie in interviews or misrepresent themselves. But ultimately, it's management who makes the hiring decisions, and micromanaging doesn't fix the problem of the wrong employee being in the wrong job—in which the manager placed them in the first place.
He says bosses thinking their job is to be 'an authority figure' is one of the biggest problems in the American workplace.
"The goal of any manager should be production," Ginger Jack said, again using his own boss as an example. "Outside of some necessary paperwork, the only managing this guy does is training or fielding questions and stuff like, 'oh, I've got to be out for a doctor's appointment.'"
But all too many managers think it's actually their job to bring the hammer down—where there are bosses who micromanage, there are usually also bosses on a power trip, of course. Ginger Jack says this is everything wrong with everything when it comes to work.
"I think one of the biggest problems in our country is managers who think that it's their job to be an authority figure," he said. "It's not. Your job is to keep production moving."
And he places the blame for these dynamics squarely on upper management favoring people with privilege and ambition over candidates who are actually right for the position they're being hired for. "If people at the corporate level would start hiring people who are good at the job rather than people who want to be a manager, this entire world would run a lot smoother," he said.
He closed his video with a blunt directive for managers everywhere. "If you're a manager who has to micromanage, your employee is not the incompetent one. You are."
His take on bosses who micromanage was controversial, but even HR experts say he's absolutely correct.
"The power-tripping, micro-managing managers are the worst," one woman wrote. "Let me do my job (well) in peace!" Another person wholeheartedly agreed, writing "Best managers I've had WORKED BESIDE US, not hovering around throwing out orders!"
One guy loved Ginger Jack's take so much he wanted to send it to every boss he's ever had. "How do I send this to my old managers without it being me sending it to them?" he joked.
But not everyone was on Ginger Jack's side. Even though he'd already addressed the exceptions to the rule, like genuinely incompetent employees, he still got pushback.
One user kind of proved Ginger Jack's point about bosses thinking they need to be "authority figures" when he sniped, "So in other words, you're not a manager and have a problem with authority."
But while Ginger Jack's take may be controversial, even experts agree that he's totally right. Galen Emanuele, a leadership coach who works with organizations seeking to improve their company culture, says in the video below that micromanaging is "a sign of incompetence" that stems from a lack of leadership skills.
He suggests instead that managers set "clear expectations" for employees and "give them what they need to be successful, and then stay out of their way." Here's hoping all the bosses who micromanage out there get the message.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.