To quit or not to quit? Working with a micromanager

To quit or not to quit? Working with a micromanager

By Graciela Matrajt

Peggy* had always received high marks on her performance evaluations. The students she has advised mention over and over that she has made a difference in their lives. She initiated a new multidisciplinary course and the educational institution where she worked estimates that her course alone doubled the number of students enrolling in the program for which she was the Director. All seemed to be good. Her professional career was advancing at a fast pace, she was successful, and she used all her talents and skills to help advance other people’s education. Why then was Peggy unhappy? Depressed? Stressed? Anxious? Overwhelmed? Why, after all this success, was Peggy considering resigning? Simply put, her new supervisor was a controlling and distrustful micromanager. “I felt constantly that my hands were tied, that my opinion was not relevant, and that I did not have the autonomy to make any decision,” notes Peggy. Her boss would not let Peggy do her job. Peggy’s decisions would be overruled at every step, in every meeting, and at every set goal. 

Peggy was a research scientist for over 15 years, specializing in the field of micropaleontology. She received her PhD in Canada and moved to Seattle to work at a research-oriented institution for three years. She switched careers and became a graduate student advisor and mentor for over seven years. She developed strategies to help students succeed and find a job locally; she developed a program where she introduced her students to local professionals through job shadows, company tours, and short-term internships. Peggy took the time to carefully match each of her students with the right professional. All the students she matched were offered an internship, summer job, or PhD project. Her program was very successful. 

Then Peggy was promoted and became the director of the graduate program of her biotechnology department. The department wanted her to emphasize multidisciplinary research and the application of laboratory techniques in the medical field. Because Peggy had been a research scientist in a multidisciplinary field and had collaborated with colleagues from a variety of fields and disciplines, she had many connections and a vast knowledge of what it entails to be multidisciplinary. 

In her new role, Peggy started connecting with her colleagues and students. She developed a new website, a new scholarship program, and a new internship portal to increase internship opportunities for her students. The student interest in the graduate program increased and so did student enrollment. The scholarship program enhanced program completion. “Students would come to my office and thank me for the scholarship program,” notes Peggy. Indeed, 75% of the students enrolled in the program were low-income, retrained workers, or first-generation college students. Many simultaneously work a job and support a family throughout their education. The scholarship program was vital to help them stay and succeed in the program. Peggy’s accomplishments led to the program being featured on the first page of the college website and presented at several career fairs.

“I felt I was doing a good job. We could see success on every step we were undertaking,” reflects Peggy. “I was learning my new role and I was feeling that, even though there is always a learning curve, mine was moving steadily forward,” shares Peggy with a smile.

And then things changed. Peggy’s direct supervisor, the department chair, moved to another institution. Her new boss, BB*, a former faculty member from the same department where Peggy worked, had a different view of success and of where the graduate program should focus. Moreover, BB had friends who had just lost their employment and hoped to join the department’s workforce and, more specifically, the program that Peggy directed. Some of these friends were ready to relocate and take on new or existing responsibilities, even if that implied laying off current members of the team.

Peggy soon learned that BB liked to control every step in every process. BB was quite busy with her Chair responsibilities but she felt obliged to intervene in every decision about the graduate program. At first, Peggy accepted the challenge: “I didn’t have much industry experience, so I thought I could use some help.” But little by little, BB started taking over Peggy’s role and deciding how the graduate program should be run and how she, as the director, should act. “I would be asked to sit on graduate courses so the students would notice me and talk to me in case they didn’t know who the new director was,” says Peggy. BB also took control of Peggy’s budget and used it to hire her friend as a contractor to perform a job that was the responsibility of a current team member. From Peggy’s perspective, it seemed as though BB wanted to hire her friend to do a job that was already another team member’s responsibility. “She expected the latter to get overwhelmed and quit so she could justify the hiring of her friend” explains Peggy, “which is what finally happened.”

BB also took control of Peggy’s professional travel. She was forced to register and attend a conference every two months and take her entire team along. “I found it outrageous! These were all very expensive and similar conferences, and we did not need to attend them all,” explains Peggy. “I was even told which sessions I should attend and which ones not, with whom to collaborate and with whom not.”

The travel and grant offices soon noticed the hiring of a contractor to perform a redundant role and the amount and frequency of travel. Peggy was asked to justify these. “It was embarrassing; this is public money that is hard to obtain. I wanted to use it in the scholarship program I had created, but my hands were tied,” comments Peggy, “because my opinion would not be taken into consideration and I would not be given any other choice.”

Peggy consulted a management coach assuming the cost would be covered as part of her expenses to improve in her new role. But BB would not stand for it “I was forced to report in writing what I had discussed with the coach,” notes Peggy. When Peggy argued that she felt her rights to confidentiality were being breached, BB refused to approve payment for the coach services “until I told her what I discussed with the coach.” The coach’s payment was delayed by two months. 

“I realized that I was no longer in control. I had lost control of my budget, the way I move around in a conference, the people I collaborate with, the focus of the program, my meetings, the choice of my team members.” Indeed, more than once Peggy met with her team and agreed on a task, only to find out later that BB had undone whatever was agreed upon. “It was all a waste of time,” says Peggy “Anything the team would decide to do would be canceled the next day.”

Peggy often had meetings with several people throughout the campus. She was trying to collaborate with other departments that would offer opportunities to her students or who would have developed a similar scholarship program and who could offer some advice. Although she was often away from her office, she would stay connected to students and faculty via email. People did not seem to have an issue finding her. “They would tell me when they needed to meet and we would find a time to get together in my office,” says Peggy “I would even accompany my students to their first interview when looking for an internship or a summer project,” explains Peggy, “because I knew that for some of them, meeting with a faculty or a professional from a company was intimidating.”

For BB, however, all of Peggy’s activities outside her office meant losing control. “If BB walked by my office and saw the door closed, she would assume I did not come to work that day and would not sign off on my time reporting chart; I had to justify where I was and with whom,” adds Peggy, “by writing the details of whom I met, when, for how long, and for what purpose, or else my pay would be delayed.” There was a lack of trust coupled with a strong feeling of being spied upon. 

For Peggy, it all became a barrier to her productivity. While in meetings, she was constantly stressed that her supervisor would be suspicious of her. When spending her budget, she worried about organizing events that would later be canceled. One time Peggy organized a small workshop for the students to meet with some local professionals. When it was time to pay for the catering, BB denied approval. “I had to cancel the room we had reserved, the catering services, and the speakers we had invited,” explains Peggy. “It was all so embarrassing.”

Peggy started having trouble sleeping. She was constantly waking up in the middle of the night full of anguish and anxiety. “It seemed that all I was doing was wrong. I did not know what else to do to satisfy my supervisor,” says Peggy. Her doctor told her that she had anxiety and was at risk of depression and that she needed to relax. But how can anyone relax with that constant feeling of being followed, controlled, and told what to do? She understood that she could not change BB’s behavior and that “my only option was to quit,” she explains.

Peggy knew that she had essentially two options. One was to fight back, perhaps with a lawsuit, since some of these practices were crossing a fine legal line. Peggy weighed that with this option she would spend all her energy and would still be anxious, stressed, and at risk of depression. Most importantly, she would not get her job back, at least not as she used to have it. The second option, the one she finally chose, would preserve her strength and sanity, which she would use to look for her next opportunity, and would give her a chance for a change and a fresh start.

Resigning was a difficult decision. She had worked hard for this promotion. After all her years of experience with students, after all the successes of the program, and the positive remarks she constantly received from students and colleagues alike, leaving this position was going to be hard. But in the long term, facing health problems such as depression, anxiety, and lack of sleep was going to be harder.

“I was lucky that my spouse supported my decision and that we could afford it financially,” notes Peggy. Indeed, not everybody can afford to quit a good job because of a difficult supervisor. But the reality of the academic world is that faculty members with tenure are immovable and the system is such that, despite a successful program and a body of students and colleagues embracing Peggy’s achievements, it was Peggy who ultimately had to leave. Even if that implied that the academic program would take a toll and suffer from that decision.

Peggy left after just a few months in her new position as director of the biotechnology graduate program and, for some time, she did not work in an academic environment. Now Peggy works at a local science museum developing a STEM program for students with special needs.  “I am happy to have left. I discovered a new set of skills that I can use to work in a place where science and students come together,” comments Peggy with a big smile on her face. “Quitting was the best decision and I don’t regret it a bit.”

There are more and more studies that show the main reason for stress, anxiety, and depression in the workplace is not the workload, but the supervisor. In many instances, bullying at the workplace comes from high-level supervisors and colleagues who have just been promoted. Unfortunately, most academic systems are not supportive of those who are subordinates and who are left with no other choice than to resign. 

Good luck in your new endeavors Peggy! Way to go!

* The names of people and places have been modified to protect the interviewee’s confidentiality.