The Effects of Micromanagement on Employees’ Mental Health
Micromanagement is a common leadership style whereby a manager closely observes and controls the work of employees.
There are 3 major affects caused by micromanagement that are brought upon employees :
STRESS
Harvard Medical School instructor Jonathan D. Quick co-authored a book titled Preventive Stress Management in Organizations. In it, he says that, “the leadership qualities of ‘bad’ bosses over time exert a heavy toll on employees’ health.” He highlights research showing that a micromanaging boss can lead to a variety of health issues, including chronic stress.
Indeed, if you’ve ever worked for a boss who’s always hovering over you, monitoring your progress, obsessing over minor details, providing you with detailed instructions, and having a talk with you about every mistake you make, you will know that this can really get on your nerves.
Moreover, the stress that this causes can, unfortunately, seep into your personal life. If your manager is giving you a hard time at work, this may make you give your friends, family, and partner a hard time as well. Stress often brings out the worst in us, which can put our most important, personal relationships under strain.
LOW
SELF-ESTEEM
If you’re always being monitored, ordered around, and criticised in your work, this can end up lowering your self-esteem. You may feel that your manager doesn’t trust you enough, or believe in your abilities enough, in order for you to get on with the task at hand. Their overbearing leadership style can make you feel powerless and infantilised, like a machine taking orders, unable to use your own resources, knowledge, and initiative to figure things out.
Many micromanaging bosses enjoy being very controlling. As is often the case, these controlling tendencies come from a place of insecurity. In order to make them feel better about themselves, micromanaging bosses may put their employees down and treat them disrespectfully.
DEPRESSION
In his book, Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions, author Johann Hari points to the research of Professor Michael Marmot who found that if you go into work and feel you’re controlled without many choices, then you’re much more likely to become depressed (as well as suffer a heart attack). In an interview about the book, Hari said, “Giving people back control over their workplaces is one of the most effective ways to reduce depression.”
If we don’t feel that we have the freedom to make our own decisions to achieve results, then work becomes a lot more meaningless and without purpose. As humans, we intrinsically thirst for meaning and purpose in our work in order to feel valued and fulfilled.
The micromanaging boss may exert excessive control over their employees if they genuinely believe that this is the most effective way to get work done and achieve results. Or perhaps they’ve noticed their supervisor manages in this way and, trusting their authority, presumes this is the best leadership style. But as we can see, micromanagement is not only ineffective; it can also put employees’ mental health at risk. The research into this phenomenon underscores why it’s time for modern work culture to place a much higher value on the autonomy of employees.
A
serious Occupational Health & Safety and Mental Health issue
A large percentage of employees suffer from mental health issues caused my toxic work environment and micromanagement. Whether we like it or not, it is true and often people deal with such issues on a daily basis and suffer in silence. Even though we are focussed on creating awareness about mental health in general, we can't ignore the fact that micromanagement and toxic work environments can increase the risk of clinical depression. Toxic environment not only can cause depression but high blood pressure, chronic stress and other health problems.
Research shows that micromanagement style is often showcased by insecure, inexperienced, low EQ and big ego, psychopath or narcissist bosses/managers. (Dailymail 2017) Apart from the horrid effect micromanagement can have on the employees mental health, it also causes demotivation and leads to lower job satisfaction for employees. The companies with bad leadership and management face major issues with employee retention.
Lack of trust and autonomy with lack of respect have been rated as the biggest reason for employee's level of stress and demotivation. Simon Sinek says ''we don't quit companies, we quit bosses'', which is true and well said. One great point mentioned by him, is that employees need to feel empowered in their roles to be happy. (Sinek 2014)
For employees, it is important to first spot a micromanager and understand why and what is causing them stress. Certain behaviour such as being disrespected by their bosses or being spoken harshly to, or being judged and questioned at all times, can be some of the triggers for stress and mental imbalance. Here's an interesting article that can help employees recognise the traits of a micromanager: https://www.leadershipthoughts.com/10-signs-of-micromanagement/
Spotting a micromanager isn't enough. Taking care of your mental health on a daily basis and finding diversions is really important. Micromanagement often crushes spirits and ambitions which can really lead to depression and discouragement. Hence, it's even more important to keep a check on your mental health when dealing with toxic work culture.
While speaking to the counsellors or human resources can help and provide guidance. Here is a very well written article published in Harvard Business Review that provides some interesting ideas on how to stop your boss from micromanaging you: https://hbr.org/2017/03/how-to-tell-your-boss-to-stop-doing-your-job?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=mtod&referral=00203
While some companies have established coaching and counselling for managers and employees, we are still far from this being adapted across companies and countries. But, we all need to stand for ourselves to make the world a better place.
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