figuring out what to do next - OCD and micromanagement

Savvy_Sue

As a former manager, I didn't much care about typos in emails, but I did care about typos in letters leaving the office. 

Once caught a letter where the Mr had been left off someone's name, so instead of starting "Dear Mr Fool", it said "Dear Fool". I think that matters. 

No, his surname wasn't actually Fool, but it was a name that you might use as an insult without the Mr in front of it. 

LinLui

With regard to going to HR, I'm with @elsien on this one. HR are there to protect the employers interests, not to provide an employee sounding board.  You don't like the way they work,  that's your problem - they are getting the job done, and it seems like they are doing it "well" as far as the employer is concerned. Don't get me wrong,  I know people like your manager,  and their style isn't one that I'd be comfortable with adopting or working for. But they aren't doing anything "wrong".

Think about this for one moment. From the employers perspective,  your complaint goes like this... "I've been in the job for six years,  I still make loads of little mistakes,  my new manager pulls me up over them and I don't like it. I expect to be allowed to make loads of little mistakes because my old manager let me,  so please can you do something about the new one because we don't like him?" 

If this is a style that you can't work with,  then you need to move on. Suggesting that you are too old to do so at 40, and there isn't anything much else that you can do makes me wonder if you have just got into a comfort zone that isn't at all good for you,  and maybe it would be good for you to look for new challenges. 

Stills14

I don't know where I gave the impression in my posts that I was making small mistakes all the time with my work/emails, I'm not!  Infact I can't remember the last time I made a typo that was pointed out. There is a difference between consistent errors and mistakes and the occasional typo, e.g. in this job I had a lady under me and her documents were always full of typos, formatting errors etc. to the point where it did get exhausting having to check it every time.  To put things in context, this guy recently got all the links mixed up and in the wrong place within a newsletter that I write up. I spotted it and pointed it out to him.  Now if I had done that, he would definitely make a big deal out of it. Infact, if we were to catalogue both our mistakes and typos, I wouldn't be surprised if he's made more than myself in the time he's been in his role.  

And my issues aren't just the above - it's also as I said earlier, the micromanagement, the constant fluctuating moods and emotions which can affect his decisions and attitudes day to day, not seeing the bigger picture, the obsession with his work which does have an impact on people around him, mostly the staff. 

In any case, I just have to focus even harder on finding a new role and moving on. 

TELLIT01

Stills14 said:

I don't know where I gave the impression in my posts that I was making small mistakes all the time with my work/emails, I'm not!  Infact I can't remember the last time I made a typo that was pointed out.

This, from the original post, may explain why people have that impression. 

 " I did have an issue with attention to detail because he said this numerous times in the first few months every time I made a very minor mistake. "

The issue being raided on numerous occasions does suggest that you took no notice of valid criticism from your manager.  

I have to admit that I didn't read the original post in full detail, but the areas highlighted by another reply does shine a somewhat different light on where at least part of the problem lays.

 

Ksw3

If they hold exit interviews HR may already know but from my experience HR will just watch the department fall further apart then have a difficult conversation with the person responsible

Undervalued

Stills14 said:

Thanks both for your thoughts.  I think going to HR is more just to have someone to talk to and who's job it is to actually listen to this kind of thing.  I guess perhaps I need someone else to understand where I'm coming from and someone else who has met him.  

As others have pointed out, that is not their job!

If you really have a serious complaint about somebody senior to you then it should be addressed to their boss. Even if your complaint is valid you still need to consider the likelihood of it leading to a satisfactory outcome from your point of view.

Obviously we are only hearing one side of the story. It may be that this individual has poor skills at dealing with staff but has great ability in other areas which the firm values highly? Another possibility is that they have genuine reservations about about some of your work, even if they are making a poor job of communicating the issues?

Nobody here can make a judgement about that.