[throwaway_pdp09]

I'm no manager but I'd guess some of the most basic rules of management will say "don't do this". Yet some managers do it, like they can't see the damage it's doing to trust and morale, and that it will simply not (unless under special circumstances) bring any higher quality or other value. Yet still it happens. It's so strange.

[HumblyTossed]

Insecurity. "I'm the manager, therefore you WILL do as I say!". These people can boss people around, but they don't know how to manage.

[toomuchtodo]

Good management can’t be taught, it can only be learned through experience. Hence why MBAs used to require work experience or the concept of non commissioned officers in the military. You must experience the suck to learn how not to suck.

With that said, you have to still make an effort to filter out people with no empathy or low emotional IQ from management roles. Having authority over another human being is serious business.

[wnevets]

>With that said, you have to still make an effort to filter out people with no empathy or low emotional IQ from management roles. Having authority over another human being is serious business.

yeah but their resume, they went to "insert super important college here"!

[ashtonkem]

Micromanaging people is a lot of work, and it prevents both the IC and the manager from doing important tasks. Micromanagement either comes from managers not trusting their reports (this can have several causes), or from the manager feeling insecure and finding ways to project control or power over their charges.

[thehappypm]

The exact opposite of good leadership, that is, leading through influence.

[omginternets]

Or perhaps (also) toxic pressure from above?

[throwaway_pdp09]

IME a good manager is an umbrella against the shit raining down from higher. I suppose they're not good so... yep. They folded.

[arethuza]

"There are three kinds of managers: the shit umbrella, the shit funnel and the shit fan."

[ashtonkem]

It’s also extremely rare to find an organization with middle managers that don’t reflect the culture of the organization as a whole. If the middle management is toxic and/or incompetent, it’s a good bet that all layers of management are similar.

[PedroBatista]

Most of these "managers" are just farmhands like the workers. They are there to be the point of contact with the rest of the cattle, do the dirty work of enforcing whatever they were told and to accomplish that they resort to what they "know", which is micro-managing and fear.

The less popular part of this whole thing is that the "quality" of the workers at this particular plant is less than "optimal" let's just leave it at that, and that issue is general knowledge since the beginning.

[numpad0]

Human education hasn't reached to the level that people understand pain and productivity has zero or negative correlations.