[mattmanser]

Daily standups, especially with 2-4 hour long "tasks you expect to get completed that day" is simply thinly disguised micro-management. It is the antithesis of all the advice on how to make people more productive and excellent at their jobs, which is to make them autonomous. Sounds like a nightmare environment.

[brucehart]

Some people work better with daily accountability and need help breaking up tasks so they don't get overwhelmed. I worked for a boss that managed this way and no one felt micromanaged. Having clear objectives and giving a 1-2 minute daily verbal update didn't seem like a "nightmare environment" at all.

We had some members on our team that were similar to those the poster is describing. For those the team lead was more explicit about setting tasks and for others he gave more autonomy. The daily standups were a chance to discover what's holding people back from making the progress needed to complete larger team goals on time. I was also skeptical of the process when I started the job, but it actually works very well.

[mrj]

I have always naturally thought about what I'm going to complete during a day over the commute to work. I'm convinced that successful people tend to do this. Standups are nothing more than formalizing this process for small teams, which is especially useful for members who may not already be planning their days' work in advance.

[sukilot]

The autonomy comes because he decs choose their own 2-4 hour tasks