The First Sign You Should Quit Your Job Before They Fire You
How to keep your mental health grateful
Micromanagement.
If it gets to this point, you should look for another job.
On my day off—around 3 p.m. on a Friday—I received a text from my manager: “I’m sorry to tell you this over text. You’ll be shadowed by two of your coworkers. It will start next week on Monday.” When I came into work, there it was, my name was on the board right under the person who would watch over me. Someone wanted everyone else to know this was happening, too.
The person monitoring me hovered over my every move and looked at everything I did; any mistakes she saw me make were glaring and transparent compared to how she would do them. She would say something, she wouldn’t give me time to answer and answer the question herself. I felt weak. Others make these same mistakes, but the word would spread: I wasn’t doing well and it was too late to change anyone’s mind.
My upline was looking for the easiest way to let me go so they could move on. I thought it would be best if I moved first otherwise they would pad my files with reasons to terminate me. There was little counseling to find the right direction.
I resigned.
Management said they wanted what was best for me as I was guided out the door without a safety net. Maybe I gave up too easily, but the environment was overtly toxic.
Monica van de Ridder, a Specialist in Learning and Development at Corewell Health, provides insight on this in an article from The Journal of Graduate Medical Education:
“Personal insecurities are influenced by lack of trust leading to micromanagement. Micromanagement is defined as the ability “to manage with excessive control or attention to details.” Micromanagers often waver to trust the competence of trainees whom they supervise. Frequently they are not satisfied with their team's performance and prefer close monitoring with “controlled delegation,” and they are known for creating unnecessary urgency. Micromanagers often hide personal insecurities behind the rationalization of their behaviors.”
“Unnecessary urgency.” I felt that.
“The micro-supervision restricts a trainee's autonomy and competence and harms the trainee-supervisor relationship and therefore affects a learner's motivation. This destabilizes psychological, emotional, and cognitive safety and creates a harsh and unsupportive learning environment.”1
Micromanagement is the first sign of something gone wrong. Sometimes it is out of your control. No matter how you try to improve, they will not see it.
It undermines, demotivates, and creates self-doubt in the abilities you know you possess. They may feel they are providing guidance, but there are more humane and effective ways to be a leader.
The psychological effects of micromanagement—the insecurity, criticism, and the belief that you are subpar to everyone else—will take a toll on your mental health.
You deserve better.
No one warrants that kind of cognitive damage. If it's bad it’s time to get out while you can; find another job and take a mental pause. Get your breathing space.
It's much easier to explain to a new company, “I took a career break,” rather than, “I was terminated because my boss had lost faith in me.”
Every day begins when you can look forward and are willing to move on.
Move on.
To support my content:
J. M. Monica van de Ridder, “Micromanagement Creates a Nonconducive Learning Environment for a Teaching Team,” Journal of Graduate Medical Education (October 2020): 639-640, https://doi.org/10.4300%2FJGME-D-20-00926.1