Best way to deal with a Control Freak?
Discussion
Ok, this guy we work with (has been here the longest so is the most senior) .. how can i put this - he's a bit of a control freak and annoys everyone in his obsessive quest to fill in paperwork.
It's got to the point where i spend a great deal of time getting in the way of his anal procedures (especially filling in spreadsheets) partly out of frustration, but also because it gives me a great deal of pleasure watching him heat up like a kettle on a stove.
The poor guy sitting next to him wants to move to a different part of the company, and i suspect CF is one of the reasons why.
It's got to the point where i spend a great deal of time getting in the way of his anal procedures (especially filling in spreadsheets) partly out of frustration, but also because it gives me a great deal of pleasure watching him heat up like a kettle on a stove.
The poor guy sitting next to him wants to move to a different part of the company, and i suspect CF is one of the reasons why.
Can you not bodyslam him on to the floor.
Failing that, raise the issue with his manager that its causing delays in your work, with little benifit (assuming thats true, and the "paper work" is not of any benifit to your role)
Or, start looking for a new job before your "stressing him" leads to mass murder
Failing that, raise the issue with his manager that its causing delays in your work, with little benifit (assuming thats true, and the "paper work" is not of any benifit to your role)
Or, start looking for a new job before your "stressing him" leads to mass murder
KrazyIvan said:
Can you not bodyslam him on to the floor.
Whilst that might solve some 'inter-personal' issues I would like to be paid for any notice period. 
Okay, i will just continue to wind-him up till he flips - hopefully he'll land one on me in front of the whole office! Meeting in 10 minutes with him and the Boss - but might just be a coincidence!KrazyIvan said:
Since when does having "lots of paper work" = to being efficient. Sounds more like he spend more time covering his arse, then actually working*
* though we only have the op's side of it.
Yep, i have to say i'm by far the perfect employee - however i am solely concerned with getting the job done - not promotions, sucking up to management, or looking good in front of other people. I will be long gone to reap the rewards from any of this. CF likes everyone to work to his processes - it's demotivating for my colleagues, we end up sitting in meetings (like the 2hr one i have just been in) discussing b0llocks. The only person who gains from this is the CF, at the expense of the organisation moving forwards.* though we only have the op's side of it.
KrazyIvan said:
Since when does having "lots of paper work" = to being efficient. Sounds more like he spend more time covering his arse, then actually working*
You're absolutely right, I overlooked the fact that a lot of it could just be for the sake of looking busy and box ticking rather than it being done to ensure things are documented effectively.
When I was a hardware field engineer a few years ago, I had a boss that insisted we duplicate everything onto a secondary site management system. So every time a part came in, we used out proper networked UK-Wide management system, then had to copy all the details to a standalone PC with his software on it.
Doesn't sound like a lot, but on most parts you had to input the long serial number, asset number, description, revision number etc. Could take 3-4 mins per part, the 4-5 mins on the secondary system. Sometimes we received up to 40 or 50 parts a day.
Unfortunately nothing we said could convince him, he just kept telling us that it made us more efficient. Not sure how, as we, or the company never had a requirement to use this standalone system. We only solved it when the hard drive "mysteriously" crashed beyond repair, and the original software discs "mysteriously" went missing, and his boss told him to wind his neck in when he requested a PO for a replacement copy.
Unfortunately, some people are just anally retentive for the sake of it. If you don't have the power to remove the method, you may need to remove yourself.
Doesn't sound like a lot, but on most parts you had to input the long serial number, asset number, description, revision number etc. Could take 3-4 mins per part, the 4-5 mins on the secondary system. Sometimes we received up to 40 or 50 parts a day.
Unfortunately nothing we said could convince him, he just kept telling us that it made us more efficient. Not sure how, as we, or the company never had a requirement to use this standalone system. We only solved it when the hard drive "mysteriously" crashed beyond repair, and the original software discs "mysteriously" went missing, and his boss told him to wind his neck in when he requested a PO for a replacement copy.
Unfortunately, some people are just anally retentive for the sake of it. If you don't have the power to remove the method, you may need to remove yourself.
fido said:
Yep, i have to say i'm by far the perfect employee - however i am solely concerned with getting the job done - not promotions, sucking up to management, or looking good in front of other people. I will be long gone to reap the rewards from any of this. CF likes everyone to work to his processes - it's demotivating for my colleagues, we end up sitting in meetings (like the 2hr one i have just been in) discussing b0llocks. The only person who gains from this is the CF, at the expense of the organisation moving forwards.
Does he do the CF'ery to cover his arse though?I've had to go a bit CF at work, mainly because I've had s
t from above.Ie, suddenly something went wrong further up (bad mood day), so the fact info couldn't be found about project X in 5 seconds flat, means we don't store enough data about work etc.
In these times you can't argue that it's excessive to store too much data, and so you end up covering your arse more than necessary to cover these silly situations.
It never helps if you work in a business where people just don't 'get' what they are managing, or make any effort to really understand things.
Or is this person just a bit mental themselves, and management above them are pretty informed...!?
Process/order is good, but if there is no value in it for your own productivity, then it's wasteful if no one else is going to come running in once a month asking to see data about it from which to make rapid and important business directing decisions.
Dave
Update on this.
Obviously the relaxing weekend break did alot of good - not. I basically told CF in front of the director that i was getting a bit fed up of the constant micromanagement. I did request to go into a meeting room but the director basically put me on the spot - and then we had a meeting after my comments.
Not sure if anything will improve - because after explaining to him that i didn't like working in this environment and that it was demotivating on me and others, he then suggested (jokingly one hopes) that we should have a team motivation session each morning.
Obviously the relaxing weekend break did alot of good - not. I basically told CF in front of the director that i was getting a bit fed up of the constant micromanagement. I did request to go into a meeting room but the director basically put me on the spot - and then we had a meeting after my comments.
Not sure if anything will improve - because after explaining to him that i didn't like working in this environment and that it was demotivating on me and others, he then suggested (jokingly one hopes) that we should have a team motivation session each morning.
Mr Whippy said:
It never helps if you work in a business where people just don't 'get' what they are managing, or make any effort to really understand things.
..
Does he do the CF'ery to cover his arse though?
Yes, I reckon it's an insecurity complex. He seems to know what he is managing but only knows how to work in ONE way - and that is to break down problems into tiny little bits. Clearly, most 'professionals' like to work in their own way and not through someone elses annoying and tedious bit-wise methods (and their frikin' documents)...
Does he do the CF'ery to cover his arse though?
Edited by fido on Tuesday 26th April 17:39
Can you clearly offer an alernative way of working to the Director, e.g. we can do away with x y z and just do a and b paperwork? Or does your industry have some standard software suites that other companies use to handle the paperwork (practice management suites for legal/accountancy, ERP for manufacturing, call logging and CRM systems for service providers)?
Has the extra paperwork come in handy before now - can you be 100% sure it is a waste of time?
We used to scrimp on paperwork but we sell services (our time) and without each job being written up we were loosing money on billing. Also lack of paperwork when quoting your customers might leave you in the crap when the goalposts have changed, they do not want to pay and you can't prove who ordered what and when.
Has the extra paperwork come in handy before now - can you be 100% sure it is a waste of time?
We used to scrimp on paperwork but we sell services (our time) and without each job being written up we were loosing money on billing. Also lack of paperwork when quoting your customers might leave you in the crap when the goalposts have changed, they do not want to pay and you can't prove who ordered what and when.
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