Why do Managers and CTOs try to micro manage programmers these days?

[pyeri]

One of the first things I ask during interviews is Are you going to micro manage how I work?

It’s me who will decide which programming language to use, what technology and framework to use, which IDE to use or just code in plain notepad.exe. You just state your requirements and tell me what features you want.

Trust me, the non-technical end user or client is actually happy with that kind of coder’s approach! It’s only the over smart CTOs, project managers, team leaders, code reviewers, etc. who think of coding only as menial job to be shoved to programmers or LLMs, are never ready to touch the code themselves but still want to micro manage how we do it! Especially Indian or South Asian techies who live in a highly command-control environment will relate to what I’m saying.

[Reverend Jim]

I hate it when a boss micro manages the team, but letting each team member pick their own language, IDE, etc. is just insanity. The boss should be concerned about having the entire team use the same language and tools, and has to consider how the project will be maintained down the road. However, the team should have input as to the language and tools during the planning phase, making arguments to support individual positions.

In my case, I stuck with tools that were common, free (always a plus) and readily available at the time, and likely for quite some time into the future. Those tools were vb.net, vbscript, Visual Studio, and Notepad. Most of my infrastructure code was written in vbscript and required only a simple text editor which was an important consideration when the on-call person had to make a quick change at 3:00 in the morning.

There was one group in IT that had a rogue programmer who was pretty much left to his own devices. He wrote mostly in PL/I using a custom library of macros that he wrote himself. It was not documented, and when he eventually left nobody could figure out anything he had written.

[Dani]

I think it depends on if you're working on a team or as a hired solo consultant for a project. However, I do agree that even as a solo programmer, the client should decide what language to use. For example, suppose I want a small website created. It should be entirely my decision if that website is created in PHP or .NET because it will be up to me to maintain that website, and hosting costs may differ between a proprietary language and an open source language.

[SCBWV]

However, I do agree that even as a solo programmer, the client should decide what language to use.... It should be entirely my decision if that website is created in PHP or .NET

It's late on the East... am I reading that right? The client should decide the language, then you say it should be entirely your decision?

[trcooke]

What you have described isn't what I would call micromanagement. The choice of language and build tooling are what I'd consider "architecturally significant" decisions which have likely already been made by the team you are joining, so for your part you fall in with the convention already set by the team. That's not micromanagement, that's just how teams work.

Where I do agree with you is the choice of IDE. That should be your own choice since it has no effect on the output, i.e. the code. If you work best with emacs then go for it, I'll stick with IntelliJ.

Micromanagement is a symptom of the desire to have absolute control, which is a symptom of a lack of trust. I have worked under such managers and it's not very nice at all. Frustratingly, in my experience micromanagers don't know that they're micromanaging so are not very receptive to being told that they are micromanaging. That particular conversation got real unpleasant real fast.

[Reverend Jim]

Part of the problem is when companies bring in managers who do not understand what they are managing. In my case, my group was called Process Control, and was comprised of people who specialized in real-time processing applications. Our last manager (from around 1994-2008) was an electrical engineer whose last assignment was as commissioning engineer for the upgrades at a large converter station (HVDV transmission terminal). The only expertise he had with code (very little) was as a hobbyist.

As an example, he wanted me to do my job by setting up procedures that did not use the command line because he was not comfortable with a shell interface. Anyone who has tried to diagnose network problems knows how valuable tools like ipconfig, tracert, etc are.

[trcooke]

There are a class of managers who just love management and thus tend to inflict management upon those around them. There's an irony that the kinds of people who want to be a managers are often those who are the least effective at it. I hold similar opinions about politicians.

[Reverend Jim]

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