I used to be director of a department in a company with like 6000 employees. About 800 of our employees were in the head office with the rest being at our retail locations around Asia. My direct boss was the chairman of the company. He was the epitome of a micromanager. Nothing could ever get done without his approval. Nothing at all. I don't even know why he had directors and managers and teams under him, because every department was his. Every day he would go around the head office and lead meetings and do training and be hands on with every project no matter how big or small. It sounds good maybe, to have a leader so involved, but it just means everyone sits around waiting for him everyday because no one else in the company has any authority whatsoever. We had no agency to get things done. He would delegate tasks to my department, I'd relay it on to my staff, divvy up teams, set targets, etc... but none of it mattered because he'd come down and change everything anyway. So my purpose was just As a figurehead I guess. That's how it was with every department, it wasn't cuz I was useless, it was because he didn't trust anyone and thought only his ideas and ways were the correct ones. Even if he told me step by step exactly what he wanted done and how to do it, I'd take it to my team and get started, then, he'd come and tell us all the exact same thing and waste hours of our day just so we could hear him talk. He loved the sound of his own voice. Because of this we all constantly worked overtime because nothing was ever started til he said so and nothing was ever done til he said so as well. So glad I'm gone from that company.
