They often see your speculativeness as indecisiveness, your questioning of ideas as a need for guidance, and suddenly feel an urge to take charge, start commanding, and effectively override you completely as a person.

What do I do with these kinds of clients? I FIRE THEM. Their money will ever be good enough, and it is nearly certain that the situation is going to end very baddy, while the quality of the work will have never excelled.

This explains it perfectly:
Wikipedia – Micromanagement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromanagement

Its nice to see how other have dealt with it. For me, I just sat through it and finally ended up with a much BETTER job environment with a new company.

Also, check out Boagworld’s talk on fixing the relationship between clients and designers… It’s something that works best for new relationships, but a few tips in there might be good to work into current soul-destroying relationships… http://www.headscape.co.uk/head/

Great article. I like it when we all whine together! :)

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I am glad to see others experiences as it makes me a better person, knowing not to micromanage people too much when the opportunity comes, but to help guide them if things aren’t seeming like they are going in the right direction. I guess the moral of the story is to help someone grow by guiding them, instead of crushing their creativity and confidence by dictating them.

Good article!

P.S. Calvin is the man

Not to sound dour, but rather to present a different view: sometimes talking simply won’t work. Talking about a problem assumes all parties involved are mature enough to acknowledge the problem and accept a solution. It doesn’t always work that way.

Sean, if I may offer an idea: it’s probably not about you and whether or not you’re trustworthy. If talking to the director doesn’t work, then try looking at yourself. Is there anything you can do in your own way to improve the situation? Attitudes you can change or realities you need to accept? If you’ve done everything in your power and your situation is still the same, perhaps it really is time for a new job.

Sorry to be the resident psychologist. How my boss manages me is something I’ve been dealing with for a while, so I’ve had a long time to think about it! Realizing where she is coming from and understanding her as a person has made her so much less intimidating. We’re always afraid of what we don’t understand. I don’t share these insights about her with anyone, but they help me deal.

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The problem that I face is that I work in a small studio and the owner is also the creative director and the project manager. It’s not even like I can talk to anyone higher than him to voice my concerns. If I talked to him about it, it wouldn’t do anything, it’s how he is and he’ll never change.

Anyone have any opinion on what I should do in my case?

Calvin’s decision to talk to someone about the micromanaging is definitely a good one. I tend to be (too) un-confrontational, so I just dealt with it in my case, lol. But he definitely made the right decision, and I’m glad to see the art director changed his tune, and actually started teaching. That’s a best case scenario!

I agree with Benek too – it’s really difficult when you have a client try to micromanage every aspect of a project, especially when they don’t have the best eye for design. At least being the designer directly working with a client, you can often explain your professional opinion and try to steer them in the right direction. Of course, it’s ultimately the client’s decision, so sometimes you just have to suck it up and try to work with it as much as possible.

Anyway, great post – thank you again – and I’m enjoying reading everyone’s comments, too!

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This approach sounds ideal… but when you are in the situation it can be very discouraging, and can pretty much dampen your creative abilities/process.

I would say that if it got to bad I would talk Calvin’s approach and talk to someone, or the person themselves and open up communication… and then if it continues to get work… I would move on.

Great Article, and feed back

~ Aaron I

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