Does micromanaging actually work?
4/29/20261 hr 3 min
This week’s topic came from a listener who asked if micromanaging is a more productive work-style than a more “free range” approach. We talk about our own work experiences, and answer a few other miscellaneous work questions about performance improvement plans (“PIPs”), handling an incompetent boss, office odors, and more.
Our guest this week is Erik Baker, historian at Harvard, editor at The Drift, and author of Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America, who walks us through the history of the corporate work structure and evolution of management styles.
Check out our newsletter for links to research and more.
Fill out our NST listener survey here.
Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at (860) 325-0286
EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ http://www.nordvpn.com/nst
Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsManny Fidel· Host0:00
Hey, everyone. Manny here. Before we get to today's episode, I wanted to bring your attention to the No Such Thing listener survey. By filling out this survey, you will help us make this show better. You hear from us all the time, but now it's time to hear from you. Is it the case that we talk too much and you wanna hear more from experts? Or do you think, shockingly, that we don't talk enough? Are the episodes too short, or are they too long? Please consider filling out this survey and helping us make this show just a little bit better, even though that's a little hard to do because the show is already fantastic. You can find the listener survey in the show notes for this episode, and in our newsletter at nosuchthing.show. Enjoy today's episode.
Speaker 10:44
[gentle music] Cool as a cucumber.
Manny Fidel· Host0:52
I'm Manny.
Noah Friedman· Host0:57
I'm Noah.
Devin Joseph· Host0:57
This is Devin.
Noah Friedman· Host0:58
And this is No Such Thing, the show where we settle our dumb arguments and yours by actually doing the research. This week, does micromanaging actually work?
Speaker 41:06
[gentle music] I've ... No, there, there's no, no such thing. No such thing. No such thing. No such thing. No such thing.
Speaker 11:23
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.