One of the main reasons I quit working a 9 to 5 years ago, was micro management was getting too out of hand. And now I hear it's even worse with newer technologies.
Yeah we used to grab lunch with in-house client managers up at the salad bar in the house cafeteria, and sketch out solutions to proposals for changes or new projects on the backs of the paper placemats... then go back downstairs and build a quick working prototype in some 3G or 4G language that afternoon and talk over feasibility the next day in a pickup meeting between project managers and counterparts on the client side. Day after that, talks with app and network managers and VP on the client side. Next up: assigning analysts and coders...
Then came the beancounting era, which sneaked in first via requirement to account for "time spent on proposals for new apps or modifications (break out by project ID#)" on our timesheets.
And from there it was all an uphill drag:
"All client requests for changes or new features will be submitted as formal proposals to the Senior VP of the client department before being forwarded to anyone in the IT group. No analysis of existing workflow or automated processes in aid of such modifications shall take place without formal authorization by the Senior VP of Information Systems. No such authorization shall be issued without an accompanying estimate of time and personnel requirements for the proposed work."
We quit going to lunch with folks on the client side because we couldn't answer questions on some new project request forms that ran to stuff like
"Under what circumstances was this request initiated: a) failure of existing app b) user suggestion c) IT group suggestion d) other (explain)."
See once those days of paper placemat ideas were over, we just waited for apps to blow up and then checked off box a) -- just to keep things simple.
But then of course we started going out for lunch because if we stayed at our desks we had to account for our time. Work hours dropped off. So did raises and comp time. A lot of stuff broke but nobody on either the client side or IT group side gave much of a damn.
Meawhile other aspects of beancounting set in, stuff like killing off the guarantee of health care coverage options for employees retiring with 15 years or more at the job, etc. Knowledge base on the client side started shrinking as rafts of employees with 10 or 11 years absorbed that news and put in their papers early...
The end of good times! Also the end of a lot of quality work and overall productivity. People started saying "Gee I dunno, probably best thing is call the VP and find out who should handle that" instead of "Oh wow, ya know Kelly probably knows the guy fixed that the last time somebody did something stupid, lemme look up his number for ya."