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[Obfuscated to protect the guilty]
Let's take two people, A (who we'll say is female) and B (who we'll say is male). While A is my direct supervisor, I consider her a facilitator. Why? Because she facilitates getting me the information I need. She facilitates making sure I have enough work in my queue to keep me from warming a seat on company time. She facilitates getting me access to internal servers by navigating through the ridiculous request process herself and teaching me how to do it too. Her style is "you have my trust unless you prove otherwise." Her requirements are clearly stated - get the work done within estimates, work with others to get your work done, and as needed, facilitate others in getting their work done.
Now B is the group manager. On my first day I dropped by to say hello and that the first day went well. I didn't get two words out of my mouth before he started talking, telling me I had to have consistent arrival time and departure time. I was then told I'm expected to clock 40 hours a week (as a contractor, I bill hourly, so it would be actually to the company's benefit if I wasn't charging for seat warming time.) B refuses to let people work remotely a day or two a week. This is not a company policy, it is his policy. B appears to have some app that tells him when people arrive, when they log in/out of their computer, etc., that he apparently uses to monitor seat warming productivity. His approach, as has been stated by others, is "you have to earn my trust" but of course what bar that requires vaulting over is never objectively stated.
The difference between A and B is stark. Given my psychological makeup, I am loyal to A, will do whatever I can to make her life easier and for her to succeed. With regards to B, I have to consciously stop myself from daydreaming about dropping my badge on his desk with a "put it where the sun doesn't shine" statement.
Marc
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yes.
The danger with B behaviour is that you always have to second guess yourself to get his approval.
I'd rather be phishing!
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The difference being that A took the time to learn how to manage, whereas B obviously thought he already knows everything there is to know about it.
Unfortunately, there are far more of type B than there type A -- and I'd rather have a type O (as in non-existent) than a B negative.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Normal is style A: you can trust the employed people.
In style B the manager is mistrusting the employed people or the HR decisions. 
I judge that B isnt trustworthy, because he isnt a team player.
Press F1 for help or google it.
Greetings from Germany
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If there is a need, you can always get B by his own ideas. If he wants to observe you, then give him something to observe. You (and the rest of the team) could should log in and out about 3-4 times an hour. He will then have hundreds of entries to check and quickly become overworked. If he complains, just tell him that you had a memory leak, bluescreens, updates, Win10 failures, sunspots and solar flares, space invaders or whatever.
If you keep that up long enough and treat his other ways of overseeing you the same way, he can either simply stop it or else he will crawl on hands and feet in a few weeks. Always be careful what you wish for. You might get it. 
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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It depends how basic ButtsInSeatsMonitor is. It could easily add up all the login/out times automatically; in which case the screwing around would just mean a bunch of short not working periods that needed to be made up.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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It's not the time needed to sum up the times. It's the time needed to regain the feeling to be in control and to figure out what's going on. It's like putting a bottle of gin in front of Nagy's nose.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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Then I would suggest not to make it that easy for him and also get him to spend more and more time on cobbling together that tool. He will go crazy when he must keep adapting his stuff and still can't make any sense of it. And then there are some more things he's trying to oversee. Make him write some tools for those as well. And always observe rule No. 1: Don't oppose him. Don't give him any friction at all. He is a Peeping Tom, so give him enough to see.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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If you have an expert as an employee, you give them their tools that they need and get the elephant out of their way.
B is not a manager, but a potential risk in the analysis of what could go wrong with the project, and hence, needs to be eliminated. Quickly, publicly and with a lot of fanfare. Anybody not contributing is baggage, and this is negative baggage. The value of the company increases when that person leaves.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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unfortunately the only time the new guy is able to defenestrate sunshines no matter how deserving is when hired as a senior manager. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Marc Clifton wrote: Given my psychological makeup, I am loyal to A
I would think that any sane person would rather work for A than B.
If it's not broken, fix it until it is.
Everything makes sense in someone's mind.
Ya can't fix stupid.
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I have left places rather than work for an a**hole - life is too short and I love what I do - I refuse to work for someone that sucks the joy out of it.
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Makes you wonder why B is the way he is... Low self-esteem? Overcompensating? Traumatized? Complete lack of people AND management skills?
It also makes you wonder why he is still employed in the company... 
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Sander Rossel wrote: Makes you wonder why B is the way he is...
Most likely he is acting within his fixed mindset.
While most developers (because of the nature of our work) are of a growth mindset.
The clash occurs.
I'm reading this book now and I find many managers from the past described as the book talks about fixed mindset people. This is the best book I've read in the past 5 years. Check it out.
Mindset: The Pyschology of Success by Carol Dweck[^]
The title really doesn't explain it well though.
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raddevus wrote: While most developers (because of the nature of our work) are of a growth mindset.
Really? I know a lot of developers who freak out about anything they don't know.
I've clashes with those people more than once as I rarely conform to the(ir) rules
I'll check out the book 
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Sander Rossel wrote: I know a lot of developers who freak out about anything they don't know.
Yeah, that is true isn't it. It's too bad they haven't learned to move into the growth mindset.
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The reason "B" treats everyone like that because he's projecting on to you and everyone else his own poor work ethic and untrustworthiness.
This is the type of "manager" you have to manage.
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
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TheGreatAndPowerfulOz< wrote: he's projecting on to you and everyone else his own poor work ethic and untrustworthiness
I agree 100% that this is most likely the case. This is the case of a person operating from a fixed mindset.
Meanwhile, most developers (because of the nature of our work) are of a growth mindset.
This book I'm reading right now really explains this and it has opened my eyes to behaviors I've seen like this over my 25 years in IT. The book is amazing. Check it out.
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. @ Amazon.com.[^]
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Marc Clifton wrote: dropping my badge on his desk with a "put it where the sun doesn't shine" statement.
Don't forget the "fold it until it's all sharp corners" part. That's important for any proper exit strategy.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Descriptive name. ![Java | [Coffee]](https://codeproject.freetls.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/coffee.gif)
But otherwise pretty good.
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I kept waiting for a screaming ghost to leap out of the screen.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Nice, they remind me of... Some band I used to know?
I can't seem to remember 
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