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micromanager

A person who is driven by fear and anxiety into mettling with others' work. Micromanagers are bosses or peers who constantly seek to usurp the decision rights of others. Their excessively insecure and competitive nature causes them to react negatively to ideas and efforts not their own. If they possess authority, they will aggressively use it to control the way work gets done around them. They are typically focused on process rather than results. They criticize others far more frequently than they praise them.

A micromanager is motivated by a fear of receiving blame for "mistakes" made on their watch. They will try to reduce risk by squelching the initiative of others and they will try to insure no mistakes are being made by insisting on reviewing and "approving" work. Frequently, they will make unnecessary requests for more work and will provide repeated edits.

Almost all micromanagers are workaholics with codependent relationships in the organization. They surround themselves with bureaucrats when they can. Their relationship to their boss is far more important to them than their relationship to their staff or peers. If a micromanager has been in their position for a long time and are perceived as successful, then the organizational disfunction is institutional. Many organizations succeed by utilizing micromanagers to "ensure quality" or to make other employees depart.

The typical experience for an employee working for a micromanager is repleat with frustration and runs the risk of demoralizing the individual and impacting their self esteem. Confident employees of micromanagers will often develop effective means for managing upward, but the majority of staff who are micromanaged will modify their behavior in negative ways:

1) slacking - avoiding the manager and reducing output
2) facilitating - giving up decision rights and following orders
3) rebelling - pushing back in career-destroying ways

Micromanagers know the rules and are very good at avoiding putting themselves into a position where they will be vulnerable to disciplinary action. Though their actions reduce productivity, their long list of efforts that they control looks highly productive to their superiors. Though not all sycophants are micromanagers, all micromanagers are sycophants.

Workers faced with a micromanaging boss would be well advised to develop a clear, thorough strategy for coping with the situation. Leaving the position or the company should be viewed as a reasonable solution.
My boss is a classic kiss-up-kick-down micromanager who won't allow me to do my job without constant interference.
by leap4rog September 30, 2007
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microwave

makes random noises at 3AM.
mike hawk: *turns on microwave*
microwave: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm *BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*
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Microwave Society

The mindset of wanting (and nearly getting) everything "RIGHT NOW". Technology has made gathering or sending information extremely fast and we've begun to think that everything in life should be available on demand.
The postal service is struggling because everyone wants their information right now. Letters are out, emails are in. We want our information NOW. Microwaves cook foods faster, our society wants everything faster. We are a Microwave Society.
by MarciaE July 20, 2010
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Microwave Bitch

A person so lazy and impatient they only take things that come quick fast and in a hurry like food from the microwave as opposed to cooking an actual meal from scratch.
Daughter- omg! My phone is so friggin slow!
Mother- in my day we had to have 35 cents to use a pay phone and the Internet wasn't even an idea! Children today are such microwave bitches!
by Holl33 January 19, 2015
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microwaaaave

"Microwaaaave" *twirls finger*
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microwave-meal mate

Microwave-meal mates are people who you become 'close friends' with over a very short period of time by asking too many personal things in the early stages of the friendship and thus, creating the illusion of being close, when in reality,

it is a very forced and superficial way to get to know someone (e.g. playing 21 questions or truth). While this is a quick and easy way to become 'close' with people, the quality of the friendship isn't good and it doesn't last long, kind of like a microwave-meal. Slow-cooked meals are always better, just like friendships which take their natural course to becoming close and age like fine wine.
Jealous best friend: wow, you and the chick from the party last month have gotten pretty close.

Best friend: nah, she's just a microwave-meal mate. I'll probably forget she exists in a couple of months.
by kaneeky June 2, 2017
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microwave

A microwave is a clock that occasionally cooks shit.
my microwave is used more for a damn clock than cooking stuff!
by televox May 16, 2007
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