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Criticism Feedback Communication Denial Incompetence

My manager is always trying to find fault with my work. She looks over everything I do, and if there is even a tiny error, she will jump all over it. She has sent me emails about insignificant mistakes, and she has verbally reprimanded me as well. She doesn’t do this with others in the department. How can I get her to stop doing this to me?



When you have a manager who focuses on your mistakes, it would be a mistake to immediately focus on her. The first place to look is at the kinds of mistakes you are making.

You describe them as “tiny” and “insignificant,” but that is a value judgment. It is possible that a mistake that you regard as minor is anything but minor in the eyes of your manager. It may be that your seemingly small mistakes are creating large difficulties.

Hence, the best step is for you to carefully review the kinds of problems that your manager has been identifying, and then work extra hard to prevent them in future projects. After all, you can control her tendency to focus on your mistakes by bringing them as close to zero as possible.

Although you might feel that she is a micromanager, the fact that she does not hone in on your co-workers indicates that this is probably not the case. Her emails and reprimands indicate that she is documenting this matter, and that means that it may be just a matter of time before you face more serious consequences.



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