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Is “micromanagement” an insult?


lenasemenkova

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Is “micromanagement” an insult?

All dirty jokes aside, is it?

I really want to mention it in the review so others can save themselves. Because I’m having a time of my life with what I thought was going to be a pretty straightforward Christmas card. It’s been a week, it has turned into something else entirely. We’re now hyper-focused on an unrelated accessory wasn't even meant to be there initially. That, in my opinion, doesn’t work and should be removed. It screws up the composition, it doesn’t look good. The reason the buyer keeps tweaking it and turning it is because they can see it but can’t admit it.

I’ve reached this stage where I have to express to the buyer that I don’t need them to pay me more. I need them to make up their mind and move on. Because I have no idea where this project is even going anymore. And if we ever get there. 

Anyway. Is there a polite, *professional* way to express it? “Prone to tweaking things into oblivion. Which is possibly related to them making questionable design choices and refusing to admit it. This project made me sad.”

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26 minutes ago, lenasemenkova said:

Anyway. Is there a polite, *professional* way to express it? “Prone to tweaking things into oblivion. Which is possibly related to them making questionable design choices and refusing to admit it. This project made me sad.”

My first (albeit somewhat casual) idea was to say 'xy has been very hands-on with the project and provided lots of fresh/new ideas with every concept' -the second part of that could still be tweaked a bit to make it sound less....weird but yeah. I'd worry about saying someone micromanaged me because to me personally it sounds off (but I definitely know what type of buyer you are talking about.)

 

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22 hours ago, katakatica said:

very hands-on

This is a great euphemism for what went down. I’ll keep that. 

20 hours ago, cc_animation said:

Not a great experience.

I like the tone of this. This is exactly how I feel. 4 iterations ago it could have been great for everyone involved. 

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Just about any term can be an insult if it's meant or perceived as one. I'm not sure if 'needless', or 'questionable' are any better than 'micromanagement' here, while the other, euphemistic approach with 'hands-on', 'fresh approach' could even be seen as a compliment, both by the customer and some people reading the review, unless coupled with very low star rating.

I'd probably try to avoid such evaluative and subjective words, describe the experience as objectively as possible, and let the lack of enthusiasm express my personal feelings and the readers judge for themselves. 

Three replies, three approaches, helpful, eh? 😉

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