Manager is micromanaging me on a project they aren't leading/involved in

Post date: 2020-08-01 08:32:52

The short of it is I was pulled into a project by my manager's boss (boss boss) that manager is not involved in. Manager is expecting me to now report to them on everything I am doing for the project daily because I haven't been able to work on manager's projects that are not top priority. This seems like a political battle between manager and boss boss and an overstep, not to mention micromanagement, but I'm not sure what to do about it. Advice?

The long of it is manager is increasingly trying to convince me how I should be working on this project, my role, and the most recent talk was that I should be convincing boss boss and the project team that this project is not top priority and/or I'm being given too much work (even though that's really not their call). I don't think that is the case personally, and I'm not about to challenge my boss boss, so it feels like manipulation in a political battle that I'm honestly not keen on being involved in. I want to basically listen to boss boss and do the work they ask at the pace I've been given (which is the work gets done when it gets done, although we do meet weekly to discuss the project and collaborate). Manager is essentially now trying to boil my work down to tasks that they are monitoring in terms of time it takes for me to complete so that I guess I can rush through that work for the week and focus on their project (which I was originally told to work on when I have the time). It's honestly not my manager's business but for some reason they won't talk to boss boss about it when I suggest that we meet with boss boss to discuss divvying up my time between projects. Boss boss leaves me alone to do my work.

Not sure what my course of action is here, because I don't want to tell my manager to butt out and I don't want to talk to boss boss about all this (in the end I'll be the one to suffer regardless), but I'm being openly made to feel that I am impeding progress on manager's project in front of that team and client when really it's not my call where my priorities lay. I also don't like the idea of being rushed through my work and micromanaged by someone who isn't the project lead just on principle.

Anyway, advice is appreciated as usual.

Please click Here to read the full story.