I have a boss who is basically a very nice person, however as a manager, has no people skills. At every turn he writes a note. During meetings, employee reviews, whatever. I believe this is very demotivating, as whatever we do is not enough or not good enough. There is no job satisfaction or decision-making for anything without a note of criticism of some sort; no matter how well meaning it is put.

"Thinking for ourselves" is usually knocked down with the first note of the day. The boss writes notes all evening and over the weekend. It seems like compulsive behavior. It seems that he thinks that once the note is written, the task is completed and totally disregards the workload and cannot understand firstly, why the other notes are not completed and returned and secondly, why the daily routine is falling behind. Also, the office is unable to even offer the smallest criticism (constructive of course) as the boss will take it as a personal attack and the whole office suffers as he finds ways to pay back.

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