I have now been running Career Counseling Connecticut for nearly 20 years.
I have a strong anecdotal sense as well as an analytical understanding from research related to happy careers that feeling a sense of control – autonomy – related to your work leads to happiness.
I know from own experience.
I checked my voice mail. 17 messages. I was an associate at a large Washington, DC law firm.
The messages were from one person: the partner who led the case I was working upon.
Some background will be helpful. The messages all related to an “outline” for a deposition I was going to conduct. A deposition is similar to a court room examination of a witness but with no judge present.
I was a former criminal prosecutor in Philadelphia. I had plenty of experience thinking on my feet and coming up with questions in the flow of witness examination. I was also a former federal securities enforcement attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission where I also had experience deposing (questioning) witnesses.
The partner, even though older and more experienced in private practice, did not have as much trial and deposition experience as I did. What he didn’t know, or at least did not practice, is that almost every seasoned trial lawyer makes a rough outline of questions and areas that he/she wants to investigate and then asks away during the deposition or trial.
Most of you can picture both movie and real life court room scenes to understand that trial lawyers don’t hold a list of questions and then ask each one by one. Those who do so usually are not listening to the answers and thus are not good at trial related work which demands listening carefully to ask follow-up questions.
Regardless of the merits of his comments, the process was maddening. I had to listen to approximately 48 minutes of voice mail messages, take notes, and then amend accordingly for his second review, which while not quite as painstaking also involved another extensive series of edits, some of which involved my partner editing what he had asked me to do. Essentially, he was editing himself while making me his secretary.
With great hope, your boss does not micromanage the way mine did. But you can imagine the happiness difference in going from that level of micromanagement to a life without micromanagement. Having autonomy creates work happiness.
Career Counseling Connecticut can help you escape.