Micromanaging Sadist

Bosses who won't let you do anything unless it's listed in the bug-tracking tool. They are afraid of you doing something wrong, so they hover over you. You must leave if you have a boss like this. Do not be tempted to try to fix the relationship - he/she will never change and you will lose years off your life expectancy from the stress.

My best material on PointyHairedBosses came from someone expressing this behavior - from overseas. --PhlIp

A fellow employee can also fall into this category. See: SarcasticGuy

Know the feeling and know the frustration. When one finds oneself in such a position, it may not be possible to just leave it right away. It can be extremely harmful as already stated, but one can learn endurance and practice how to find and recognize the vulnerable places in the dragon's armor. Sometimes this does not only happen in the workplace, but also marriages, in-laws, immediate family, neighbors, etc.

From the title I thought this page was going to be about keeping control of vicious people in your office...

Oh man, when I first saw the above comment, I almost died laughing (and I created this page)! But no, controlling vicious people would be here: ManageMicromanagingSadists :-)

A micromanaging boss can be dealt with by the simple way of overloading. Forward him every email relevant to your job. Discuss all matters with him. Inform him often. This will put the pressure of sorting your input on him, with little effort from you. If he has other victims who follow the same strategy, he is sure to blow, or adjust his behavior.

That strategy can throw gasoline on the fire. The PHB can use all your details against you. The effect is similar to a UseNet thread, where someone insists on misinterpreting everything you say, ranting, screaming, and blowing things out of proportion. --PhlIp

Sometimes (not always), a boss who normally isn't a MicromanagingSadist becomes one. Usually this is because his boss is starting to micro-manage him (or is otherwise exerting pressure on him), and he needs to be shown to be doing the "right thing".