When I hear someone defending micromanagement, it sends a shiver down my spine - I was once a victim of micromanagement. It sucked, and I quit. As did some of m

When I hear someone defending micromanagement, it sends a shiver down my spine - I was once a victim of micromanagement. It sucked, and I quit. As did some of my co-workers. This article, however, is not really a justification of micromanagement. Joel Spolsky suggests that you can't trust technical people who you didn't hire to do their job properly. I wouldn't call this micromanagement. This strategy is important in any situation in which you are forced to let a technical person from another company do important work for you, and you or someone you know and trust has that expertise. For example, if you are a medical professional, and your mother is sick at the hospital, it is advisable that you carefully monitor her treatment by nurses and doctors, to make sure every little thing that they do it okay. Since you probably did not hire these people, and probably don't work with them, you can't trust them. So watch them like a hawk. On the other hand, if you hire and train someone at your company but still cannot trust them to do their job, then you should re-examine your hiring process.