Most of the micromanagers I've encountered don't know how to shoot a fish in a barrel .. totally clueless as to how to get what they want. Sometimes they are clueless about what they do want, except to get THEIR manager off their backs so they can get back to their crossword puzzle.

What they tried to manage was the results of my efforts, especially when they didn't understand the process or the tools. They were all technically incompetent and in a couple of cases, computer illiterate besides.

Problem is .. they provoked my best passive-aggressive instincts. I sent one guy home screaming (played with the buffer on his dumb terminal so every time he tried to login, it cussed at him). I sent the computer-illiterate one into paranoid fits putting him on the mailing lists of all the schlock computer training programs I could find. They were too easy to jerk around. I had to find other jobs.

The best way I know to deal with micromanagers is to ask them for an MS Project printout of their priorities for task sequence. That keeps them occupied and out of my cube, stalking someone else a little easier. Of course, a couple of them have terminated my contract for asking too many questions.