Dealing with criticism from boss

Question

I've been working at a software development company for the last year and a half, and during my time there, I've contributed to multiple product releases with little to no delays and generally with a high level of quality.

Lately however, (over the last six months or so) my boss has been pointing out things that he sees are things I can improve on.

These are things like:

1. Pointing out a single typo on internal technical documentation
2. Pointing out a misspoken number (1.5 versus 1.1) when giving a status update to the team)
3. Going over every action item in depth from an incident report that I reviewed and questioning every single item that came as a result.
4. Pointing out I took a lunch break when there was a production issue occurring.
5. Pointing out I gave him incorrect information (that I corrected later on) during an active incident investigation.

I'd like to think that this is nothing personal, and maybe perhaps just due to his style of management but I'm feeling pretty frustrated. I don't feel like he explicitly trusts me to perform my job for some reason and I feel that I need to be perfect 100% of the time or it gets brought up to my attention.

Is there a way to bring this up to my boss professionally?

Answer 1

Your examples don't strike me as unusual or overly critical.

The points you listed sound justified, so mentioning them will not go over well, even if admittedly they are a bit nitpicky.

Are they occuring often and are they always justified? (if so, correct your behaviour accordingly!)

What feels off is this current shift in attitude which might be due to some very different speculative motivations:

• Your manager might see your potential and desires to mentor you (some do this by being very critical)
• he might be unhappy with your performance and points out every little grievance/mistake that usually is a result of a much larger symptom he sees
• He and / or the company may be preparing to let you go, gathering a list to validate
• There may be private circumstances in your managers personal or professional life why he became overly critical generally or specifically with you (i.e. a promotion or abmonishment, partnership issues, family drama, financial struggles, unhappyness at work, an offense he took from a remark or action you made etc.)
• You might be considered for promotion and he wants to iron out some flaws .
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I suggest to make sure not to provide legitimate reasons for admonitions and be diligent with your work while closely studying his and others' behaviour towards you and your work.

Answer 2

These are several questions, not just one. It's not clear why you would think points 1-5 are symptoms of one problem.

I wouldn't call your boss's behavior "micromanaging" either. He seems to point out your behaviors which according to him aren't acceptable, which is his prerogative as your boss. It doesn't seem he's trying to control everything you're doing.

• You can see 1. as a nuisance, but it's your boss's call if he wants to point that to you.
• 2 is legitimate unless the number didn't matter, but if it didn't matter, why mention it at all?
• 3: You bought tickets without requesting vacation first? I know no company in which this would be acceptable.
• 4: Not enough details.
• 5: If it was a major issue, you should have taken your lunch break later, after solving the problem.

There's nothing in your post that could be described as "micromanaging" or bullying.

EDIT: The question and the examples the author provided were edited by them after I submitted my answer.