Hate my job more every day; my boss is micromanaging me into a breakdown

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The original was posted on /r/antiwork by /u/psychedelic__cheese on 2024-11-17 17:38:30+00:00.

I’m really struggling with my job lately, and I need to vent. My boss micromanages me to an unbearable degree. He gives me tasks to do, and then when I complete them, he tells me I’m not doing it right. It feels like no matter what I do, it’s never good enough.

For example, I work at a modeling agency. He instructed me to contact only top-tier photographers for our models to shoot with. I took that advice seriously and invited some great photographers to the agency to build connections. Once I got that done, he suddenly said it wasn’t enough and wanted me to reach out to student photographers for test shoots instead. Initially, he said getting two test shoots a month would be great. Well, within two weeks, I managed to line up five. But then he told me I wasn’t doing enough and that the dynamic was off.

I try to take the initiative to make connections, but it feels like my efforts go unrecognized, and that really brings me down. When it comes to bookings, he insists on being a firm booker. There was a situation where a client wanted to book one of our top models for a campaign, and I suggested we go higher with the price since he’s a top talent. My boss didn’t take my advice seriously and was more concerned about losing the client. He completely missed my point about not devaluing our talent. He ended up giving them a lower offer, and of course, they accepted it right away, leading to his regret.

Now he’s telling me that I need to practice being a booker, but he doubts my capabilities because I can’t even manage basic bookings like test shoots. It’s incredibly frustrating because I feel like if it weren’t for my efforts, the company would have really struggled financially over the past few months. I created the entire business plan, advised him on investments, and suggested areas to save money.

To top it all off, he checks my emails and has them all forwarded to him. I’m left feeling like I can’t even handle the simplest tasks anymore. Am I exaggerating here, or is my boss really a mess?