Your manager

“I made a few small changes”

My boss is a micromanager who rewrites every email I send before it goes out.

What's really going on

• Micromanaging is usually about your manager's anxiety, not your competence: fear of getting blamed, pressure from their own boss, insecurity in the role, or simply never having learned to delegate.
• Rewriting your emails defeats the point of giving you the work in the first place. It usually means they never told you what "good" looks like to them, so they fix it after the fact instead.
• One conversation rarely fixes it. It fades as trust builds, or it doesn't, and then it's just how they manage everyone, not a verdict on you.
• If you're new in the role or had a recent slip, some extra checking is normal and temporary. That's not the same as chronic micromanaging.

What to say

"Can I ask you something? I've noticed you tweak a lot of my emails before they go out, and I'd love to get them right the first time. What are you usually changing? Is it tone, detail, something else?"

Change the words so they sound like you, but keep the tone.