Do Micromanagers Have Empathy? And Other Things Keeping Me Up at Night

This issue was written on International Women's Day, in the middle of a war, by a self-confessed news addict doing his best to think colander. It is a lot to carry. But all four threads running through this edition connect back to the same question: what does it look like to stay human when the world keeps making it harder?

Rob opens with a personal tribute to the women who shaped his early career, from four managers in high school and college who taught him to take the work seriously without taking it all so seriously, to a CNN London producer who delivered what may be the best piece of feedback he has ever received. Then a hat that three colleagues bought at the same time sparks a simple but urgent challenge about basic human decency and where empathy actually begins.

From there Rob gets personal about his own news addiction, tracing it from reporting on Pan Am 103 as a journalism student at Syracuse through living in New York City on September 11 to the daily scroll spiral that began when the war in Iran started. The science of Secondary Traumatic Stress explains why the news is building up like a toxin in the nervous system, and the Think Colander framework from a recent edition offers a practical way through.

The issue closes with a deep dive into a question an audience member posed two months ago: do micromanagers actually have empathy with the people they manage? After digging into the research, Rob has a nuanced answer, three practical tips for anyone on the receiving end, and a free self-assessment for anyone wondering whether they might be the micromanager in the story.

👉 Read the full newsletter or watch the YouTube video to go deeper.