Managerial A-holes
Lower managers tend to act like this. They get crapped on at their house by their husband/wife/bf/gf/dog/kids/goldfish/
etc so they come to work and nit-pick the ever loving crap out of their subordinates. If your boss has enough time to micromanage you, then they need more work to do. Most likely, they're in the position NOT because they deserve it, are best qualified, or due to managerial training ... no, it's because of tenure. They've stuck it out the longest, so they got promoted. Upper management had to...it was the only way to justify the 1% pay-raise they got last year. Thankfully, when companies start tightening budgets, worthless-ass managers like this are usually the first to go. Being a yes-man ass-kissing machine only goes so far. You have to produce results. Which means the boss who takes credit for all of the work his underlings do gets to stick around and continue to be an ass.
A REAL boss' job is to ...
a) remove as many obstacles standing in your way from doing your best work possible
b) act as a buffer between you and extra administrative bullshit upper management likes to dream up, so you have more time doing your job instead of filling in time-cards, or other peripheral crap work.
c) attending stupid mandatory company meetings so you can spend more time doing your work instead of listening to idiots try to solve problems by bitching about them to death in 2 hour meetings that should only take 10 minutes
d) keep you from having to get intimidated or bullied by boss' in other dept's that think just because they're a rank above you they can tell you what to do even though they're not your boss
e) when things go wrong, look at the process as a whole and fix / optimize what is wrong with it...and take responsibility for the process, since you, the manager, are the owner of the process, not the employee. When things go wrong, most managers assume it's the employee's fault, rather than realizing the employee is only as effective as the processes and tools they're given to use.
It's their ultimate job to get the F out of your way so you can do your job and make everyone look good. Managers are their to guide and lead, not control. Sadly, most managers have never had this kind of training. Most have never cracked open an Edwards Demming book to figure out how to optimize processes and track results so everyone can see continual improvement instead of having to post up stupid motivational posters to boost waning company morale.
Everything I just spoke about is considered heresy in the modern work place. You start going over the bullets I outlined above, and managers will look at you like deer caught in the headlights or fire you. It's sad really, because by being uninformed idiots, they make everyone's job harder then it has to be.