Some school administrators take “hands-on leadership” a little too far.

What would you do if your new boss insisted on approving every step of your lesson plan, even when it didn’t affect safety or curriculum? Would you give in and change your style? Or would you meet every demand, right down to the last absurd detail?

In the following story, a science teacher finds himself at odds with the principal over a silly policy. Here’s what happened.

Micromanaging Principal

I am a science teacher, and one year ago, we got a new principal.

He micromanaged everything and everyone!

In the past, I did a few labs that had food in them.

He sent out an email stating that if science teachers want to do labs that had food, they must send him a detailed lesson plan.

I don’t mind if the principal wanted to know why we did the lab and how it fits into the concepts we are teaching, but a detailed lesson plan?

The principal got what he asked for.

I don’t have a problem with rules but he was the type that didn’t have an open door policy, it’s my way or the highway type of administrator.

Cue my passive-aggressive side.

I sent him 20-page lesson plans (I am really good at educational jargon).

And every lab that I could find that had food in it, I did it that year!

He did make my solar cooker completion impossible, which upset me because I had gotten grant money from a major leader in the engineering field the year before for the same exact project.

He ended up having so many grievances filed against him. It was a great day when he finally left!

Amazing! Wonder how much of it the principal actually read?

Let’s see how the people over at Reddit feel about the story.

Well, that’s kind of stereotypical.

This person could be onto something.

Here’s someone dealing with the same thing at this moment.

Good question.

It’s easy to see both sides here.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.