In theory, communication improves teamwork, but too much communication can derail it.

So when one new hire started receiving dozens of rapid-fire questions from her flighty boss throughout the day, even during meetings, she struggled to keep up with both the messages and her actual job.

The more responsive she tried to be, the less productive she became.

Keep reading for the full story.

Boss messages me constantly during work hours

I’m in a new-ish role. It’s been about 6 months since I started.

My boss, who claims they are not a micromanager, cannot let me work.

This boss is pretty excessive with his communication.

We have check-ins 3x a week over virtual meetings (WFH). This already seemed like a lot to me — my previous role was weekly or biweekly.

Outside of that, I am receiving Teams messages from them ALLLL day long. Even when we’re both in a meeting.

These aren’t quick, easy questions either.

These messages are typically questions that take a bit of investigation. Some are light analytics questions.

They take time, and I stop whatever task I’m working on to reply.

Finally, this employee is reaching her breaking point.

Yesterday I counted, and I received 20 messages from them in a half-hour period. Sometimes I stop replying while I am focused and end up needing to reply to 10+ questions in one long message when I get back to them.

How do I make this stop?? I feel so unproductive.

I’m the type of person that if a manager asks me for something, that request takes immediate priority in my brain even if it’s not that important.

Three check-ins a week is just plain excessive.

What did Reddit make of all this?

It’s time to demand some priorities from this flighty boss.

Turns out, there is a viable solution here.

This commenter was forced to deal with a very similar situation.

Work-life balance is essential, even if it means leaving some messages on read.

At a certain point, this boss needs to give his employees some room to breathe.

With every unwanted “ping,” her to-do list kept on growing.

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.