If this is, in fact, a true post, this line manager should be fired.
- It probably took her 5-10 minutes to write the stupidity here, which was wasted time she could have been using to eat her own lunch thereby having enough fuel to competently get through the rest of the work day without making dumbass decisions due to being hangry.
- This kind of pettiness will drive away valuable skilled workers worth a hell of lot more than her "looking over people's shoulders" supervision worth. The world will easily live on another day without her contribution. However, losing these workers could kill the company in weeks on a critical project.
What if Brenda is an AI?
Pull her plug.
Very few people have the temperament and inclination to be good managers and there are far more manager jobs than that.
Even taking the full 30 minutes is shortchanging the employees. On a lucky day, I get an hour to have my lunch
Being micromanaged to this extent is the pits
This is how toxic work culture starts. Sweat the small stuff, ignore the big picture, and then wonder why talent walks.