Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?

Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.  ~ Doug Larson

Today is Boss’s Day.  As a federal employee I am legally prohibited from giving my boss a gift. Considering all the jockeying and politicking that goes on in an office this is a good policy.  So as a group we are showing a token of appreciation and buying pizza for lunch.  That’s a safe way to celebrate. 

I was ready to blame Hallmark for creating another card ready occasion.  But it wasn’t Hallmark.  Patricia Bays Haroski got this thing rolling when she registered “National Boss’ Day” with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce back in 1958.  Her father was her boss so she chose his birthday.  The Chamber of Commerce has political clout, (Dems claim it is from all that foreign money pouring in) so in 1962, Illinois Governor Otto Kerner officially proclaimed Oct 16 as Bosses Day.

But not everybody works for daddy or even feels the need to celebrate.  You could have a bad boss.  I’ve had a few of these.  I have a pseudo-boss of a committee chair who is a “bad boss.”  But committees suck most of the time anyway, so this could just be a case of projection.  As Dave Barry wrote “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings" (Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn).  Second thought, nah, the chair is a bad boss.  But I’m allowed to say that today.  I’d love to submit a story.  But I don’t work for them so they’re not really my boss, they just think they are. 

Supposedly Bosses Day is the day when you determine if you have a good boss or a bad boss; like you wouldn’t already know.  This can be somewhat disconcerting if you work for yourself.  I’ve been self-employed.  I had to quit.  I was a slave driver.  I was never considerate of my personal time, had no expectation of advancement and was exempt from filing a grievance.  So I thought I would change all that and go work for the government.  Boy was I mistaken.  Just kidding.  I do have a good boss.  It is easy to get up and go to work; except when it comes committee time.  You have no idea how tempted I am to just block leave in for that day every month.  Again I digress.

Complaining aside, the guy I do work for is great, and so is his administrative staff.  I don’t know that I could write a bad boss story about any of them.    

According to the Professor Robert Sutton of Stanford University, and author of Good Boss, Bad Boss:

A Good Boss:
1. Serves as a human shield, protects employees from external intrusions, distractions, and idiocy of every stripe — and avoids imposing his/her own idiocy on them as well
2. Is aware of how his/her moods and actions affect employees and does not suffer from power poisoning or detachment
3. Has ambitious and well-defined goals, but focuses more on the small wins that enable their people to make a little progress every day.

A Bad Boss:
1. Passes the buck and takes all of the credit but none of the blame
2. Treats others as if they are idiots.
3. Focuses on their own needs and concerns and acts as if the rules don’t apply to them

You can read some good boss/bad boss stories here

http://www.employeesurveys.com/bosses/bossstories.htm

http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/june/bosses/index.html

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/08/13/worst-boss-stories-ever

I would suggest that these be mandatory reading for bosses everywhere.  If you see yourself in these anecdotes than maybe it is time for self-evaluation.  But experience has taught me that good bosses already know how to make changes to improve and the bad ones never will.