Good and bad qualities of bosses you've had?

[Bob]

What makes a boss or supervisor good or bad? 

What things do they do that make them that way?

[ksnmohan]

A good knowledge in the area of work so that you can learn from him, leadership, control without being aggressive or rude, valuing human relationships more than the results - these are the characteristics of a good boss.

Even if one of the  above 4 aspects is missing, then he is no longer good.

[shortyshort]

The boss I have had now for over 2 yrs. is great.

He is roughly my age, understands that I have a family, is generous with praise and bonuses. He does not expect anybody to do anything that he would not be prepared to do himself.

He is also capable of doing any of the work that he delegates.

After 2 years, I can imagine myself working for him indefinately.

[Bob]

Only two replies?

How about extending "boss" to "teacher?"  Everybody has someone above them supervising.

What things do they do well or poorly that help or hinder you?

[quantum]

I dislike working with bosses or teachers that demand results without any care to the work, time and energy required to complete tasks. 

[rc]

I wrote a long detailed post but it was turning into an essay...

Currently I'm working for my Dad.  He treats his employees well, pays well, tries to keep an appropriate workload.  But he can be careless with the paperwork and keeping track of things, which sometimes leads to too heavy workload and paycheque difficulties (once I waited 5 months for a cheque).  He let me get away with things when I started out for being family.  It helped me I suppose, but it was unfair to the other employees.  I don't think he had the patience to teach anybody, he delegated my training to another employee.

This guy was a mixed bag.  He taught me well, held me to high standards (NO flaw was missed).  He also pissed me off daily, deliberately and for no apparent reason.  Eventually we would compete on the job, the good kind of competition that gets things done.  In hindsight I think he held me to a higher standard than himself (finding it easier to criticise others), soon I was finding mistakes in his work, which made him ridiculously angry.  I think it was due to his being so bad with money that he began to put quantity over quality in work because he needed more cashflow.  Though, no matter how much he'd make, it would get spent faster.

Well, it was good for me because I kept the high standards and continued to improve on my own.  More efficient = more money, better work = a good name (can there be any better job security?).

Some of my dads fuzzy management can really cause trouble for me.  If I don't get paid for a long time it's impossible for me to figure out a budget because I don't know what's coming in, that really kills motivation.  Or sometimes we wind up over our heads in work which takes over my life, this also kills motivation (why am I working so hard if I don't have a life?).

[thalbergmad]

I can cope with women teachers, but not women bosses.

Too many personal phone calls, visits to the toilet and mood swings.

Best to have their menstrual cycle monitored on the year planner.

Thal

[ahinton]

I can cope with women teachers, but not women bosses.

I don't quite understand that; how would you then cope if you were in the education profession and your boss was both a woman and a teacher?

Too many personal phone calls, visits to the toilet and mood swings.

What, all at once? You must know some pretty unusual women...

Best to have their menstrual cycle monitored on the year planner.

It's charm school time again, isn't it?! Anyway, on what kind of planner would you envisage having your own cycle monitored? (that's the one upon which you drive to work in order to keep your BMI down to a level at which you no longer risk being caught between pairs of traffic lights on opposite sides of the road...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

I am sure i have mentioned this before, but one does not DRIVE a bike.

I would add to my previous comments, that in my experience women who get promoted usually end up pregnant. Therefore, the poor bugger that missed out on promotion ends up doing the job, whilst said women takes months off sitting on their arse eating choccies.

Pregnancy does appear to be an excuse to get out of work. As I said to one of my female bosses once. "If you wanted a career, you shouldn't have had the bloody thing".

Thal

[maul]

Good qualities:

Bad qualities: is a total dick for no reason. steals your ideas. claims credit for work you've done. doesn't take responsibility for negative things that happen. no praise or gratitude for anything, including gigantic projects that required immense effort. fights over giving raises when skills are obviously being underpaid. lacks knowledge in certain areas, yet portrays themselves as an expert. expects work to be done as soon as it is conceived, without any concept of the fact that "things take time". wonders why certain things aren't being achieved, when in fact, those things were designated as "C" priorities while a stream of "A" priorities is constantly being placed into circulation. religious nutjob who thinks that if we "believe" that sales will be increased, they magically will. etc.

[Bob]

I think I'll take Thalbergmad as my boss.

I'm actually wondering if there's something to what he said.  Maybe not so obvious at the time, but... I haven't seen some things with male administrators that I have with female ones.

Two thumbs up for Thalbergmad's charm.  It's honest and that's much better than purposeful vagueness.



(stilted heavy old force English accent)
"One does not simpley DRIIIIVE a bike, you see.  One RIIIIDES a bike, as it were.  You are failing to see the subtle differences in meaning but one is grammatically impossible.  How do you intend to communicate effectively if you mangle the language?  You can RIIDE a bicycle but you certianly cannot DRIIVE one."

That reminds me of the comic.  English father, Philopino (I think) mother.
The English grammar professor father, to a cop who just pulled him over for speeding:
"I say officer!  It's impossible to BRIIING me to jail.  You cannot simply BRIIING a person anywhere.  It's impossible.  You may TAAKE me to jail or ESCOORT me to jail, but you simply cannot BRIING me to jail.  TAAKKE... TAAAKE a person to jail, you ninny."


Ah, pregnancy, yes.  I was amused to see one lady who got pregnant replaced with another lady... who also got pregnant and had to be replaced.  I would be leery of taking that job, esp as a guy.

What's just as bad is when parents get a free pass to leave work.  They have kids at home, coming home from school.  Everyone else is expected to stay and work because they don't have anything important like that to do.

[ahinton]

I am sure i have mentioned this before, but one does not DRIVE a bike.

I can't say that I've noticed you mentioning this before, but in any case what you choose to do with your bike is, of coruse, up to you! I do not possess one of these machines myself, but I do recognise that it is a mode of transport and I have to admit that I've never seen one driving itself...

I would add to my previous comments, that in my experience women who get promoted usually end up pregnant. Therefore, the poor bugger that missed out on promotion ends up doing the job, whilst said women takes months off sitting on their arse eating choccies.

If all of that is really a true representation of your experience, then perhaps you should have a different job somewhere else, for I really do not believe that this is a typical example of what goes on in the workplace.

Pregnancy does appear to be an excuse to get out of work. As I said to one of my female bosses once. "If you wanted a career, you shouldn't have had the bloody thing".

There are far more days lost in the workplace through illness, genuine and otherwise, than as a consequence of childbirth; even our dubious government appears now to recognise this fact and is seeking to do something about it. And as for the pregnancy bit, don't forget that the days when time off to have children was a "privilege" for working women only are gone, as we also have paternity leave these days, which, if nothing else, might suggest that you could also have expressed your delightfully sensitive and understand remark to one of your male bosses, perhaps rephrasing it to "if you wanted a career, you shouldn't have got her to have the bloody thing".

Anyway, I do recognise that my comments here are inevitably at arm's length, to the extent that I've never actually had a job or parented a child; in view of the former, I can assure you that the above just doesn't work for the self-employed, most of whom could'nt afford to pay themselves maternity or paternity leave (and fortunately don't have to).

Best,

Alistair

[gyzzzmo]

A good boss is a boss who gives you huge salary and doesnt care that you're at home, playing piano during work?

[thalbergmad]

Anyway, I do recognise that my comments here are inevitably at arm's length, to the extent that I've never actually had a job or parented a child

Perhaps if you had spent years in a variety of office jobs, you might think along the same lines as me.

Not only have women devalued jobs, but i strongly believe that any employer should be completely within their rights to obtain some form of written guarantee, that a woman about to be promoted into a highly paid and responsibly position, is not going to get pregnant.

Its bad enough in big business, but all this maternity leave will eventually bankrupt every small business in the country. However, many small businesses have probably already realised that it is best simply not to employ women unless they are infertile or over 50.

I am sick to death of hearing young mothers moaning how they are struggling to keep a job and bring up a child. The answer is simple, if you cannot afford one, keep your legs together.

Having kids is not a right.

Thal

[Petter]

wow

[ahinton]

Perhaps if you had spent years in a variety of office jobs, you might think along the same lines as me.

Well, I have admitted that I have spent any time in anyone's employ of any kind and that I accordingly have no direct personal experience in such issues, but I nevertheless remain convinced that, had I done so, I would still not "think along the same lines as" you on this. You ignore my remarks about paternity leave and, before you think again to present your entrenched position on this issue, I (and perhaps also others here) would appreciate your considering and responding to them.

Not only have women devalued jobs

Excuse me? Some employers are women - including founders of businesses that employ both men and women.

but i strongly believe that any employer should be completely within their rights to obtain some form of written guarantee, that a woman about to be promoted into a highly paid and responsibly position, is not going to get pregnant.

That's ridiculous; one might as well expect that an employer should have a right to obtain a written guarantee that an employee would not contract any form of cancer, or multiple sclerosis, or some other dread disease, or suffer from any form of accident sufficiently serious to affect their ability to continue working. And apart from anything else here, what would you say about a female employer expecting any such guarantee of her employees without expecting a similar guarantee from herself?

Its bad enough in big business, but all this maternity leave will eventually bankrupt every small business in the country. However, many small businesses have probably already realised that it is best simply not to employ women unless they are infertile or over 50.

Again, you've ignored the paternity leave issue here.

I am sick to death of hearing young mothers moaning how they are struggling to keep a job and bring up a child. The answer is simple, if you cannot afford one, keep your legs together.

But are you any less sick and tired of hearing young and not so young fathers (especially single ones) doing the same?

Having kids is not a right.

Of course it isn't.

Best,

Alistair

[gyzzzmo]

Well, with the Darwinistic aproach, its the womens own fault if they got stuck with their kids. Men are there to spread their seed in as many dark places as possible, women are the ones who have to pick wich seed/man is most suitable for them.

Blame the women, not us men 

[thalbergmad]

That's ridiculous; one might as well expect that an employer should have a right to obtain a written guarantee that an employee would not contract any form of cancer, or multiple sclerosis, or some other dread disease, or suffer from any form of accident sufficiently serious to affect their ability to continue working.

Bloody rubbish.

Getting pregnant is a CHOICE. People do not choose to have cancer or MS do they?

If you were an employer that had 2 candidates for promotion of equal ability, one being a man and one being a woman, which one are you going to employ?. The one who could bugger off for a few months?

Thal

[Bob]

Ok... So the boss getting the workers pregnant, whether they be male OR female,... that's bad.  Ok.   

Back to the original topic please.

[thalbergmad]

Again, you've ignored the paternity leave issue here.

What issue?

I admit to not reading your posts fully.

Thal

[shortyshort]

I admit to not reading your posts fully.

Me too. 

When you reach the end, the beginning is forgotten. 

[thalbergmad]

I admit to not always making it to the end.

Hinty's prose is sometimes too much for me.

Thal

[Bob]

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,28892.0.html

Here.  This thread is for Thalbergmad and Ahinton to duke it out.


Back to the original topic.  What qualities make a boss/supervisor/(wich might include teach) good or bad?

[ahinton]

Bloody rubbish.

Getting pregnant is a CHOICE. People do not choose to have cancer or MS do they?

That's true in almost all cases, of course - but then I was using that example as an illustration of how fatuous the argument is in the first place.

If you were an employer that had 2 candidates for promotion of equal ability, one being a man and one being a woman, which one are you going to employ?. The one who could bugger off for a few months?

Since that could be either of them under present legislation, I really couldn't say.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

What issue?

I admit to not reading your posts fully.

You wouldn't even have to do that to grasp the concept (pardon the expression!) of "paternity leave".

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Me too. 

When you reach the end, the beginning is forgotten. 

Your self-confessed shortyshort attention span is no one's problem but your own.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

I admit to not always making it to the end.

OK, so there's no danger of anyone going on maternity leave through your own efforts, then.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,28892.0.html

Here.  This thread is for Thalbergmad and Ahinton to duke it out.

I'm not a duke. I cannot speak for Thal in that respect, but I rather doubt that he is, either. No dice, then.

Back to the original topic.  What qualities make a boss/supervisor/(wich might include teach) good or bad?

What a good idea!

Best,

Alistair