Men/Women bosses

[AksarbeN]

In the many years that I’ve worked (now retired) I’ve had some terrific supervisors that were men. The ones that come to mind understood how to manager people and work with them in an effort to get the most out of employees without beating them to death, they truly knew how to motivate works and get maximum production, safety, and quality.

However there were several women who I also reported to over the years and all but one of them were as good or better then the males. I believe that female supervisors have the ability to identify with an employee’s personal situation and they tend to be flexible.

It seems to come down to the quality of the individual manager as a person not so much as if they are male or female.

[yinduffy]

When I say that workers do favors for their bosses I mean things like work overtime on a beautiful Saturday in the Summer or stay a little late to rush out a job. Going out of their way to fix problems instead of just writing it up and passing it on. Working faster to meet a schedule when you know that the next time they will expect the work done as fast even though you took extraordinary steps to help them meet their goals ( and qualify for their bonus).
There is an expression ..." An emergency on your part does not necessarily mean an emergency on my part." and a good supervisor will have the workers as a team pulling for the company not just punching a time clock.
On the other hand I know other big companies supervisors would reward employees by allowing them to leave early and they would put them in for a full day or even a day off. One Supervisor I had would have ice cream sundaes in the cafeteria free for his workers two or three times a year. Others had just such a pleasing demeanor that their employees would do anything for them.
Supervisors that the employees feared did not last as long as those who earned respect.

[cp1969]

It's not a man/woman thing.

I've had good men and women bosses.

I've had lousy ones, too.

Mostly it's a matter of being promoted into management before one is ready. With today's militant emphasis on diversity, many women are getting promoted before they're ready.

[Travel'r]

Originally Posted by cp1969

It's not a man/woman thing.

I've had good men and women bosses.

I've had lousy ones, too.

Mostly it's a matter of being promoted into management before one is ready. With today's militant emphasis on diversity, many women are getting promoted before they're ready.

I agree with this.

I'm female, and my best % of bosses were married or committed (secure) males.
My second boss however, female, possibly my best ever and I wish she were cloned.

If she was not retired, I'd still give anything for the privilege of working for her again. But since her (20 years), I find that females are MUCH better towards males than other females -- especially if close in age. The ones I've dealt with were quite strange to work for and seemed to cling to and favor the much less experienced workers. I think they come across as more threatened -- just my perspective and experience.
Snobby and aloof, when the very young, inexperienced workers were their "buddies" because they'd hear "oooh I love your shoes/dress/hair"/whatever every day.

This would become a big issue when one of these ladies handled scheduling. Favoritism = not good when one needs to pay the bills!

Single, "playboy" type guys would run a close second to these on my chit-list.
NOT ALL single guys, of course, just those insecure ones with "I can't find a girl" or "too many" relationship issues so I drink every night Bad bosses there! Thankfully, few and far between for me :>)

[deckdoc]

second the emotion that women make good managers~ also found in the service that many females were very competent in the jobs such as jet mech and ordnance. Too many feel that grunt work cannot be handle by females when a motivated woman usually accomplishes much more than a semimotivated man. Same holds true in supervisors.

[Briolat21]

Maybe its the area I've worked in (chemistry) - but the woman bosses I've had (one 20 years older than me), one 10 years older than me - were not the "Ooh I love your hair!" type - thank god.

The one female supervisor I had was FANTASTIC. Would work for her again in a heartbeat. She was fair, rational, empathetic (but businesslike and realistic), and tough enough to fight for her employees when she needed to. She also remembered her employees good (and bad) traits and worked with them.

I've had one *good* male supervisor. However, that was a short stint before I got transferred into the female's group - so perhaps he wasn't that good. I never got to know him and we were in a time of transition.

In 15 years in the sciences I have worked for 2 women (one fantastic, one average) and 3 men. The men have all be average - some have been micro-managers, some have been great guys but terrible managers, some have been geniuses (but crappy managers)..

But so far the one woman wins. And I am a woman, I have had no experience with "cattiness" from female supervisors - but again, perhaps that's because of my job area.

I agree with the other poster who says it is personality traits more than gender. I think the mean who were terrible managers just were terrible managers - not because they were men. They did not want to be managers but were "promoted" into it - because that's the career path that has been laid out. There's little worse than a scientist who can no longer do science and instead has to manage the careers of people.

[Bluesmama]

Originally Posted by yinduffy

Here is a subject worthy of the "Great Debate" category - based on your personal experience have you found that men make better supervisors and bosses in dealing with employees?
In my work experience female bosses seem to have what I call "The Mommy Syndrome" which I describe as a supervisor controlling the employees on a trivial level like making them raise their hands to go to the washroom or rearranging office furniture or having things done " because I say so!"
What do you think?

I think your assessment of female bosses is right on. But I've worked around/with/for more $hitty male bosses than good ones. Still, if I was able to choose, I'd select the male. They are generally much less anal than the women.

[cp1969]

Most of the bad bosses are a result of the promotion system in place at big companies.

Where I work, if a supervisory position opens, it is posted and people who are interested throw their hat in the ring. That is all well and good, but a majority of people do not apply; hence the pool from which the successful applicant will be chosen in no way represents all of the talent that was available. Some of the people who don't apply would make much better managers than the power-hungry, ambitious, not-ready-for-prime-time people who do apply. But, the modern HR system will not allow you to choose from anybody other than the applicants.

[GloryB]

I've always ended up being friends with my female supervisors, so I won't be negative about them, but I have always found that men are better at separating work from home problems. They give the job less divided attention and are more prone not to react out of emotion. They just get the job done. Women get the job done also....but usually with more drama, coffee and conversation about their shoes.

[Reneeme]

I was going to say I liked male bosses better, and then I realized that my favorite and most influential bosses have been women (and my worst two bosses were also women!).

So even though I think management style can be affected by gender (and industry), I would have to say that the best boss, is a confident boss!