Male or Female Boss- which do you prefer?

There are equally good and bad bosses. I never made a decision to take or not take a job based on the sex of the boss.

I prefer to be self employed.


My worst boss ever was seriously psychotic and carried her traveling bag of drugs with her everywhere. My best boss ever was also a female. I only ever had one male boss -- he was so-so.

I once had a woman for a boss who connived and plotted, for and against both higher ups and lesser employees. She was a stinker. Today I work for a woman who is the best boss I ever had. In short, if one has a preference re gender in bosses, it's subjectively based, or based on isolated circumstances. My experiences with male bosses are the same.

I think the worst boss I ever had was the one who sent me to his psychiatrist for an IQ evaluation before he would hire me. He had this theory that you had to have a certain IQ in order to do the job. A coworker confided that he kept a couple of psychiatrists on retainer because he had a habit of going off the deep end and become verbally violent.....loudly. I can testify that in the three months I was on that job that the psychiatrists weren't helping him.

One of the best bosses I ever had was a woman--a city desk editor at a newspaper where I worked. Sharp, steady, empathetic while being very tough and demanding. I adored her.

My least favourite bosses have been men, my most favourite have been women.
In my experience, the men always seem to know all the answers and are checking to see who agrees, while the women are actually listening to what people are saying.

And you "passed?" LOL

i prefer women across the board, in everyting.



seriously tho they always treat me nice.

I've been self-employed for so long...mind if I answer this in terms of "clients" rather than "bosses"?

I'd rather work for men. They're typically much more straightforward.

i've worked for both. on average i would prefer the guy because the men i worked for were not prone to the micro-management that the women did. i spent as much time explaining to my female bosses what i was doing as doing what i was doing.

on the other hand my female bosses were more prone to being consensus builders in the planning stages of projects, where my input was welcome.

but the worst bosses i ever worked for were men, and conversely, the very best.

i think that the sex of a person is less important than the experience that person has in managing people, personally i worked for young female bosses who would likely mature into very good people to work for, but i caught them at the start of their management career, while most of the guys i worked for were established leaders of people.

I also had a couple of women bosses like you describe - hard, demanding, but also fair and understanding - I loved them. Most likely because they knew who were the lazy screw ups and they would be on them like you wouldn't believe. If you worked hard and put in an honest days work, these bosses would stand up for you.

The only really terrible boss I've ever had was a woman. Have had plenty of good bosses with either chromosomal configuration.

Men. (For me...for you it might be different) I get along better with men in every respect.

Always have.

I guess the point is, the answer depends on your experience with bosses because gender doesn't make you good or bad at anything; it's all an individual thing.

put me down for no boss as well...

No one is the boss of me. Do I make myself clear?

No boss is certainly an option. Hubby and I have been self employed for a few years now, but I would be the first to say that self employment isn't for everybody. You don't have to clock in and you set your own schedule, and I like that, but the self employed is solely responsible for his/her own livelihood. If you goof off or let things slide even for a little while, you cut into your income. There is no paid vacation. No paid holidays. No sick leave. No pay check while you're waiting around for work to do. You are responsible for paying all your own taxes and for your own retirement and health plans. And there is nobody to blame or kick the responsibility upstairs to when problems develop.

Again, I love it but it isn't for everybody.

Usually, even if you have a bad boss, those who work for wages can close the door or put away the tools and walk away for awhile at the end of the day or the weekend. And there are days now and then that such an option looks really really good.

I've had at least two terrific male bosses and three who were pretty good except for the rage episodes. These were usually not directed at me, although once a boss showed all of his staff that included me where every single item in the office was, while ranting. That was a several room office.

Female bosses - trying to remember. There were the nuns at the hospital; they were pretty good, although - or perhaps because - they weren't around much.
I "consulted" for a female client as a designer with a desk at her office - but we were professional peers basically talking back and forth on design. No problemo.

I once had a male boss who used to hit people in the head. He wasn't very good. I also had one that was a wimp and couldn't stand behind whatever he said or did. He wasn't very good either.

I once had a female boss that you didn't know if she was going to be nice boss or b*tchy boss that day. She wasn't very good.

I think some of my favorite ones have been women (probably just a coincedence) - they were the tough but fair ones - probably because they laid everything out on the table - you knew where you stood.

As far as I'm concerned, my best bosses have been the ones who I knew could step in and do my job, and do it better than me. When I was doing grunt work, my boss was a dude who went 6'7" and somewhere on the far side of 350 lbs -- about 1.5 of me by mass, and could have done the work of 2 of me, I'm sure. Just based on the nature of the work, there wouldn't have been a whole lot of women who could have stepped inand given off the same leadership vibe in that particular shop. But, then, not a lot of men could have, either.

When I was pushing paper around, my boss for a while was a woman who'd worked at the dysfunctional institution for 30 years, had kept up with changes in technology, and knew how to get **** done. She was fantastic, but left for greener pastures after I'd been there for about a year. (She'd also bounced me up the pay scale as much and as quickly as she could to encourage me to stay, the office being largely populated by the obselete or socially retarded.) Just by virtue of the nature of the work and how long she'd been in it, it would have been very difficult to find a man with a similar background and intimate knowledge of the bureaucracy.

Her replacement, another woman, was a horror. She didn't know how anything worked, and was not inclined to learn. She preferred to preside without making any actgual tangible contributions. Much more interested in showing videos to improve morale and trying to make the place softer and sunnier. You want to brighten my day, lady? Don't come in at twice my salary and spend half the week at "team-building" and "leadership" workshops. She was loathed by everybody who did actual work, and adored by the couple of near-retirement career secretaries who were still befuddled by the introduction of the computer into the workplace. It is hard to imagine a man coming into the position and ******* it up in quite the same way she did.




But in all of these instances, I know that someone of the opposite sex could have stepped in and been equally effective (or ineffective), but sex played into the particular way in which each boss got things done.

My first boss was a woman and I loved her. She was supportive, assertive, knowledgeable, and she backed me and trained me 100%. She was let go when a 'hater' bought out the business and fired her on the spot (for being a woman and a woman who wasn't meek and intimidated by him). When he stood over me and tried to bully me into doing both my job and hers, I gave my notice.

Another boss of mine was a man and he turned out to be a pedophile and tax dodger, among other nasty habits, and when he and I came to the end of our work relationship, he gave me a sealed envelope in the guise of a goodbye gift. It contained a bullet. Message received.

Another male boss I had, had a nervous breakdown. People snigger and say I did it to him, but he was a weakling when I got him.

I had a female boss who was a complete and utter B!tch. She belittled people in public, took credit for her staff acomplishments, was rude and difficult and enjoyed pushing people around. She had several complaints and I have no idea, to this day, why she wasn't sued or fired for cause.

My next boss was a man and I loved working for him. He was intelligent, supportive, a really really nice person who never got mad at me (and I can be a real pain in the arse) and gave me the freedom to manage my own workload, just checking on me and getting updates occasionally, or giving me projects and letting me run with them. I have nothing bad to say about him and still know and talk to him now, years later when I no longer worked for him.

I currently have a female boss who is great and someone I personally like, although she could be a bit more assertive and supportive, however I am much older now so I don't need the hand-holding. I am assertive enough for our whole team.

Truth is, I've had so many varied experiences with both sexes that I could not point to one or the other and say which is better - it is the individual person. I do find, though, that many people who are in management these days, get their positions with no management skills and get little training on how to properly manage and lead a team.

I once had a manager ask me if I hated him (we were having difficulties working on a project together) and I said no, I don't hate you, you just suck at communicating and managing the team. Apparently I was supposed to be tactful? T-a-c-t-f-u-l .... writing that into my book of words I have to learn ....