Friday, April 10, 2009

Penises rule?

This morning I read an article on an administrative/business site I recently joined that women workers prefer working for male bosses, that the reason they don't like working for a woman boss is like the "Queen Bee" syndrome. Then, just a moment ago, I read one of my friend's blogs where she mentioned something like "penises rule" - and was talking about a similar subject, although, it seemed that like me, she doesn't agree with this Queen Bee stuff, even if she didn't use the term "Queen Bee". I wrote a reply to the group in defense of women managers - and I think of women in general - even though all the other responses were against women managers, agreeing with the article's author. And then the site told me I hadn't confirmed my registration and since it was a big hassle and the girls were on my back to go somewhere, I let it drop. But I'd like to comment, if here, in defense of women managers, and I think women in general. I've been in the work force since 1979, so thirty years. In that time, I've had about 4 women managers and 6 men bosses. I won't lie and say all my women bosses were wonderful all the time. I won't even say any of them were my best boss ever. However, I also have to say most of the men stressed me out just as much if not more than my women bosses. One of the men intentionally sabotaged me. Another one outright insulted me. Another one intimidated me on an almost daily basis. Two of them were/are pretty good - most of the time. In my humble opinion, the men haven't been any better, any more desirable as bosses, than my women bosses. I'd only say one of the women bosses stepped far out of line. So, overall, my men bosses have been worse than my female bosses. I can be pretty hard on myself, but I think I'm a nice, caring, and helpful manager. I love my employees. They're my second family. I'm with them 40+ hours weekly, and some I've known more than ten years. They're extremely important to me in so many ways. Managing people - in my opinion - is like walking a tight rope. I want to show I care - and I think I do - without letting them walk on me. I do my best to mentor and teach people, to lead them, to bring out their best, without being arrogant, know-it-all, or condescending. I try to bring out the best in them and promote team work and get the job done for our donors and our beneficiaries and the company. Believe me, it's not easy. My boss - our director - tells me a lot to spend less time explaining and teaching, to give brief explanations and leave. But I don't want to leave anyone floundering, uneasy or not able to do the job, so I take the amount of time I think they deserve. Yes, sometimes it annoys me when someone asks me the same thing over and over. But I try very hard not to show it and practice patience. If they had to deal with our MALE director, I'm sure he'd cut them off a lot quicker and some of them would be in hurting status. So yes, I think I'm a decent manager. I'm still learning. I'm stretched so thin it's tough to do everything I need and want to do. It's rare when I have time during a work day to stop and think about what I learned in my MBA classes about managing people - to think this person falls into type 1 category and thus I have to tailor management to their personality. But I digress. I take exception to saying men make better bosses than women. Not just for my own asake, but for all women. Over the years I've heard a lot of women say they deserve promotions, they should be the boss. But when someone else is promoted over them, particularly when it's a woman, they complain that it's not fair. Some, not all, complain the new woman boss is a bitch. And believe me, I hear people now who don't like everything male bosses say and do. Maybe people just don't like the boss, whoever he or she is. Some of them, most of them get upset when reprimanded, even when fairly so, and blame it on the boss being too controlling or too bitchy. Usually it's deserved. It's human nature. But to say women are worse bosses than men as a whole - I disagree. I think people are people. Some females and some males are wonderful bosses - and some aren't. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

2 comments:

Morgan Mandel said...

Bosses are bosses, no matter which sex they are. As such, they're bound to get on our nerves one way or another. If you're self-employed, it can be nerve-wracking, so you really can't win.

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

My personal opinion is whoever is in charge has to realize they are merely a figure head and the true power is with the plebs who manipulate the manager to get what they want.

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