The majority of my bosses have been assholes. However, the women outweigh the men in the "asshole area."

Anonymous wrote:I'm a female in government rather than the private sector but over the course of my career have also consistently found my female bosses much less pleasant to work for than male bosses, largely because they have tended to be more rigid and micromanaging. Also at my agency the vast majority of female managers are single while most male managers are married with kids so I've found my male managers to be more understanding and supportive of work/life balance, child care constraints, etc.

What an awful indictment of your agency. If I were faced with stats like this I would definitely be very wary of an agency that seems to have a culture of work where married women with children are unable to break through the management ceiling.....

Anonymous wrote:It has nothing to do with gender. Smart people are usually easier to work for, dumb bosses are bad because they are insecure, or don't know they are not good.

THIS.

It has nothing to do with gender. Smart people are usually easier to work for, dumb bosses are bad because they are insecure, or don't know they are not good.

I had 3 great bosses, two are women.

I had one petty, micromanaging, mean boss. He is a man.

One Senior MBA woman was terrible to work with, but she reported to someone terrible so it was hard to determine if it was trickle down or her.

The other Senior MBA woman was a delight to work for.

Both were professional, but the first wouldn't let you get a word in edgewise and never grew up from analyst days work. The second was textbook great at managing people, projects, the board, the mission.

I'm a director and try to be a good boss to my staff. I report to a VP and am so grateful that she is my boss compared to others in my company. She has kids too and is only a few years older than me so totally gets it and is supportive when I need flexibility with hours, working from home, have a sick kid, etc. and trusts that I will produce what I am responsible for and work nights, weekends, etc to make things up when necessary. The single woman in my office in her mid 40s is the absolute worst. She constantly makes snarky comments and is completely inflexible. The men also just don't get it.

The worst kind of boss, IME, is a married man with a stay at home wife. They have absolutely no understanding of what childcare entails and the idea that some couples split domestic duties, yet they expect their employees (who mostly have working spouses) to adhere to the same face time standards they do (with a non-working spouse). They tend to discount the work people do if, e.g., they go home and put the kids to bed and then log back in for another 2-3 hours, because they don't see it.

OP, stop with the woman bashing. Men and women can be good or bad bosses. The type of PERSON, male or female, who gets ahead in a cutthroat business environment may be a difficult boss.

Nope. All my terrible bosses have been men. I do have a terrible female client, but that's because she's just a disaster of a human being in general.

Anonymous wrote:Yes! Females make the worst bosses!!!

And women make the best bosses.

I have had 3 female bosses. One was a dream and 2 were nightmares.

A male boss (if he is not a sexual harasser, sexist or racist) can be easier to work with. I have however seen that with male bosses there is more incidents of dereliction of duty in the guise of delegating tasks. I can deal with that though!!

The worst. Absolute worst. The last one was psycho.

I've never had a terrible female boss. My best boss and my three worst were all men. The female bosses I've had have all been pretty good. Of course this is anecdotal, but so is your experience.

My current boss is female, a few years younger and she is the absolute best!

Anonymous wrote:Nope. My female boss is awesome and flexible and brilliant and a good mentor.

+1

This is my first female boss in over 20 years of work (I work in a male-dominated field). I have only had about three great bosses, and she is one of them.