Tomorrow, October 16, is "National Boss Day," according to my company-reimbursed desk calendar. Wikipedia describes it as "a day for employees to thank their superiors for being kind and fair throughout the year."
When you finish laughing, read on...
I'm not celebrating National Boss Day with the people who work for me because, well, isn't EVERY work day Boss Day? Sure, we bosses work hard, but we also get the credit, and some extra cash to boot. I don't see "National Employee Respect Day" on the calendar (and not just because the acronym is "NERD").
Insurance company secretary Patricia Bays Haroski invented "National Boss's Day" and registered it with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1958. Of course, she had a little incentive: Haroski's boss was HER DAD. (Rumor has it young Haroski was named "Employee of the Month" 28 times in two years).
Haroski's Dad's birthday? You guessed it: October 16. Nepotism notwithstanding, Illinois Governor Otto Kerner backed Haroski's registration in 1962 and made it official. "National Governors Named Otto Day" wasn't quite as successful.
Hallmark swept all that history under the rug and made the day even more official in 1979 by printing a kazillion boss-themed greeting cards, half a kazillion if you don't count the ones with Ziggy or Dilbert.
Boss Day actually reminds me more of my bad bosses than the good ones. One was the bully COO of a 300-person New Jersey-based company. His motivating rhetoric relied almost exclusively on tired sports cliches and phrases from the bookjacket of a guru-scribed marketing manual everyone refers to but few actually read.
"There are four kids of employees," he once lectured me as he made himself comfortable in my office's modest visiting chair. "Leaders. Losers. Workers. And victims...And I HATE victims." He smiled at me then, but behind that smile I got the distinct impression he was calculating a certain severance package.
I don't claim to be the best boss in the world, but I try to be as aware of my effect on my employees as I can. Good bosses encourage; bad ones demoralize. Good bosses put you on a bus to promotion; bad ones throw you under it. Good bosses don't forget your contributions; bad bosses don't remember your name.
I don't want to be a manager who rises to rule but fails to lead. This is important, because while there are many styles of managers -- including those who fall victim to their own hubris -- there is really only one kind of employee: the kind on whom you rely to succeed.
I may turn the conference tables on my direct reports on Boss' Day and celebrate them instead of them celebrating me. Maybe I'll arrive with a box of donuts, or at least put it on my TO DO list. Or have an unpaid intern make me a TO DO list.
So, Happy Boss Day to you bosses. Now go out there and say something nice in public about the people who make you look so good, even the ones not in your immediate family.
Follow Joel Schwartzberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joeljest
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