Battle of the sexes: Do men want female bosses?

Hell hath no fury like a woman boss!

Well, we decided to remove ‘scorned’ from the idiom because no one dares to mess with the boss! But seriously, that was not what the common sentiment was when we started working on this story that turned into a sort of battle of the sexes—only this time it was the battle within the sexes!

Flooded by a gamut of emotions, people shared their experiences of working under woman boss---some with horrible ones and others with fairly decent experiences. But interestingly, most of the horrible experiences of women bosses were experienced by women themselves and those who had a smooth sail mostly were men!

So, after interviewing so many of them, we decided to pick out five most common characteristics that both men and women professionals observed in their respective bosses err…women bosses.

Mother or step-mother?

Having worked under a woman boss myself, I was pretty surprised when men called them motherly, “They are very understanding. They like to listen and generally they are on the same wavelength with their fellow team members,” says Shubhojit Roy, a professional who works with a South Korean consumer durable company.

Another such professional, who did not wished to be named, said that he felt women bosses were more understanding because of ‘motherly’ nature. “They engage with the team and extend a motherly feeling to the team,” he says.

But quick to rebut was a young woman professional who started her career under a woman boss. “They are anything but understanding,” says Supriya Das who worked with a telecom company in Gurgaon. She adds that women bosses are tyrannical and often disregard one’s circumstances as excuses.

Who’s the boss? eh!

Well, this one is about ego clashes. While most men felt that there were less of ego clashes because of their understanding nature, women professionals felt that women bosses had a much bigger ego problem.

“Their ego is like the bubble waiting to burst at the smallest issues,” said Das. Citing an example she says that once she disagreed with her boss over some issue. On voicing her opinion during their team meeting, her boss just eyed her. “She asked me to stay back and later on made it very clear on who’s the boss here!” she recalls. Most women professionals called their female bosses as insecure and jealous. “They get jealous if you look smarter than them,” says Das.

Outcome engineers or manipulators?

JR Ward in his book Lover Eternal says ‘I like to think of myself more as an outcome engineer.”

We believe most women bosses would like to call themselves as outcome engineer but team members like to call them manipulators. Both men and women professionals mutually share the feeling. “They know how to manipulate you,” says Karan Katyal, 28 year old IT engineer, who worked under a woman boss in his previous organisation.

“They just know what your weaknesses are or let’s say how to get something done through you,” he adds. Women too felt the same and said that they also use emotions to manipulate someone into doing something. “They can be so nice and helping that one cannot even imagine that they want something in exchange. And it is only after their work is done that one realizes that their concern for you was not genuine,” avers media professional Kritika Kapoor.

Born telepathic!

Woman bosses are telepathic or so they feel. “They expect everyone to know exactly what they want and how they want it without even communicating,” sighs Katyal. “They will just tell you that they want this but do not believe in giving any background or any other specific detail,” he notes. While agreeing that no one expects spoon-feeding from their bosses, it is always best to be more specific while sharing briefs.

Tammana Raj Kaushal (name changed), a senior manager in the media relations team of an auto company recollects an incident that happened before her boss left for vacation. Tammana offered to help and took down everything that was needed to be taken care of during her boss’ absence. She finished off the pending work and when her boss joined office after a week, she wanted to get an update on whether she had done the needful for a journalist’s queries for one of her stories.

“I expected her to tell me all her work that I was supposed to take care of and not imagine that I already knew. Thankfully, one of our other colleagues was also in touch with the journalist and had shared the response. But it was unprofessional on her part to not share anything about the assignment and then expect that I would have done it,” Kaushal recalls angrily.

Girls like to swing

This chartbuster from Zoya Akhtar’s hit movie ‘Dil Dhakdne Do’ stands true for women bosses—only this time it is their mood swings that we are talking about. Women are known for their mood swings but can they really keep it away from their workplace? ‘No’ pat comes the reply. “They are all okay with you now and the next moment, they will be criticizing you,” point out both Kaushal and Das.

They add that if she is having bad day, then it is best not to be seen around her. “She is looking to vent out her anger on someone and waiting to pick on you for the slightest error.”

On the other hand, Roy and Katyal write-it off as a typical boss trait. “Every boss is like that. They like to vent out their frustrations on their subordinates. I don’t think it is gender specific,” notes Roy. Well, it seems to be the classic case of opposites attract!

These may be just a few of the characteristics that make a woman boss interesting. And while we come up with our next story on what makes male bosses a favourite among their female subordinates, until then share a few laughs as you read on!

Image credit: www.coztume.com