An X- tray Of The Female Boss

By ABIBATU LAWANU

It has often been said that when you understand the personality and character traits of your boss it can go a long way in ensuring a peaceful working life. But some boss especially the women can best be described as powerholics. These category of women tend to control everyone around them.

Everyone knows that being a boss has perks: long lunches, big pay packets, bigger expense accounts and having someone else to do your dirty work but that does not give you a license to make the working life of those working with you a misery.

Edith a friend of mine said that her boss is more like a headmistress than a boss who trust only herself to do things properly. Her control freak boss frustrated her in so many ways to the extent that she had to tender her resignation letter.

Omo who also has a female boss said her boss is the slyest of them all. “My boss uses subtle bullying technique to gradually undermine my confidence. Everyday her seemingly trivial put downs have a cumulative effect that can be devastating. I wonder why she’s doing it or if I’m going mad. For God’s sake she is a married woman with children but whenever I am being admired or complimented by a man, my boss would find a way to say something to slight me.

“Painfully, my boss is often highly favoured by those above her while those below her suffer. Well, I think she has a personality problem because I can see that behind those intimidation tactics is someone with low self-esteem’.

A colleague of mine told me of how he introduced his relative to a woman who had begged him to help her to look for a trust worthy person to work with her in her organization. In the first month, his relative lodged two complains of how badly he was treated by his new boss and he encouraged him to be patient. But to his surprise, his relative resigned the following month with out informing him. He only got to know through the woman who had employed his relative.

When he had a chat with his relative over his resignation, the young man opened up, “I loved that job, I also like the office and they salary was okay”, the said. “I got on with my colleagues. In fact, work would be perfect if it weren’t for the fact that my employer turned out to be one of Satan’s little helpers, hell-bent on making my working life a misery.”

According to him, the woman is more like a head-mistress than a boss. She is a slave driver. He said the most painful aspect was that the woman knew that he is married with a kid and that he is also a graduate yet expects him to carry her bag whenever she returns from her outings. She also ordered him to bring in her shoes from the car. She so frustrated him to the extent that he had to resign after just two months without looking back.

Most people prefer the male boss to the female boss. This is because the female boss tend to be very harsh and strict while the male boss is more tolerant and accommodating. What the female boss fails to realize is that being too harsh on subordinates or employees does not bring the best out of them. When you have a boss who is temperamental, the atmosphere at work is always very tense and this can bring about lack of zeal for work.

Another thing is that the female boss do not net work. When a man travels he networks from wherever he is. This is why they often perform better than us. The female boss hardly groom people to take over from her.

Although I am a woman but I must say that women are the most difficult people to work with. Even when you resolve in your mind that all you need is to speak her language, you still find yourself encountering problems with her. Don’t get me wrong not all female boss are that bad. Some might prove tough initially but when you approach her in terms she prefers you may likely win her over. Mirroring her behaviour can massage her ego and open her to suggestions.

While this may work for some, it may not work for others who have lazy boss that enjoys exploiting the hard work of their workers.

Management Guru Dr. Roger frits of how to manage your boss advise that you can change your manager by being a proactive employee, “don’t wait for the boss to make every move seek information and help. Give feed back, ask questions, if your boss is a bully, weak or incompetent, it’s natural to want to avoid contact and hope for improvement.”