to think that women are generally worse to work for than men?

[choufleur]

Obviously not me - i'm a great manager but all of the very senior female managers i have to work with (i'm in the middle) seem to think the only way to manage is to undermine people and force their views and ways of working on staff who are further down the pecking order than them. Men i work for don't seem to do it anywhere near as much.

[ZephirineDrouhin]

Yes me too actually re the worst bosses

[ShellingPeas]

My best boss was a woman - she commanded great respect from people by being fair, generous and even handed. People would work very, very hard for her. She was the mother of 2 young girls and worked 4 days in the office and 1 day from home - she was prepared to give people flexibility in their own working hours too which was great.

The worst boss I had was a man who spent his time bullying everyone - he bordered on psychopathic and everyone was scared of him. You spent the minimum amount of time you could at work. When he was replaced the workplace atmosphere lightened beyond belief.

[UnquietDad]

Not my experience. Always had female managers and found them fine.

[kathyis6incheshigh]

No, good and bad of both sexes.
And I think there is something in what Dittany says about some people having problems with women in authority.

[HuwEdwards]

My current manager is 10 years younger than me and female.

She is one of the best managers I've ever had.

[anothernamechangeyawn]

I have had four female managers and three of them have been absolutely terrible to work for. Petty, moody, controlling and insecure. The last one, however, was fantastic, I think because she was very self assured and confident in her position.

IME insecure male managers are just a bit crap. Insecure women seek to control and undermine others to make themselves feel better.

[hambler]

YABU
Would you start a thread saying black bosses are worse to work for than white?
Gays than straights?
Old than young?
Protestant than catholic?

[anothernamechangeyawn]

I think the general rule is that members of a particular group (ie women) are perfectly entitled to discuss their good and bad points. There are many bad points to woman bosses. I agree with the "driven" comment. The nightmare bosses I had were all total workaholics who couldn't accept or understand that other people actually have a life and didn't want to do 2 hours of unpaid overtime every single day.

There is nothing more annoying than a boss who's there before you in the morning, stays longer in the evening, and audibly tuts as you dare to leave to go home to your child. Men generally have more perspective.

[halfbakedcookie]

I have worked for some nasty women in my time.

One of the worst was a very insecure woman who would only hire other women larger or far less attractive than herself, regardless if they were the best person for the job.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I work in a very male dominated industry and up to now all my bosses have been male. And tbh up until 3 months I dreaded the thought of having a female boss, I have always worked very well with blokes and it is what I have been used to.

My boss in my new job the past 3 months is a woman, and it has been brilliant. She is supportive, intelligent and (importantly) very well respected amongst her peers. She also is far less interested in micro-managing and faff than my previous male bosses.

[MoonchildNo6]

Agree with Dittany, I think people just accecpt male bosses good or bad but if a female boss is bad it's a big issue. I also think there can be a certain amount of jealousy from other women sometimes when a woman is in charge and a feeling of insecurity from men.

[JemL]

In my experience, the only good thing about male bosses is that they are generally so inept and disorganised, that a. they make you look great and b. they are not so on top of things like deadlines, chasing stuff up, etc, and you can, if you wish, get away with more. They are more likely to agree to whatever proposal you put to them (holiday arrangements, flexi time, etc) because they can't be arsed to get into working out the practicalities of any proposed arrangements and find it easier just to say yes.

This is just in my experience, of course!!

[UnquietDad]

Gosh, aren't there a lot of generalisations on here? Good job it's not a bunch of nasty horrible MEN saying these things about their female bosses, because that might be a bit sexist.

[motherinferior]

I have had precisely one good boss in my rather long working life. She is a MNer

[cthea]

I think we all have experiences of working for both male and female bosses and can talk about that. I think fewer people have experience of working for white and black bosses, gay and straight, protestant and catholic. I don't see why we should be so terrified of sharing experiences and keep PC about it all. People are making some generalisations here but nobody is using abusive language. And as far as I can see there are both good and bad experiences of either sex. It's just a chat, you know.

[TheBolter]

My current boss is lovely, amazing, kind... and a man!

My previous boss was also a man, but completely inept.

My boss before that, a woman, who had had to climb the greasy pole through ad agencies in the Thatcher era. Nuff said. . I got on OK with her, in fact she LOVED me, but I was (secretly) terrified of her. While she was really quite inspirational she also had a totally irrational, prima-donna like attitude that spat people out when they'd outlived their usefulness.

My boss before that was a man who was a complete wanker of the highest order. I would still like to smack him round the back of his smug bonce with a serious piece of Le Creuset Ironware.

When I did temping work as a student I worked for a complete bitch who told me to go home after a week because I was basically useless. In front of everyone and in the most horrible way. Had me in tears. But I think it was because her long-term dp (not her choice apparently ) fancied me. He worked in the same office and was always very nice to me.

I think a lot of women are fine to work for until they feel threatened.

I think I'm a really nice boss myself ... my colleagues may think otherwise though!