Bosses that aren't my kind of tea

As many of you know, Wifey has decided to stop her hiatus status of being a tai-tai, and moved back to being part of the Rat's Race.

She now works long hours quite often, but no longer complains as much as before.
Like her, I now frequently finds myself bringing my laptop back home to work, but I have few complains.

It isn't that we are workaholics.
Come on, anyone will agree that if given a choice, they rather have enough work to last till the end of office work hours than to have to do overtime.

Yes, this is a step back from my breakthrough to financial freedom. But let's cast this issue aside and take a look at why we won't mind the unofficial working hours.

It goes down to the boss we work for.

Wifey had pretty much bad luck working for a string of companies where the bosses are short-tempered. And even one who will not hesitate to sack employees on the spot. For me, I have worked for bosses who will just say "yes" to our clients at our expenses, bosses who could not stand up and defend their own guys.

There is this saying about a pat on the back by bosses doesn't mean as much as a pat by the customers. I personally think that saying comes from incompetent bosses who fail to realise a staff's potential. If your customers appreciate you more than your boss, you should probably consider about joining your customers' department/company.

While there are many factors that will decide whether you are a stayer or a quitter in your company - money, environment and job satisfaction being some of the common important factors, the person who you mingle on a day-to-day basis (ie. your boss and colleagues) will be the one who make you feel at home or the receiving end of a bad nightmare.

Wifey's current boss mingle with his subordinates, and defends them from harsh critics from aggressive departments - like how a mother bird protects her little birds from predators.

My current boss on the other hand, is aggressive and expects fast results. But she is aware of the workload we are getting and is appreciative when we complete the work. More importantly, we all have a common understanding of why the work we are doing is important.

The boss is like the head of a family. Through mutual respect and soft leadership skills, he/she will bind the department up. Few leaders actually succeed, which is why many people jokes that "only the incompetence gets promoted".

Lets not just do annual appraisal for the subordinatesor silly peer evaluation, we should all have a go at evaluating the upper half of the hierachy (and not get penalised).

For the bosses who say "Don't ask what you the company can offer you, but what you can offer the company", here's one for ya.

Don't just ask what the subordinates can do for you, but what you can do to make the subordinates do for you willingly.

About the Author: Shingo T thinks that we should have Annual Awards for Best Dictator, Best Incompetent Bosses, Best Supporting A**holes & Worst Singapore Companies to work.