Managers....do you prefer male or female?

Silverfish

I've had many managers over the years, but I have to say, the women were the worst. Its definitely like they have more to prove, which they may well have, but they needn't have done it in the way they did.

That said, my worst ever boss was male, he was so bad I quit the job with no other job lined up, just to get the hell away from him.

I now have an awesome male boss

Jules

Kinda already been covered... merge!

The Sweeper

Best manager ever, by a mile: a married woman in her late fifties who had kids.

Worst manager ever, by a country mile: a single woman in her early thirties with no kids who'd just moved in with her boyfriend.

Nightwish

I dont think gender has any influence on managerial ability. I've had 3 male managers and 2 female managers in my working life and its mixed as to whether they were easier/nicer/better than their gender opposite counterparts. One of my managers is my mother, so I cannot judge fairly there!

Blush_01

First ever manager was a man in his mid 20s, he was good fun and firm but fair, but on nights out he got a bit too friendly with most of the females on our team. He was transferred and replaced with an alcoholic who'd stay up all night gambling, but who was possibly the best manager I've ever had. If he had any faults it was that until he had his coffee he couldn't see or hear you, nothing registered. Still my favourite manager ever!

Since that I had a male manager who was an absolute pig. He was obnoxious, rude, demeaning and so petty it beggars belief. He would give you a loud and showy dressing down in public to make an example of you, had no respect for the fact that employees had private lives and work didn't trump life. He expected people to work 70-80 hour weeks because he, as MD, had to. The job involved a lot of group travelling and he'd spring extra jobs on you at the last moment. He was vague, temperamental and so childish. The only way to talk him down was to somehow bring up his kids. Managing a manager - that was a fulltime job in itself. The two male supervisors under him were much more laid back, but could also turn on you in a flash for no apparent reason. It was terrifying to see one of them laying into people, and the other, South African, openly admitted to being a racist and proud of it, although I'd imagine there was a background to it beyond mere ignorance.

At one stage I had a female manager who was the most manipulative woman I've ever met - it was actually incredible the things she'd convince you to do before you realised you'd done them. She'd feign illness and then spy on you -mad I know, but I didn't realise it until one of the others who worked with me said it, having worked there for a few months more than I had. I was consistently crap at the job, so her spying on me didn't make much of a difference, but when you know about it it adds pressure. It was a rotten job, so I quit after a month and a half. Best decision I ever made.

My last manager and supervisor were absolute sweethearts. Actually, my old manager just added me on facebook. She was a classy lady and although there were times when we'd chat about stuff it was usually work hard then chat after hours.

I have found that women working under women complain more than women working under men because women won't take the same excuses that work on men, and you do work harder for them. The women I've worked for have always been visibly working while they were working. The men would slack off a little more easily. It does vary from person to person and environment to environment though.

Black Swan

I prefer qualified, enthusiastic, and encouraging team playing managers, no matter their gender.

Reku

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

I prefer qualified, enthusiastic, and encouraging team playing managers, no matter their gender.

Agreed.
I've had good managers of both genders, and absolute terrors of both.
The only tendancy I've seen so far is females seemed to be a bit more covert (backtalk & rumourmongering) in their bullying, males more overt (shouting and threats). There have been exceptions to this in both genders though.
I think to be honest what really marked the good managers was that they'd not forgotten their time in the trenches and were willing when necessary to pitch in to get the job done, and not just stand back and tell you how to do it.

Sleepy

The only manager I've ever turned on was female. An absolute cvnt of the highest order and I told her so in a crowded bar to the delight of my fellow employees and the locals. One of my current bosses (and the person who hired and promoted me twice) is a woman and I get on great with her.

One thing I have noticed about female managers is that they're far more likely to play favourites with their staff.

In general, I still think that in general men tend to make better managers though it's often because of the women beneath them. Women seem to be more likely to 'row in' under a male leader than one of their own.

Don't think I've ever had major problems with any of my male managers, had a few with three different female managers (though all in past and part-time jobs where tbh, the calibre of management was always very low e.g. small hotels, retail etc.) though the best managers I've worked under would be a female:male split of 2:1.

Clare Bear

Every female manager I've had have been biiiiiiiiitches!!!! And any male manager I've had have been lovely, that's just my own personal experiences but give me a male manager any day!

Dragan

Always get on very well with my managers, male or female. The ones who are nice are a pleasure to work with, the ones who try and bully me quickly learn that **** won't fly, i'm well aware of what my job is and what i was hired for in my job description, thank you and if you'd like to take it any further by all means me can have that meeting you talked about. Let me just give my union rep and HR a shout. Cheers.

I could never understand why people put up with **** in the workplace....I got out of that habit a long time ago.

singloud

In my experience, I've had decent men and women bosses.

Evil women bosses tended to be on a power trip.
Evil men bosses tended to have a job requiring them to wear a suit and thought of themselves as wheeler dealers.

Pyjamarama

I wouldn't say I've ever had a fantastic manager but I'd say the male ones have been more approachable and in my experience female managers have their favourites and can be very bitchy.

I had one bitch of a manager who was foul to all the females on the team but really nice to the males. It was her own issues and she definately had a point to prove. I also think she was just a horrible person irrespective of her gender!

I've also had horrible male managers in any part timrd jobs I've had, really misoginistic and patronising. One had a huge chip on his shoulder because he never went to college and seemed really bitter towards college students that worked under him. Again I don't think that had anything to do with gender it was just his issues getting in the way of being an effective manager.

Orlee

I definately think as managers women are more difficult to work with - in my experience I've always found men to be more tolerant and reasonable

Glowing

This is turning out to be pretty unanimous!

Sorry to say I'm going to have to go with the male managers - always have been able to be myself and have a laugh. While the women may be better multi-taskers, you never quite know where you stand.

Babette08

I've had a few bitchy bosses too, seem to more often than not have a chip on their shoulders. I think it is a case of them not feeling very secure in the managerial role. Having said that my current boss is female and is an absolute sweetheart and I have the utmost respect for her

helimachoptor

I've had a few bosses...

One a gay man in his 40's. Easy going, extremely intelligent but if you f**ked up, you'd know about it.

At one stage my girlfriend was my boss which lets say I did not like one bit, She in fairness was a much better people manager but sorely lacking on the technical knowledge front. Me was technical but would be rather abrupt with people (not in a rude way, but more here is the information/problem/resolution way , I wasnt into suger coating things, I've since learned thats a good thing!

Have had 2 female bosses since then. both were fantastic and gave me the freedom to do my job.

Mikel

From my experience, women are especially mean to other women that they percieve to be lower on the ladder. Add to that the more insidious underhanded way they go about undermining and belittling them, subtle enough that they can feign ignorance.
They don't seem to do that with men, or maybe we're just less sensitive to it.
I also find them very sycophantic to someone more senior, and even someone who's male sometimes.
Male employers seem to be more secure in themselves, and i absolutely hate the way female managers play favourites, always have their cabal of acolytes.

jezza

Males for sure!

They haven't the brains to be bitchy. I love it. However they're pure lazy.

Just like me.

Weidii

Women in power are scary creatures alright. I've had some great experiences working in women-only environments though, worked in an art studio from when I was 14 til 18 and there were no males working in the place at all. I found the atmosphere was great, really lovely job. I think that might be down to the fact that the manager was an entrpreneur who was doing what she loved in life, I find in jobs like working tills in a shop or in a cinema you tend to find bitchier female managers because... well just imagine it. That's their life, working in a cinema, telling people what to do, not making any difference to the world. I'd be a hell of a bitch if my life turned out that way.

elle150

Hey Guys!

I'm a woman and in all my working life i,ve had all female mangers no male. 2 of the were lovely to work for and i'm still friends with them to this day. the other two, well jesus the moods were and currently are like the weather. you never know what why she is going to be when you go into work in the mornings. My general observation with majority (not All!! by the way) of female managers is when the going gets tough lets shout at the staff because for some reason they think that shouting will motivate staff. Yeah right! being made feel like ur 14 again and in trouble with the teacher is so going to boost ur morale and boost ur sales figures. I'm customer service advisor where i work and i get shouted at and called all names under sun enough by customers. And then to get that kind of ****e of my manager. Some of my friends wonder how I servived this long without shooting my self in the head. I know maybe a tad bit dramatic. I'm the type of person that if you leave me to do my work, i'll do it and at the required standards. I notice with female managers they have a tendency to be always looking over your shoulder, waiting for you to trip up so they can have another go at you. I find that because of it being a recession, this gives them excuse to treat u like ****e because and I quote "Its a recession be lucky you have a job". I'm sorry for this rant but I needed to vent. I try not to let it bother me but somestimes it just get to the end of my teder. Like today I was given out to because I forgot what our margin target for the week was but I remebered the rest of the targets. Please can someone see the purpose in that.

My advice to female bosses is calm down. Its not the end of the world and if managers in headoffice don't like you then don't take it out on ur staff because thats going to make ur situation with head office even worse.

Nervous Wreck

In my current job, there's 3 managers.

The man in the highest position is a great laugh and amazing at his job. Amazing with the staff but he can be fairly cranky sometimes and makes our life hell when he is.

The man below him is unbelievably professional, gets more respect from the staff than ANYONE in the company and is very fair with the staff. Everyone likes him. If he's in a bad mood, he's noticeably less approachable but never takes it out on anyone else.

The woman below each of them is great at her job and very professional as well. She's seldom in a bad mood but can tend to take it out a bit on people, not on a personal level but she's more strict... But, I've never known a manager to be as nice to their staff and she's actually become one of my best friends. Dunno what way the stats go overall but hey, that's my experience. If every boss was as cool as she was, there'd never be a workers strike again.

R.D. aka MR.D

The men I've worked for have tended to be more incompedent or totally sound.

The women have been micro managing like crazy or totally sound

I think the problem is the competiviness aspect for women. The women who were secure in their job and knew you weren't coming after them anytime soon were grand.

But I have to agree women are more moody. But i had a great manager who would just admitt it and because we were all girls working there it was grand. she would say I'm in a bad mood today so we'd act accordingly. we all supported each other while she was screaming at us and blaming us for her mistakes. :rolleyes:

But again its down to personalities.

ciagr297

as a girl in IT surrounded by boys, i actually prefer male managers. i'm pretty up front about things (something I have been taught by my male counterparts, gracias for that) and tend to get on better with male managers....but it could be i know how to handle it better

last female manager i had was a complete micro-manager and caused me to actually lose trust in my ability to do the job. nightmare.... i literally couldn't blow my nose without her interference. the female manager before that was utterly useless i'm afraid to say.

my boss now is totally sound, but we fight on a regular basis, like have a proper go at each other, but give it 20mins(and an apology on both sides) and we're laughing at some stupid joke
he's definitely a big reason i haven't been looking to move on job-wise

gardaitester06

I think this we need more females in authority ****e has to stop. We the the best person for the job, not some equality ****e.

With honourable exception... woman should not be put in positions of authority, nor should they be allowed to work in groups bigger than 2, sometimes 3. As if the groups any bigger, it become manipulative negative catyy bitchy time, everytime they are together.

Madame Razz

Hmmm, I don't really think it's a gender thing, it just depends on the actual type of person they are. Like, if I consider all of my managers it's pretty hard to grasp any sort of trend.

My first boss was female, and a fruitcake, my second boss was male and an absolute wanker, my third boss was female and a nasty bit of work, as was her superior, and her superior's superior, but if I told you which store that was in you really would not be surprised:rolleyes:

Moving onto my 'proper jobs', first boss was male and dead sound albeit a bit of a mong, second boss was male and just a fcuking ridiculous person who was so unbelievably unprofessional on occasion it beggared belief. Third boss was male, very sound but really not much of a manager. Fourth was female and useless, nice person, but useless.

I've just been given a new boss(female) and she seems a little too eager for my liking......so we shall see:rolleyes:

But then tbh, I wouldn't have a lot of day to day contact with any of them, so maybe this makes a difference. Basically as long as they leave me alone and leave me to it I is happy;)

Puddleduck

I find it all comes down to whether or not the person is qualified for the position or not. Put anyone in a position that they cant do and it will show up on the staff below them.

Ive had bitchy male and female managers. Im a fairly relaxed person and Ive learnt not to take work so seriously, and not to take crap. I learnt that one the hard way.

Madame Razz

Puddleduck wrote: »

I find it all comes down to whether or not the person is qualified for the position or not. Put anyone in a position that they cant do and it will show up on the staff below them.

Ive had bitchy male and female managers. Im a fairly relaxed person and Ive learnt not to take work so seriously, and not to take crap. I learnt that one the hard way.

+1

Nobody should take crap in their jobs. Standing up for ones self is incredibly empowering.

And I do think this recession business is a very convenient way for a lot of businesses to treat their staff like ****e.

994

It's interesting how many people say women micro-manage and that can be annoying, while men are hands-off but sometimes too much: isn't this also a stereotypical mother and father?

Blush_01

A close friend of mine, working where I'm originally from, works for an absolutely mental company.

On the surface, it seems like an amazing place to work. (I initally cursed her, because I was looking for work at the same time and was jealous that she'd gotten the job there before I even heard they were advertising.) The job isn't great, but the opportunities for progression were supposed to be fantastic - even before the recession hit the opportunities proved to be 150% theoretical.

Her direct manager is a twit. He's not bright, but he was headhunted based on the recommendation of another manager who he had worked with in another company and there are a number of suggestions as to why this happened. She has turned her role around and they all seem to resent it. She works closely with another department, and the way the supervisor of that department (female) treats the two women she supervises really shocked me - I genuinely didn't believe her. One of the women has a young child and some of the comments she made about the child would have had me swinging for her.

Women and men are the exact same as far as I can see. Can't trust them as far as you can throw them if they're on a "career path". Nothing quite like a stiletto or some fine italian leather imprinted on your forehead.

Clare Bear

From my own experience managers are often knobs regardless of gendre. I've seen perfectly nice people turn in to assholes when they've been promoted to managerial status. However the female managers I've worked with have been way nastier than any of the men, it's a lot easier to reason with the male managers I've worked with.