Female or male bosses? Here are the poll results compiled by Singapore's Straits Times Life!

FEMALE BOSSES
Like them, hate them? Take the ST Life! poll.

1. My bosses have so far been:
Male
365 (27%)
Female
326 (24%)
Of either gender
667 (49%)
Total votes: 1358

2. I prefer working under:
Males
898 (66%)
Females
205 (15%)
I have no preference
256 (19%)
Total votes: 1359

3. Compared to male bosses, women bosses are:
Better
244 (18%)
Worse
842 (62%)
No difference
268 (20%)
Total votes: 1354

4. Compared to male bosses, women bosses tend to be more:
Capable
148 (11%)
Caring
118 (9%)
Meticulous
219 (16%)
Temperamental
723 (53%)
Indecisive
151 (11%)
Total votes: 1359

5. Besides gender, I assess my boss on this other factor:
Age
46 (3%)
Education level
43 (3%)
Marital status
117 (9%)
Physical appearance
66 (5%)
Ability on the job
1087 (80%)
Total votes: 1359

Myself, I've been working for two female bosses. From my observation, female bosses are more meticulous and they do tend to work till late.. very late.. Well for myself, I have no complains I guess.

This reminds me of a story by my friend Danny Wong (not real name) during a class reunion. Danny is an auditor with a small/mid-sized audit firm located in the Old Klang Road area. Anyways, he's got this female boss whom he describes as ... "Fierce like tiger, sting like a bee."

The female boss runs the company like boot camp. According to Danny, all employees (8 in total) must be in the office before she comes in. The thing is if you come AFTER her, she'll lock the office door and no one is allowed to come in and will be treated as if you're on annual leave. Ouch.. I was told they get 12 annual leaves per year. I jokingly said to him, "Wei.. you can come in late once a month..!" He just gave me that shut-up-or-I’ll-clobber-you look. Thus, he said, most of them will be in office at 7:30 am. Another thing is, no one was allowed to leave before her... he told me, once all of them worked till midnight just waiting for her to leave.

Danny said that on all his colleague's calendar, including his, have a warning marked once every month to notify them that it's her 'time-of-the-month' and everyone tries their best not to upset her... According to him, she got real nasty once during that period and thus, everyone agreed on a monthly 'early warning' system. LOL... I was laughing to tears at this point.

After 7 months working (salute!) with her, Danny and 4 other of his colleague decided that enough is enough and all 5 of them handed in their resignation letter on the same day. Danny said she was so furious but he didn't care and he said that for 30 days, 5 of them came in late, went off early. Everyday, he was hoping the door was locked so that he would not need to come to work. :P

Thus, Danny began to look for a job. He managed to get 2 final interviews, one with a mid-sized firm and the other a Big 4 audit firm. Anyways, the Big 4 audit firm was scheduled first. After passing the final interview with flying colours, they offered him a job. Still traumatized by his previous work experience, he asked the interviewer, "My supervisor, female or male?" The interviewer replied, "Female." Danny quickly declined the offer and decides to go for the mid-sized firm offer whose boss is a male but with a much lesser pay. hahaha.. I've never seen him so fearful before. In college, he used to be damn kia-su and money minded. hahaha.. what a turn-around.

Danny brags that now he leaves his house at 8:30am, reaches the office at 9:00am have breakfast and starts work around 9:30am. He has the flexibility to leave and work is much more enjoyable. He said compared to his previous work place, the current is like Paradise. hahaha...

This ends my story today. I am not trying to brand all female bosses are like that. Female bosses I worked for, works hard and meticulous but knows how to joke around and have a good time as well.