The Martian Perspective

 A good response I should say to this blog idea. I am here just to give the martian perspective on the issue I raised in my previous blog, An Attempt…. The issue was whom would you prefer? A male or a female Boss.

The response was a mixed bag. I had this misconception that the ladies will unite together and thrash the male boss option with the stereotype of “guys being good for nothing” argument On the contrary,  and to my utter surprise, male bosses did get a thumbs up from a section of the female fraternity. One of the major reasons given were that male counterpart is easy going on the ladies and gives them a free hand at times. Even though it suggests that men can be fooled by the women to get some lax on their deadlines, I tend to agree with it. This is because many a times same strategy goes for a toss for a male employee.

So where do I stand on this issue? A very generalized answer will make this blog boring. And I am not interested in getting bonus points of goodness by supporting both the choices. Therefore, I say that I prefer a female boss. It comes out from a lot of observations over the years. This is no way suggests anything about my age

Lets see why I would prefer a female boss. First is what I call theory of unknown This doesn’t work with a male boss. If you were unable to meet the deadline it is obvious you are going to come up with a reason that may not be entirely true if you understand what I mean In that circumstance, it is highly probable that a male boss will not buy it as he himself at some point would have used the same tactic or if he is a meticulous one, he would have seen his male colleagues doing the same. I am in no ways hinting that female bosses are incapable of catching this but the fact remains that there is always this hope for male employees that their female superiors will buy whatever they say.

Another reason is what I called theory of contrast. You somehow respect and like the other sex as a supervisor. When you have the same sex bossing you, you tend to expect more out of him believing he/she will understand you better as you share the same gender. This leads to ego hassles and other problems. But the same doesn’t happen with the opposite gender as you have always tend to lower down your expectations and have this slight element of uncertainty as to what the boss will respond on what you have done.

As far as what are the characteristics of male and female bosses is concerned, I can just make  few quick observations. But more or less these are very general and can depend very much on the individual. Women leads will want things to be done in a proper way. I think they do not prefer innovations and love the tried and tested methodical way. Probably that is one of the reasons why we don’t have so many famous female scientists as compared to male ones. Male bosses may invite new styles of functioning but they can be temperamental. Sometimes you yourself just want to do things in a particular manner than thinking out of the box every time. Female leads may have a soft heart at times but again only to their male team members.The reverse holds for the male leads but degrees may vary.

I have had the experience to work with both a male thesis advisor and a female one. Not getting into the history with each one I would say I prefer a female boss. They may be a bit more serious and proper with things but in the end you want the job to be done even at the cost of losing out the male camaraderie. I wonder at times if its true that you hear more of male camaraderie and female bonding and not the other way round. Maybe the issue for the next blog

Anyways, I appreciate the comments on this issue that I raised. I hope we can get into more controversial ones with time. Till next time,

Adios.