Friend Bosses - Strict Bosses

Antwoine Blount

Mr. Cirillo

ENG-101

11 March 2016

Friend bosses/strict bosses

The perception of whether a boss is considered a friend or strict depends on the outlook of the employee being supervised. There are, however, a few important areas most people would agree makes a difference. I’m going to discuss who makes a better boss, friend bosses or strict bosses. A boss is in a position of authority, so whether your boss is friendly or strict, you’re stuck. I have had one awesome boss and the other bosses I’ve had, well they sucked.

A experience I’ve had with a boss, that I would considered a friend would always encourage me, he wouldn’t just encourage me but the whole staff to have fun while working because in his words “It makes the day go by faster and smoother,” and who wouldn’t agree that having fun while working would be the best way to conduct a healthy business relationship with your coworkers? My boss Jose would apply positive reinforcement while we worked, he would do this by requesting the employees that have been doing a good job that day to be his bagger, so he could give us large amounts of tips. In my opinion, a boss that gives you money for positive reinforcement is defiantly a friend of mine. I’ve heard of a situation where a boss would take a breaks from workers to make them worker harder, I still think this is reinforcement, but It sounds like a negative reinforcement, like a little kid getting their Lord of the Rings movies taken away for not coming home on time. I feel like a boss that uses negative reinforcement to get their employees to work harder, is basically coming into their work environment with doubt on their mind about his/her workers performing the task at hand without a punishment. When you think about a parent punishing their children every time they do something wrong some people would argue if is good or bad parenting, and A lot of people would argue if it is good or bad supervising if you punishing your employees for not working fast or hard enough. I would argue that only a strict boss would conduct negative reinforcement in a work environment to some how motivate their employees to work harder.

        A lot of strict bosses act like dictators, I say this because when someone is giving more power then the people around them they tend the have that ‘whatever I say goes mentally,’ don’t get me wrong bosses should have the last say on what happens in their business, but with a lot of power comes a lot of responsibility’s, and sometimes with a lot of pressure a boss could make the wrong decision. An example, a group of workers want a raise, but the boss automatically says no without any sort of team meeting or without even considering it, and maybe they requested a raise for the simple fact their rent went up because of the economy is going down hill where they live. The boss wouldn’t know that because he didn’t preform a democracy. A friend boss having the same situation with his/her employees requesting a raise, would have a team meeting to discuss the terms presented, and would hear their employees out about their situation. If the friendly boss couldn’t give issue a raise, at least he gave his/hers workers a chance to express their feelings about the problem like a democracy, instead of acting like a dictatorship and mowing over everyone’s words.