Don’t want to be a boss? Join the club

Boss’s Day was observed Oct. 16, but not everybody was celebrating.

We are bombarded with punditry and advertising extolling the virtues of being our own boss, but a new study confirms that it’s not for everybody.

A recent survey by Robert Half Technology revealed that only 15 percent of information-technology workers said they would prefer to manage others. Conversely, 23 percent of those surveyed prefer to work as an individual contributor and 52 percent prefer both roles equally.

Of those who do prefer to manage others, the survey found that money wasn’t the primary object – and that’s assuming, of course, that the respondents were being honest. Only 11 percent said their primary reason to want to be a boss was higher pay, while 20 percent said managing others provides for a more defined career path and 56 percent said their primary reason is that they enjoy the coaching aspect.

Of those who prefer not to be a boss, 61 percent said they like hands-on work better than directing others, 20 percent said their dislike for the politics and personalities involved in management was the primary reason, and 11 percent feared that their skills could become outdated if they don’t use them regularly.

We wonder how Patricia Bays Haroski would have voted.

She was a secretary in the offices of State Farm Insurance Co. in Deerfield, Ill., when she came up with the idea for a day for employees to thank their bosses. She registered “National Boss’ Day” in 1958 with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She picked Oct. 16 because it was her father’s birthday.

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