[On phone] Michael Scott calling for David. “Well, just tell him to call me ASAP as possible.”

Steve Carell as Michael Scott in ‘The Office’

So, last Wednesday, October 16, one of the most important days of the year went by without a fuss. The day was not even red-lettered on any calendar that I have seen. And, horror of horrors! There was not the usual flood of sentimental thoughts in the new media world of Facebook or Twitter. I mean, hardly anyone posted or tweeted good wishes to their managers on this grand occasion. Well, FYI, in case you were one of the millions who knew naught about it, October 16 was National Boss Day and it has been around since 1958.

Everyone at one point of their work-life thinks that they are smarter than their boss, and whether they openly admit it or not, often describe him or her as “that two-bit wannabe who stole my job”. I think most of us imagine our boss’s incompetence to lie somewhere within the personality of Dunder Mifflin Paper company’s office manager, Michael Scott, played by Steve Carell on NBC sitcom, ‘The Office’. Anyone who has watched the antics of how Scott insensitively mismanages his employees in the series can empathise. In one episode he states, with much conviction: “I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.” Seriously? And on another occasion he blurts out to everyone in the office, “Listen up, everybody. I have some news. We are screwed. Dunder Mifflin Scranton is being shut down.” Okay then…

Almost everyone has got one hundred and one reasons why they hate their boss, and so you can picture the imaginary rush to purchase cards and what not, as many of us conveniently ‘forgot’ about National Boss Day and all the enthusiastic brown-nosing it entailed. By the way, for the two people who are interested in honouring their boss on this day, since 1979 Hallmark has been offering a card to mark National Boss Day. But, seriously, one of the reasons that employees are often at odds with their boss is the sometimes ineffective ways in which they communicate.

Do you remember the boss you had who could never gave you negative feedback even if his life depended on it? For some reason he couldn’t string the right words together and so got someone else to do the dirty deed. Remember how hurt you felt? And then there was that boss who could only give you negative, unhelpful and unconstructive criticism on the quality of your work. I mean really, so there is nothing in all these months that I have ever done right, you ask as you frantically thumb through the pages of the ‘Want Ads’.

Employees appreciate honesty in their boss. The WorkForce Institute at Kronos recently published a survey of workers in the United States, India and Australia. The research found that the most important attribute in a boss is, drum roll please, honesty. Seventy-eight percent of the respondents said that honesty was one of their top three desired attributes in a boss. The attribute that got the second place was goal-oriented. So, the truth is that most employees would rather hear the truth about their performance, not through some random missive or underling, but from their own supervisor. It helps when you know that the person to whom you report gives you direct feedback if the intent is to help you to improve your performance. Bosses too need to cultivate the relationship with their direct reports that allow for the space of both positive and negative feedback.

The flip side of the coin is that while the boss must be able to effectively communicate, the employee must be open to having this conversation. If the door of your mind is trap-door closed to feedback from the boss then a good place to work is anywhere else in the world. Some employees often have their backs up because they think that the big boss man is out to get them and have so trained themselves to block out any and every attempt to pass on constructive criticism. Mind you, there are those of us who have had horrendous experiences in the past with our immediate supervisors and that has made us negative.

Nevertheless, if you are the boss, if nothing else you should know that honesty is the best policy. Give it a try.

One final Michael Scott-ism: (on letting go an employee): Devon wait, please, look, in addition to severance and everything, I want to give you this gift certificate from Chili’s, from me. Okay? No hard feelings?

Yvonne Grinam-Nicholson, (MBA, ABC) is a Business Communications Consultant with RO Communications Jamaica, specialising in business communications and financial publications. She can be contacted at: yvonne@rocommunications.com. Visit her website at www.rocommunications.com and post your comments.