That awful female boss

YOU’RE more likely to have a female boss in Jamaica than anywhere else in the world — according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), just under 60 per cent of the island’s management force is female, the highest level anywhere in the world. However, various studies have shown the downside of this — that women who manage other women are seen as more difficult to work with, and exhibit rude behaviour against other women in the workplace.

What has been your worst experience having a female boss?

Chevelle, 40:

My boss, the owner of the company, died, and his partner took over. He was a very good man, not inappropriate at all, and all the staff loved him. But it seems like she had an axe to grind, or suspected that he was messing around at work before he died, because she took aim at a couple of us female workers. We could never do anything right, and she picked and picked. She instituted a new dress code, and was just generally unpleasant, until many people resigned. Then after we resigned, she put our pictures in the paper, like we were thieves.

Chrisann, 36:

She would say the worst kinds of things about the staff, and then when confronted, would say she couldn’t help being blunt. Like she would make comments about the areas people lived in, the number of children they had, and the partners they chose to marry. To her, poverty was a disease, and she acted like the poorer staff had diseases that could rub off on her. She scorned our kids and acted all the time like she was above us. Funny enough, she was once audited and investigated when it was discovered that she was a scammer who owed a ton of taxes and wasn’t paying over our NIS and NHT contributions.

Kimoya, 24:

We couldn’t go to lunch without her knowledge, couldn’t go to the bathroom without asking, couldn’t get sick without her questioning it…overall, this was just a crazy woman. The worst was when I had a ruptured ovarian cyst and was in extreme pain, and called in sick. She drove to my house and when my mom answered, said she just wanted proof that I wasn’t lying about being sick.

Nyoka, 27:

When I got pregnant she did a whole production of acting like it was the end of the world. Her only concern was how it would work when I went off, as she had to train someone else. Unfortunately, I had a late miscarriage, and you know how some companies send flowers or gift baskets to congratulate you on your new baby? She sent flowers and a card that said, ‘Congratulations’, then tried to say afterwards that it was a mistake.

Shanice, 30:

She said not because I came from the ghetto meant that I should dress like it or do my hair like the “cheap, classless women” in the ghetto. Then she sent me a bunch of YouTube videos about dressing right, and bought me hair supplies. Mind you, I had just bought a lot of professional clothes on Shein, that I thought looked nice, and my hair was also clean. I reported what she said to HR, but they told me that she probably meant well.