Friendly reminder: Tomorrow is National Boss Day

In case you forgot ... tomorrow, October 16, is National Boss Day.

With our crammed schedules in and outside of the office, sometimes we forget to say “thank you” to the important people in our lives. National Boss Day gives employees an opportunity to thank a boss who (among other great qualities) has shown positive leadership, treats their employees with respect and promotes development with regular employee training.

However, the holiday may cause a slight dilemma: What if you’re the only one to buy the boss a gift? Will everyone think you’re a suck-up? Or worse, what if everyone brings a gift and you forget? What if you don’t think your boss deserves a gift?

If you sort out the dilemma and decide to give, the most popular ways to say “thanks” to a great boss include greeting cards, lunch outings, chocolate and flowers.

Or you could find an “out of the box” gift idea, like Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership who dedicated the latest Leadership Development Carnival to Boss Day. He suggests that a gift of leadership development is far better than any Hallmark card.

Discuss it with your coworkers today and whether you decide to shower your boss with gifts or not, try to have some fun with it.

From the Happy Worker, here are some “bossy” facts about bosses and Boss Day:

• There are 6.7 million managers in the U.S. (about 5% of the workforce).
• Around 7,500 people in the U.S. answer to Mr. or Mrs. Boss.
• Bossiest town - Boss, Missouri (population 609).
• The word “boss” comes from the Dutch word “baas” (meaning “a master”), a standard title for a ship’s captain.
• “Boss” was used for the first time in English in 1625.
• In the barnyard, “boss” can be used as another name for a cow or calf.

Visit the Happy Worker for more fun and game ideas for Boss Day including classic boss quotes, posters and the ever-popular BossMan Action Figure.