According to a survey of 1,500 people, when it comes to the top quality people look for in a boss, just under a third said it’s the rewarding of hard work; after all, if you’re going to give your time and commitment to someone five days a week, you’d hope that it would be noticed, in the form of a promotion or pay rise.
In the survey carried out by Purple CV, 21.8 percent look for loyalty; that their boss would stand by them and look after them the same way they stick with the same firm. A boss being passionate about what his or her company does appeals to 16.4 percent of people, as does him or her being personable and approachable (15 percent). Over a quarter of people believe the worst quality in a boss is having a cut-throat attitude, and managing through fear. Surely the carrot over the stick works better? And a disrespectful attitude (24.7 percent), a lack of praise or encouragement for staff (17 percent) and workplace favouritism (11.3 percent) are also viewed poorly by employees.
In the same survey, people were asked which celebrity entrepreneur they would most like to work for. Top of the list came Sir Richard Branson; 34 percent of those surveyed would love to have him as their boss. After all, he’s a self-made man who left school at 15, and started several companies, including Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic, and is now worth approximately nearly $5billion. In second place is Sir Alan Sugar (17.5 percent), who we know best today as the star of The Apprentice.
Another self-made man who didn’t go to university (in fact, he’s quoted as saying ‘it’s a waste of time’), the successful businessman has built up companies specialising in electronics and computers before becoming best known on TV for his famous catchphrase, ‘You’re fired!’. Third on the list is Mark Zuckerberg, with 16 percent keen to work for him. After all, he started what turned into Facebook at college, which turned into one of the most important and popular social networks of the 21st century. Successful female entrepreneurs feature highly on the list too, with 13.5 percent wishing they could work for talk show host, actress and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey; 12.0 percent keen to be employed by former Spice Girl-turned-fashion-designer Victoria Beckham, and 3.1 percent who’d love to work for Facebook’s unsung hero Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg.
Close to the bottom of the list are President-elect Donald Trump (only 1.8 percent of people said they’d like to work for him), and retailer Sir Philip Green (who came bottom of the list, with only 1.7 percent of people thinking he’d be a good boss). Finally, 11 percent of people would willingly work for a celebrity entrepreneur unpaid; just like in The Internship, when Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn’s characters hoped to get a job at Google. The search engine’s co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, also attracted 2.9 percent of people who said they’d love to work for them. So they must be doing something right!
