Tomorrow: Bosses' Day

Tomorrow's Bosses' Day. The level of enthusiasm for this Hallmark holiday varies from employee to employee -- I know folks who go so far as to buy their boss custom gift baskets to those who begrudgingly buy the boss a card from the corner store. Whatever your level of enthusiasm, the core of the day's mission is admirable -- that of showing appreciation. Much like Mothers' and Fathers' Day, it is a day set aside to remind us that it's good to demonstrate -- verbally, through gifts, or whatever -- that we appreciate what the bosses are doing. As Mike Robbins, author of Focus on the Good Stuff tells us:

One of the challenges for the C-level execs is they don't get a lot of appreciation themselves. So very few people walk into their offices in any genuine way and let them know what they're doing well. The perception is that whenever that happens, people are kissing up or it's some kind of phony thing. They're under so much pressure to produce the results for the organization. I think the higher up you go, the harder it becomes for people to stop and genuinely appreciate what's happening because there is so much pressure.

It's good to be appreciated -- whether you're the boss or the lowest guy on the totem poll. While appreciation can be poo-pahed as unimportant and is often, easy to overlook in day-to-day communication, it plays a surprisingly large role in employee retention. Even the U.S. Department of Labor and The Gallup Organization support [that] very simple yet important claim. According to the DOL, 64% of working Americans leave their jobs because they don't feel appreciated, while Gallup research shows that 70% of working Americans say they receive no praise or recognition on the job. That's a lot of under appreciated and unsatisfied employees out there. No wonder Bosses' Day was created. Just as bosses can forget to appreciate we employees so can we employees forget to say good job to the bosses. : : : By the way, if you're still looking for a gift for your boss, try these: The Future of Management by Gary Hamel or First Break All The Rules by Buckingham and Coffman