Big and little bosses

May 3, 2008 by Barbara.

Reid listens to Ken and me discussing bits of our workday sometimes. She sees Ken’s boss every once and a while when he gives Ken a ride to work. Reid has met my boss only once, although she has met one of my “big bosses” a couple of times at the so-called seasonal party that happens on Christmas Eve. Still, the names of various people come up and Reid asks about the hierarchy. We’ve explained our direct managers, their bosses, the Assistant Deputy Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Ministers by a series of references to the boss, medium boss, bigger boss and biggest boss and the Minister (hey, we live in Ottawa and she might as well be familiar with our little part of the country). The Ministers don’t come up that often and we explain them as “the people who help make rules for our country”. I have an image of wooden nesting dolls sometimes but it works for Reid. Once she has situated the person’s name in the hierarchy of bosses, Reid follows the conversation quite well. She usually concludes any conversation about one of our bosses, however big, with “But I’m your littlest boss, right?” This tells me two things:
1. She seems to think promotions are based on height. My career progress would be limited if this were to be instituted.
2. Reid is pretty confident of her place in our family’s hierarchy.

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