National Boss (Ringmaster) Day

Today is National Boss Day. In Juggling Elephants terms, we would call a boss a "ringmaster." In celebration of this day, we thought it might be fun to highlight some interesting statistics about bosses from the October edition of Fast Company Magazine:

  • According to a 2008 Yahoo survey, 43% of Americans don't like their bosses' management style.
  • In that same survey, 55% agree that people don't leave companies, they leave managers.
  • 32% of employees defy orders from their bosses although 86% of Americans give their superiors high marks.
  • Companies with at least 3 women on their board averaged a 16.7% return, which is 45% better than the typical company.
  • Last year, the highest paid CEO was Larry Ellison, who made 192.9 million dollars.
  • The average US income in 2007 was $40,690. For CEOs it was $151,370, and for S&P 500 CEOs it was 8.8 million dollars.
  • Of the Fortune 500 companies, only 12 have female CEOs.