# Do you call your boss "Boss"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 13, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805 "2019-12-13T13:09:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/21 "2019-12-13T21:45:26Z")
Note calling a person of a certain background “Boss” in a certain part of the US can raise eyebrows. Unless the boss in question gets ones sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/22 "2019-12-13T21:46:12Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Hey, hey, easy there, chief. [I’m not a chief! I’m not an Indian chief! I’m not the Chief of Police! I don’t play for the Kansas City Chiefs!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkBiQOYgNVk) ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/23 "2019-12-13T22:04:02Z")
> [@A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT](#): > > I could have got a title easily enough (…) But I didn’t ask for it; and I declined it when it was offered. I couldn’t have enjoyed such a thing with my notions; (…) I couldn’t have felt really and satisfactorily fine and proud and set-up over any title except one that should come from the nation itself, the only legitimate source; and such an one I hoped to win; and in the course of years of honest and honorable endeavor, I did win it and did wear it with a high and clean pride. This title fell casually from the lips of a blacksmith, one day, in a village, was caught up as a happy thought and tossed from mouth to mouth with a laugh and an affirmative vote; in ten days it had swept the kingdom, and was become as familiar as the king’s name. I was never known by any other designation afterward, whether in the nation’s talk or in grave debate upon matters of state at the council-board of the sovereign. This title, translated into modern speech, would be THE BOSS. Elected by the nation. That suited me. Also Boss Tweed and others like him. I seems like the title was more popular once than it is now. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/24 "2019-12-13T22:30:29Z")
Never in my life, but one of my employees in China had a habit of calling me “boss.” I think that’s just cultural though, because calling me “laoban” would be perfectly normal in Chinese. (We’re still in contact, so now he calls me “elder brother.”) ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/25 "2019-12-14T00:24:01Z")
I do. As a good natured nod at the power differential. The boss is not my equal, and it irritates me when a boss tries to downplay their role in my life and act like just another of us minions. ---
**Author:** ![Dobbs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Dobbs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dobbs)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/26 "2019-12-14T00:36:27Z")
I’ve called a few of them ‘boss’. Most as a sign of respect and friendship, but a couple because boss spelled backwards is ‘double-ess oh bee’, and they were really, really SOBs. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/27 "2019-12-14T01:30:15Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Yeah, I’ve had bosses who would occasionally get addressed as “fearless leader”. For example “oh Fearless Leader, thou who fightest the pile of paperwork… get a move on or we’re going to miss the plane and remember, it’s your company paying for the hotels and tickets.” One hopes they never watched Rocky and Bullwinkle as kids. I never have. I might have called one boss boss, but that would not have been as a term of endearment, but a term of hatred. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/28 "2019-12-14T01:51:51Z")
Yes, sometimes, but I mean it in the nicest way… also, I think I’m going to have to start calling her “fearless leader” too… thanks, **Nava**! ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/29 "2019-12-14T07:50:36Z")
It can depend on the company culture and context. The Chinese company I work for use honorifics. It’s a Chinese thing. The self made billionaire CEO is call “big boss” or “BB”. Even in the Chinese language communication, execs are prefaced by “sir”. As in “Dear Sirs, can I draw your attention to the attached powerpoint.”. He is also slightly older than I. In the confucian tradition, then he is my elder and there are specific honorifics in Chinese to use. But our foreign (US) customers don’t understand that at all. An easy way to translate would be call him Executive Vice President xxx. But that’s overly formal for the US tech industry. Now my direct boss and I share the same English name. It’s a common biblical name such as Luke. So, in my emails and conversations, I will refer to him as “Boss Luke”. He understands, our staff understand, and my American customers all understand if I refer to “Boss Luke” or “Luke” who is whom. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/30 "2019-12-14T08:07:49Z")
I call my boss “Chief.” Mostly, it’s an homage to my favorite TV show, _Get Smart_. But it’s also because he is from India, and calling an Indian “Chief” just cracks my ass up. Now, my true boss, Mrs. Mortiss, I always call _Boss_, doing my best Tony DiNozzo impression. “On it, _Boss_!” ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/31 "2019-12-14T08:27:57Z")
Never. Might occasionally be referred to as the bossman, but that’s it. I had coworker who would refer to him as fearless leader, but she’s gone, and no one else picked it up. As he has a very common first name, he’s had a nickname based on his last name since he was a teenager. We either use the nickname or his last name, also to differenciate him from the other people with the same name. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/32 "2019-12-14T09:19:18Z")
i have and i said it in the way Rochester used ot call jack benny “boss” and yes it pissed them off to no end… ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/33 "2019-12-14T13:13:03Z")
My first job was at an Italian restaurant. The owner was in her seventies and we all called her Mama. She was the founder of an empire. After her, all of the people I worked for were referred to by first name. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805/34 "2019-12-14T17:28:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > If you work for Bose, do you call your boss Bose Boss? Of course. And if you work in a kitchen you call your boss Chef Chief. I have been a free-lancer all my life, I have called many people boss but I usually meant it in jest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-your-boss-boss/844805.md?page=1)