Hopefully the title says it all but I’m happy to give further clarification if need be.
Myself, I prefer Drill Sergeant Boss (DSB), AS I’ve found they tend to leave you alone as long as you work hard.
In my experience, Overly Nice Boss (ONB) tends to let their team go to shit and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it as a subordinate.
Drill Sergeant Boss is usually a micro manager and very nit picky. I’m experienced enough now to not need that level of assistance from a boss and actually take it as an insult if someone tries to mico manage me.
I’ve had both. The nice one is always nice to try to cover the fact that he is completely ineffective.
I had a boss who would disappear whenever there was trouble, so someone else (like me) had to deal with the crap that he left undone, with it had gone from ‘needs to be done’ to an emergency.
He was replaced by the drill sergeant. The guy would actually stand over someone, in a meeting room with a couple of dozen people, and yell how stupid they were. The next day he would be friendly. The anger management taining didn’t help so he had to retire.
I have the Overly Nice Boss - but she’s not actually overly nice, she’s just plain nice. I prefer to work without a lot of supervision, and she trusts me to do my job, so I know that I can take the initiative to do whatever needs done. If I’d like to do something my own way, I don’t have to ask permission to do that. The only drawback is that she gives everyone a lot of leeway, so the people who are inclined to slack off will do that and get away with it, at least for a while.
I don’t work well for the Drill Sergeant Boss, because I will not be yelled at. Period.
I have the Overly Nice Boss, too. She’s great, but i find it annoys me because when people do act up, she never yells at them enough. However, I will take her EVERY TIME. I’ve worked with the drill seargeant boss and they are terrible and really fucking stressful. My life is not this job, bitch. It’s just what I do so I can have a life.
Yeah, fuck that. I don’t need being yelled at. Life can be shitty enough with heaping more onto the pile.
Like fuck they do!
Bingo. The Drill Sergeant sits on your shoulders and gnaws at your ears and scalp, while screaming, “Why aren’t you paying more attention to your work!”
Sure, a Mr. Nicey-nicey has faults also, but, given a choice of the two evils, I’ll take him over the Flaming Red Devil. And I speak from experience.
I suppose I’ve been lucky- all of the bosses I’ve had as an adult were both professionally competent and personally decent. No abusive jerks OR milquetoasts.
So, answering in the abstract… I’ll say the same thing about bosses that I’ve said about football and basketball coaches: it really doesn’t matter that much to most athletes whether a coach is a nice guy or a tyrant. Athletes will perform at a high level for EITHER type of coach, provided that he believes the coach knows what he’s doing, and that the team will succeed if they buy in to what the coach tells them.
In the same way, I can respect a nice boss OR a tough boss. What matters to me is, does this boss know what he/she is doing? Do I believe that, if I do what the boss tells me, things will turn out well?
I’d take a drill sergeant who knows what he’s doing over a softie who doesn’t, and vice versa.
But nothing is worse than a drill sergeant who DOESN’T know what he’s doing!
DS boss is worse. Unless he is an actual Drill Sergeant. I’ve been through Basic Training. I don’t need it again. I will do my job well regardless of who is above me. I would rather that its not someone yelling at me.
The drill sergeant will at least let you know what you want. All too often, the overly-nice guy is just as demanding as the drill sergeant; they just won’t let you know what it is they’re demanding until you fail to do it.
I’d rather have a drill sergeant than the over nice boss. I’ve had both. My last boss was overly nice. He would never come right out an say if you’d done something wrong, but then write you up for not changing how you did it. If you want something done differently don’t make vague suggestions on how it might be done differently. Just tell me I’m doing it all wrong, and tell me how you want it done.
I’m a doer. I like to take charge and get stuff done. I find it difficult to work with (but not socialize with) civilians because they can’t take direction and don’t play as a team. Thankfully, I rarely have to.
I’ll take the pushover boss. It lets me step up and lead. The drill sergeant boss, unless he’s actually a drill sergeant, will just screw it all up anyhow.
What I’d ideally like is a boss that knows the difference between good work and bad work. An ideal boss should reward good work and criticize bad work.
But if that’s off the table and I’m stuck with a choice between a boss who won’t recognize my good work and a boss who won’t recognize my bad work, I guess I’d pick the latter. Unpunished bad work is easier to do than unrewarded good work. If I’m not going to get the consequences I deserve either way, I might as well choose the path that requires less effort.
I guess it depends on what one means by “drill sergeant boss”. If the drill sergeant gives clear albeit curt instructions, has high standards, and goes light on the touchy-feely crap, I’m fine with that. If the drill sergeant is abusive, paranoid, self-contradictory, or impossible to please, then obviously I’m not fine.
Maybe I’m naïve since I never served but I associate today’s military more with the former so if you tell me I’m getting a drill sergeant boss I’m happy until he/she gives me a reason to be otherwise.
The former. To me, there’s a big difference between DSB and abusive asshole.
I had a boss who thought he was a drill sergeant. Actually, he was just a misogynist tard who used to work with monkeys.
It used to be, for males anyway, that if you couldn’t stand being ridden by a drill sergeant, you weren’t fit to be an adult member of society.
The two types aren’t linked to the other issues.
As in either can be effective workers or make a team go to pieces, just in different ways.
Keep in mind the military has a specific role for drill sergeants. Their job is to break you down when you first enter the service. Then the military steps in and rebuilds you into a soldier (or sailor or marine or airman).
But to be subject to a drill sergeant on an ongoing basis? What would be the point of that? Once you’ve broken the person down, there’s no reason to keep breaking him. The military expects you to leave boot camp at some point not stay there for your entire term of enlistment.
Same thing in the business world. A boss who acts like a drill sergeant for the first couple of weeks might be getting you into shape for the job. But if he’s still acting like a drill sergeant months later, he’s failing as a boss.
My understanding of the distinction is that if you fuck up, you’ll get berated by the drill sergeant. Sure, it’s not pleasant, but you know what? Don’t fuck up and you’re fine. Plus, you always know whether or not you’re on the boss’ shit list. They also tend to leave you alone when you aren’t fucking up, which is invaluable to me.
The “overly nice guy” might not yell at you, but you never know where you stand. Maybe you’ll get a good review, maybe you’ll get damned with faint praise, and you’ll never know until you get or don’t get a raise. Not to mention, they always come by with some idle chit-chat I couldn’t give a shit about.
The Drill Sergeant may be unpleasant, but he gets results. The Overly nice guy is still unpleasant (in a different way), and doesn’t get results. I know which I prefer.