great - and true!

what if you think your boss is closeted?

This is basically saying that gay men tend to have better personalities than straight men. Um, good thing we aren't generalizing...

This article sounds almost as though it were written ABOUT my boss. Just today I needed to leave early for a dinner date. His response to my request? "Have a good time. :)" After 5+ years of working for this man, I couldn't be happier.

One shouldn't make these generalizations. My experience with a gay boss is exactly the opposite. I was actually excited about our new boss, who was openly gay. He seemed upbeat, creative and thoughtful, and I thought we'd have a really positive work environment. He turned out to be a power-hungry paranoid suck-up who would throw anyone under the bus to make himself look good. He talked badly about people behind their backs and then got completely outraged and lashed out at our entire group when he thought someone had said something about him (which wasn't even true). He demanded total loyalty, but rather than respect his employees he instead acted like he was so much better -- smarter, more creative, wittier. It got to the point that I eventually left the company because of him.

I have to disagree with the blanket statement that gay men make better bosses--better CO-WORKERS, perhaps, but certainly not better bosses. I worked for a very large department store in the Men's Suits department--store name beginning with "N". My gay boss was bitchier and far more gossipy than ANY woman I ever worked for. Having said that, my best friend is a gay man and was my Man of Honor in my wedding. He knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about...maybe I'm making a blanket statement about one very bad experience, but this gay boss told horrible lies about me, other straight women and generally had a problem telling the truth. He sued another large company ("M") based on a fake discrimination lawsuit just to get money from Federation. I would be terrified to work for another gay man because of the backstabbing, lies, and absolute lack of scruples this man possessed.

What the author says is true and makes logical sense. The best boss I ever had was in the finance industry and he was an out of the closet gay man. He was one of the toughest bosses but also the most fair and inclusive. He gave me a shot at developing a new service line and the autonomy to do it to the best of my ability. Interesting take on the management crisis in America.

Will it be discriminatory to post a job listing saying: "gay men preferred"?

In the American Indiana world of old gay tribesmen were honored since they had the intuition of both sexes.

I gotta admit, I love my gay boss. Way more than I've ever loved my straight bosses, most of whom spent the majority of our interactions looking at my tits. I don't think all straight bosses are like that -- I think I just have better luck with gay men in the work place. I'm more sure of their motivations.

Hard to generalize. I am a gay boss and find that staff feel very comfortable coming to me with issues, much more so than to our straight female director. Not sure if it has to do with how I negotiated high school! On the other hand, I have known snarky gay coworkers that no one wanted to work for....

As a young handsome male that's KINDA gay, older gay mentor-like males and females have enriched my life in great ways. Gay mentors have helped me get over personal conflicts regarding family, social, and financial issues. And even though I cant say that it was their sexuality that influenced their support, their gayness is a big part of who they really are. Now, this is funny. My last gay boss was fun and I had a great time working with him. In fact, I preferred working with him more than working with the high-strung women. Above all, I liked when he confessed secrets, his needs and wants, because thru that I was in the loop of what was happening underground: in his juicy personal life, the juicy down low/gay world and the juicy things that go on at work that people dont talk about. And yes our work was great.

Now I know. I'm a straight man trapped in the body of a straight boss who wants to be the best gay boss he can be.

I think the article is true and false, I actually had 2 gay bosses before me and one was pretty cool and had a great personality. But, did not know how to manage a team (favortism, coming in late everyday, etc.) When he left my other gay boss was just mean. He had no communication skills and was kind of a snob( although he had no reason to be.) Since I am gay and I got the job they both had, I learned from their mistakes and made my own way. I do agree that as a boss I am bit more empathetic and kind of have that sixth sense towards knowing how my staff feels.But overall I just think it comes down to the person and what their work style is like.

Why Gay Men Make Better Bosses? Give me a break. Kirk Snyder has done no real scientific evidence for this claim whatsoever and it's sad that he's going around manipulating the old stereotypes that say a man is reason and woman emotion to come out at the other end with gays are thus a perfect balance who are superior in the workplace. It's absurd. If so, why just the workplace huh? Why not THE WORLD???!!! This is a perfect example of the extent to which our society is willing to accept idealized and exaggerated constructions of gender...Details must've really needed an article.

Interesting that the article quotes only men. I worked for a gay boss who was extremely intelligent with a great sense of humor and was well-loved. However, he was awful when it came to promoting people to higher levels of management and consistenly selected young, good-looking straight boys. He had different standards for the women in the office and was particularly disdainful of Lesbians. That said, I agree with the posters that this article is poorly conceived. Can you imagine someone writing an article in WSJ saying that straight men make the best bosses?

I doubt if the article was about black men, hispanic men, straight women, lesbians, or any other combination of ethnicity and gender that it would cause such an uproar. I think because it's about gay men that it threatens those who consider their power coming from the status quo--straight white male power--and rail against it. Based on this article, it sounds plausable and my own experience even supports it. Just today I heard about a new report from the Conference Board that job satisfaction is at an all time low because people hate their bosses. Perhaps this article is more on the money than not.

This is a very good article. I do have to say though, that we are all human beings and whether gay or straight, it has nothing to do with what kind of a boss a person turns out be. I have had straigth bosses that were totally great and gay bosses that made me angry all the time and vice versa. How a person turns out e is not solely determined by his or her sexual orientation. Of course there are the typical sterotypes, but that does not mean everysingle one is like that.

Being a good boss depends mainly on the individual. Gay men may be a little more understanding about problems than striaght. But I have heard about good and bad bosses that include gay, lesbian, straight men and women. So that is why I believe that being a good bossit mainly depends on the integrity and experience of the individual.

I'm an Area Manager (yes, retail) and am gay. I've been told time and time again that I make my employees jobs more fun because I'm gay. I've recently started looking for other employment and all of my employees have pretty much begged me not to leave and, if I did, they may go as well. I think gay guys are easier to work for - we're more understanding and we most of actually do care about our employees. Women - straight and lesbian - are by far the worst bosses! There's too much of a power struggle with them.

It's called Emotional Intelligence. It really works when striving for sustained results.

I enjoyed reading the comments almost as much as the article. I am a "gay boss." I appreciate that the article brings to light a fact that being "gay" in or out (no pun intended) of the work place is not a weakness or something to fear. I know for a fact a lot of straight women and men in my work place would agree with much, if not all of the article...especially the part about the "fierce holiday parties!"

Well if you've ever taken a statistics class (or just any good science course, for that matter) then you'll know that results from a study can be manipulated as they are dependent on so many variables (efficacy, source pool, etc.). In Snyder's case, his so-called "STUDY" seems doomed for scientific failure from the beginning as his thesis relating to sexuality and success in the workplaces seems inevitably cornered into, as it is referred to in gender studies, "the hall of mirrors". In the hall of mirrors stereotypes (which are nonscientific) are quite unfortunately accepted as fact--as they are in this "study"--and in the end, prove nothing of scientific signifcance. More specifically it seems that Snyder has unconsciously and so very UNSCIENTIFICALLY recycled the ancient clichés that say there are differences regarding gender and then lended this hackneyed argument towards superiority and inferiority of character, of all places, in the workplace, based on something as complex as a peron's sexuality. In doing this, the line between stereotype and real SCIENTIFIC findings have become blurred and thus the stereotype, not the SCIENTIFIC results, have become part the general truth of his argument (i.e., reinforcing old stereotypes) and arriving at nonsignificant data and a very sweeping generalization. I have to say, it is naive to embrace everything a "scientific study" has claimed to have discovered without questioning how this data was arrived at first. Furthermore, it's pitiful the people at Details don't know this, or if they do, that they don't care, not because I expect great articles from a fashion magazine, but because, as is apparent from this discussion board, the majority of its readers take everything that it publishes at face value.

"In fact, during Snyder's five-year study of American executives, HE STUMBLED ON SOME STARTLING FINDINGS: Gay male bosses produce 35 to 60 percent higher levels of employee engagement, satisfaction, and morale than straight bosses."

this article is clearly light on the specifics, but i doubt this study was initiated with the goal of proving gay men make better bosses. there were no doubt a number of variables examined here (most likely hundreds of them), and this is one that proved significant. i'm guessing snyder has taken a statistics class or 2 and knows how to construct a statistical model, so i would venture to guess his findings can be trusted as "statistically significant". again, doesn't mean all gay bosses are better, doesn't even mean this study's results are "true", but these are his findings given the data he had to work with. that's really the best any researcher can do.

whether or not you agree with his findings, they are very provocative and definitely worthy of discussion....

I am a Closeted Gay man (at work), while my boss is an openly gay man in the company. He and I have open and meaningful discussions which help us build a team and much needed support. I can certainly say that both he and I are very similar in our management of people. We are PEOPLE persons, be it gay or straight (in the eyes of my employees). Unfortunately the automotive industry has a lot to learn about accepting gay men into the ranks of managers. Little do they know we lurk in the shadows.

Love your employees and be genuinely concerned for their well being, they will in fact love you in return. I don't think it's a "Gay Thing".

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I worked for an older gay boss for about a month. After leaving work early due to a holiday weekend, he and I went to a gay bar for "just one drink".
We exchanged life stories during the course of happy hour. He graciously paid for the drinks, and I felt this was the first time that we got to really know each other as gay men.
After leaving the bar, he did something unexpected in broad daylight on the street that surprised and left me a little frozen in time - he kissed me - on the lips.
We then separated as we had commutes home in different directions. I had so many conflicting feelings that whole weekend, and how would I relate to him in the office.
I did not think that was appropriate of him to do what he did, even though it happened out of the office, but it made me feel very uncomfortable.
Ultimately, I left that job after another month.
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You know I've had mostly straight women as bosses and as a woman, I hate working for them. I've had a whole staff follow me out because I was a better boss. My best friend and roommate is 2 gay men who are lovers! I feel that their influence on me has been phenomenal! I think I'd love to work with a gay boss, they are more understanding and they know what struggling throughout life is about. Anyone who disagrees with this article is doing it because it's about gay men and not straight men being better. So I say right on and I completely agree!

it's difficult to generalizing but most gay people do possess the best of both worlds (being rational and sensitive at the same time) and those are qualities to make a better business decision when it comes to human resource

For a gay man to escalate the administrative ladder successfuly entails overcoming many setbacks. This gives translates into higher self-esteem which allows for much better interpersonal relationships in job leadership.
But, if you know Spanish, long onto my blog about gays in the Republic of Panama. The situation is tougher here.
www.terapiacanton.blogspot.com

My boss is gay, which may or may not have anything to do with the fact that he an untrusting judgmental control freak. What a silly article.

I thought the article would be enlightening. I'm gay myself and I'm in a management role.

However, the "evidence" from "research" was flimsy at best. It's possible that the conclusions were right on the mark, but there wasn't a whole lot there that looked like solid foundation for a magazine story.

Having said that, and making some observations about my work environment, several people, both coworkers and employees have confided stuff in me they haven't confided in others.

Just about everyone at the paper knows I'm gay. I don't think it's BECAUSE I'm gay that they confide in me, however. And I don't think that really has a whole lot of bearing into the reasons confide in me.