Strange Bossy Facts on Boss Day

National Boss Day is the one official day each year to say thanks to your boss. Yes, we know bosses have 364 unofficial days (or 365 in a leap year…) but there's much to thank them for.

For great bosses, Boss's Day is an opportunity to acknowledge their encouragement and support, their mentoring, and their ability to regularly exorcise our best work from our brains and bodies.

For less-than-great bosses, it's a chance to manage your manager and inspire them to become a better boss, and to let them how you really feel about things in an honest, thoughtful way. (i.e. no flaming bags of dog poop at your boss's office door)

So, in celebration of Boss Day we offer some bossy fun facts:

> Boss Day - celebrated on October 17, 2005
- Boss Day was created in 1958 by Patricia Haroski, a secretary at State Farm Insurance Company
- Patricia started Boss Day to pay tribute to bosses
- Official date (October 16) is Patricia’s father’s birthday

> How Many Bosses are Out There?
- 6.7 million managers in the US (5% of the US workforce) (Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2003)

> Mr. and Mrs. Boss
- “Boss” is the #3714 most common last name in the U.S. Around 7500 people in the U.S. answer to Mr. or Mrs. Boss. (Source: Namestatistics.com)

> Origin of “Boss”
- From the Dutch word “baas” (meaning "a master"), a standard title for a ship’s captain
- 1625: first time “Boss” was used in English
- Popularity of “Boss” in American English may be an egalitarian avoidance of master (Source: Etymonline.com)

> Bossy Slang
- 50’s: ‘boss’ meant great, first-rate or topnotch
- Barnyard: 'boss' is another name for a cow or calf
- Medicine: a ‘boss’ is a name for a rounded swelling, protuberance or humpback
… so, this sentence is technically feasible: Your boss did a boss job healing the boss’s itchy boss.

> Strange Boss Facts
- Bossiest town: Boss, Missouri (population 609)
- Boss Nicknames: ‘The Boss’ – Bruce Springsteen
- Cartoony Bosses: C. Montgomery Burns (Simpsons), Mr. Weed (Family Guy), Mr. Spacely (Jetsons), Mr. Slate (Flintstones), Buck Strickland (King of the Hill), Pointy-Haired Boss (Dilbert), Eugene Crabs (SpongeBob)
- Boss Songs: Big Boss Man (Elvis Priestly); I Love My Boss (Moxy Fruvous)
- Bossiest Superhero: BossMan (of course!)

For more bossy fun visit http://www.happyworker.com/bossman/

More about Happy Worker:
A developer of original grownup toys, gifts and promotional products, Happy Worker (http://www.happyworker.com) and its unique products have made numerous media appearances, including The New York Times, Business Week, Fortune Magazine, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Happy Worker's line of business superhero action figures includes the GeekMan, BossMan and MoneyMan Action Figures.