“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

There are so many good quotes from this series, but this one really applies with daily life. One of the most common ways is in our jobs. Jobs are full of hierarchies, and we’ve all had good and bad managers throughout our careers.

I’ve been lucky in my life to have some great managers and bosses. Those are the ones who will not only help you do the best job that you can, but won’t act like they’re above doing the lowest level job. In some of my retail jobs, I had managers like this – who would come out and run a cash register when we were slammed or help with regular “peon” duties (as some haughty people would call them).

Even now my boss is like this. If she sees we’re busy (and yes, it happens in a library) she’ll come out and help if she can. Sometimes we even have to remind her how to do something on our program. The point, though, is that she doesn’t feel like she’s above doing our jobs. Even more so, if one of us is having a bad day or going through something, she has her doors open for us to talk to her. Our staff is like a dysfunctional family, which might seem odd, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I also really couldn’t ask for a better boss than I have now.