Today, I learned something new. National Boss's Day was not invented by Hallmark or another greeting card company. Actually, Boss's Day was created by Patricia Bays Haroski who registered National Boss's Day (in honor of her boss at the time - her father) with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1958. She was working as a secretary for State Farm Insurance Company in Deerfield, Illinois at the time and chose October 16th for Boss's Day because it was her father's birthday. Sounds like a nice sentiment, that is until big business got behind it.
According to The National Ledger, in 1979, Hallmark decided to get a piece of the action and printed the first Boss's Day card. Now, nearly three decades later, under-paid and over-worked employees are expected to shell out $3.99 (or thereabout) for a card to thank their bosses for being "kind and fair throughout the year."
I guess you can't blame Hallmark. They need to leverage any possible opportunity to increase profits the same as any other company. In fact, this year, Hallmark plans to increase production of Boss's Day cards by 90%. Are there really that many people who are so happy with their bosses that they want to celebrate them? Hallmark seems to think so.
Perhaps National Boss's Day wouldn't be so distasteful to people if it went by another name. The word "boss" has such a negative connotation to it. No one likes to be bossed around. Hal Halladay published a great post related to this concept on Leader Notes today.
What do you think about National Boss's Day and the growth of holidays like it thanks to greeting card companies like Hallmark? Did you buy your boss a card today?
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