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Friday 21 August 2015 10:39 am

Birthdays off, team lunches and free gym membership: Here’s how to be the perfect boss

By: Emma Haslett

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Thought being a good boss was about good communication and nurturing talent? Put away those management books, people. It turns out your team is far more fickle than that…

That's according to research by gambling review site Mobileslots.com, which quizzed a group of office workers about the attributes of their dream boss – and discovered what they value includes "free sweets" and "a team spa day". No mention of the usual "good boss" behaviour, such as "regular appraisals", or "remembering your team's names". The ungrateful bunch.

It's worth keeping this stuff in mind, though: figures from Office Genie suggest workers, particularly those in the north of the country, aren't exactly fans of their bosses. In fact, one in four workers in the North East suggest their managers are bad communicators, compared with 11 per cent in the South. And 16 per cent from the North East said their bosses gave praise where it was due. 

Still – as we now know, none of that matters. Want to know what makes you the perfect boss? Here's the list. Be warned: it's likely to cost you.

How to be a perfect boss
1. Give birthdays off
2. Let your team leave early on a Friday
3. Provide a free gym membership
4. Provide a constant supply of office sweets
5. Provide vending machines with free drinks and snacks
6. Take your team on a spa day
7. Provide extra training courses
8. Give people a voucher on their  birthday
9. Give them time off around Christmas
10. Treat the team to lunch
11. Give people tickets to see sports
12. Provide a decent Christmas party
13. Buy the team a round on a Friday
14. Take employees on a cocktail masterclass
15. Bring in doughnuts
16. Provide a fancy coffee maker
17. Get a weekly fruit delivery
18. Don't ban social media
19. Provide free magazines
20. Provide brand new company cars
21. Smartphones all round
22. Have a nap room
23. Yoga breaks
24. Give a year of paid parental leave to new parents
25. Allow flexible working and let people work from home

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