In uffish thought
Opening and bumping. This got overlooked; I'm sorry.
Yeah, the names are confusing due to overlap between bad and mean, and they also sound obvious enough that people might not check the descriptions. I don't think misuse will stop without a rename of one of them. Killer Boss seems logical.
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
<Sigh> Yeah, this name has always preoccupied me. I would be in favour of a rename, although a wick check would be good.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I had a few discussions on PM with troper Swordsage Ragnar before the thread was opened.
On his opinion, Bad Boss attracts wicks for a boss that just isn't mean, but also incompetent. The two overlap often, but the title Bad Boss conveys it more than Mean Boss.
That's a good point, though the misuse is first and foremost between the villain trope and the workforce trope. A Killer Boss trope is sorely needed; then we can try updating the definition of Bad Boss/Mean Boss.
edited 31st Aug '14 9:06:26 AM by StFan
I've never seen this used as "Incompetent boss."
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
Take it out of the context of tropes, and "Bad Boss" almost always means "incompetent" for one reason or another.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Jupiterian Local
Yeah, Bad Boss seems like an overbroad name for the trope, but we should probably do a wick check to see which of the various definitions is actually the most prevalent.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
iRidescence
Isn't incompetent bosses covered by Pointy-Haired Boss? Anyway, I admit that I was guilty of misusing this trope a couple of times, because "bad" is a very broad term, and Mean Boss don't seem to be thriving that much.
Hi
Clock is set.
Hi
Clock's up; locking for inactivity.
Okay, here's the problem: I've seen Bad Boss wrongly used countless times, where the actual trope should have been Mean Boss.
The two tropes are clearly distinct; the Bad Boss is a villain who not only mistreat but harm and kill his henchmen. The Mean Boss is just an employer who's difficult to work with. In some cases those two can overlap, but it's not that common.
Beyond going through every instance of the trope to check if it isn't misused, do you guys think the problem come from the name and a change might be needed? To something less ambiguous, like "Killer Boss"?