You take part in professional conversations with facts and reasons supporting your statements. It's easier to guilt people. Politely say something like, When you call me boss, do you mean it positively?, As with so many other words, how you hear boss depends a lot on how they say it. to respect the ones at the upper level in organizational hierarchies. Your manager can fire you or recommend you for a promotion. So it doesn't feel patronizing from him. But he's genuinely friendly and one of the "regular employees" that actually takes time to talk to and get to know the support personnel. It's not like I have a Napoleon complex either. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. 3. When someone calls you boss, it all depends on the context and the person doing it. In a customer service situation, where you are technically bossing them around, boss can be an acknowledgment of the power you hold over another person, however limited. I only call people by their government name if I don't know them very well. Where I live, its quite common where people would say Whats going on, Bossman? Thanks a lot, bossman.. Call me, "Lou." If your boss is obsessed with targets and metrics,you cannot trust them. Im nobodys boss. I usually respond with "What's up tiger?" But boss still rankles. Rather than cause a scene, your coworker could instead say, you got it, boss!. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. But is this situation really horrendous and the end of the world? Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I hate it when people call me "big guy". This is a very bad thing to do but mostof us have done it! They cannot handle the pressure of being accountable for their department. When I was big, people used to call me bubba which was obviously tied to my weight, after I lost it, nobody called me that. However, it is an underlying insult, and an easier way to express a persons dislike of a situation taking place, rather than tell the customer that they think they are too pushy. If your manager needs to find someone to blame whenever something goes wrong, they are not worthy of your trust. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Every now and again when I go shopping or such, I will encounter a Mexcian who refers me to as "Boss" or "Bossman". Why is this the case? Your edit was fantastic, @hunterhogan. Is Riley Keough Singing in Daisy Jones & The Six? It depends on how you take the word or bond with the person calling you boss. Since I can't be sure I just don't think about it much. When you call me, "Boss," it puts an artificial divide between us. Boss Man or Boss Lady is meant more as an insult unless stated among friendly company. Ben Stone, he would call people "Sir" every time 'fuckface' might have been . My social skills are lacking. For example, if someone were to be arrested or stopped by a police officer, that person could call the officer boss man/lady to show that they dont acknowledge or dont respect the authority that police officer has, and instead are not affected by them. If you sound casual and unoffended, then a straightforward statement like this will be just fine. As far as your concerns regarding seeming "bossy", the tone with which you deliver this statement, or any of the other answers here, is going to be much more important the actual words you use.