Q) As I understand the concept of “Fan Clubs,” people start them for those they admire a lot – singers like Patti Page, or comedians like Shecky Greene. Bearing this concept in mind, and since I greatly admire my boss, who rose from the ranks of Accounting Coordinator Level II to VP of Regional Entities, I decided to form a fan club for him. At my own expense I created and printed a brochure, buttons, and membership cards. I passed around a sign-up sheet – only people in our immediate department are currently eligible to join – but I made it absolutely clear that there was no obligation to sign up. Also, I promised I would not tell the boss if someone refused, even though I personally believed that to be a poor decision on their part. The annual membership fee of $20, I explained, would be used in its entirety to celebrate the boss’s birthday each February 14, which I envision as a kind of joint Valentines Day/Birthday fete.
Well, I’m happy to note that out of 26 people in the department, all 26 immediately signed up and paid their dues. But it’s a bittersweet happiness, because for the past week unusual things have been happening: Someone has been pouring out my coffee whenever I’m away from my desk and replacing it with different coffee, which I can tell, and I keep getting text messages from someone named Glenn telling me I should consider wearing bigger shoes. Also, a couple times when I started my car I thought I heard a muffled explosion under the hood.
Other than these three things, however, everyone’s acting just the same toward me as they always have – but do you think these things could be related to the fan club, maybe because people think I’m a suck-up?
A) I can tell you with certainty that none of this is related to your starting the fan club and that nobody thinks you’re a suck-up. In 2019 – the last year for which data is available – 254,000 employees of US businesses organized fan clubs for their bosses. In almost every instance, the organizers’ colleagues welcomed the opportunity to pay tribute to the boss. Only one person, a vegetable statistician from Newark, Ohio, reported a possible adverse reaction from her colleagues: She was drugged, packed in a crate, and shipped to San Diego – though there’s no proof this was related to her starting the fan club.
Dr. Miles Miller, holds a PhD in managerial logistics from Billings-Porth University, where he has served on the faculty since 1988, specializing in conceptual trending.
