International Underlings Day
These loyal sidekicks and assistants are the real heroes, keeping things running smoothly and ensuring the boss looks good.
Celebrate and recognize the often-overlooked support staff and assistants who keep organizations running—positioning your brand as an advocate for workplace equity and employee appreciation.
- 'The Real MVPs of Your Team' spotlight series recognizing support roles
- Humorous 'Underling Appreciation' gift guides for managers to thank their teams
- Employee testimonials: 'What I wish my boss knew about my job'
- HR toolkit: Recognition strategies for often-invisible team members
The day was established by one Peter D. Morris in 1984, a man who perhaps had spent too much time as an underling in his life and thought that Boss Day was an affront to the people who did the real work on the ground. Can you blame him? Work may be a ladder of success, but it’s the absolute fools way up as those who ride the escalator to the top will attest. You don’t know about the escalator of success? That’s because you’re just an underling, and that door is kept firmly locked against rebellion and snot nosed upstarts.
In all honesty though, without underlings there’s no way that the boss could get his job done. His job is to keep the underlings marching along with orders as to what he wants done and how he wants it done, the underlings job is then to ignore what he’s been told and get it done the right way and let the boss think it was his idea all along. That’s the mark of a great underling.
Of course, underlings don’t warrant a holiday their very own, so the boss discovered a clever way to give them one, without elevating them to being equals with National Boss Day. How does International Underlings Day accomplish this? Well, it only comes around once every four years, which is about the ratio of your paycheck to your bosses. Welcome to the world of being an underling.