You're the Boss®

You're the Boss® is a board game specifically designed to give students first hand experience with the world of work in a fun and challenging way. The game teaches students how a real business works, as well as how employees directly contribute to the success or failure of the business. 

In the game, players are responsible for running a department store and are confronted with real decisions under conditions of business competition. This puts them "in the boss's seat" and requires them to take the employer’s perspective. In the course of playing the game, students directly experience the joys and frustrations of running a business with a range of employees, ranging from excellent to extremely poor. 

As the game progresses, profits and sales are affected by the behavior of employees. Students will recognize exactly which behaviors employers value in their employees, as well as which behaviors make an employee a likely candidate for the unemployment line. 

This game is a simulation. Although it is a game, the competition and the feelings of success and disappointment are all real. Players will experience the same feelings of elation and frustration that real business people experience. 

Grades 8 - adult 

Learning Objectives: 

1. Learn basic information about how a business functions. 

2. Learn some commonly used business terms. 

3. Develop insight into how the behavior of workers affects the success or failure of a business.

4. Develop empathy for the position of the "boss" and understand how employee actions motivate him/her to discipline or fire employees. 

5. By playing the role of the "boss", learn the perspective of the employer. 

6. Understand better the "give" as well as the "take" in an employment relationship.