"Man smart, Woman smarter", the catchy number sung by Harry Belafonte years ago may not be music for all men. According to a survey, 62 percent men are smarter while working alongside bold and aggressive women.

Conceptualized by TV channel CNN-IBN and conducted in several cities including Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Patna, Bhopal, Pune, Kochi and Surat, the poll has taken views of men and women in the age group 18-50.

"It's a fact that women are more smart, informative and decisive and men are undoubtedly insecure. And I don't have any qualms in accepting that it becomes a pain most of the times working with such women because they constantly tend to circumcise your male ego knowingly or unknowingly," Ateet Aggarwal, a banker, told IANS.



"It becomes intolerable sometimes because at the end of the day there are huge ego hassles," he added.

Mumbai-based Chitresh Sinha agreed with Aggarwal and said: "When men work with women it's usually about proving themselves. It's a natural feeling and when you have a bold, aggressive woman working with you, it becomes much harder for men to prove themselves."

Adding to this, Zubin Kaul, a software professional, said: "I find it really uncomfortable to work with a female boss who is biased against men. They have this feeling that men are good for nothing and they look for opportunities to pull you down."

If we look at today's scenario - we have women at the top posts in every industry playing the lead role of a perfect boss to perfection. Some men feel that a female boss behaves like a "mad woman" if she is single.

"I had this bad experience of having a female boss who was single. She had no life of her own and wanted the staff to be in office till very late. She used to get these mood swings very often that it was very difficult to deal with her," recollected Randeep Singh.

"And things are very difficult to handle when it comes to dealing with a female boss. You just can't argue with them because you don't know how they will behave. Sometimes they are so adamant to prove themselves right that they refuse to even listen to your ideas," he added.

While some men find it really uncomfortable to work with bold women, PR executive Ankur Talwar has no problems working with aggressive women, but he feels that women "sometimes get hyper".

"I think women are great co-workers but at times they just get too hyper or emotional about a situation unnecessarily, which could have been dealt with a cool mind. Their reactions are always very surprising," explained Talwar.

In spite of the possibilities of having ego clashes and regular confrontations, mediaperson Biswadip Mitra doesn't mind working with tough female bosses, "as long as they don't violate office decorum".

"Honestly, I don't mind tough women as my boss or colleague as long as they do not violate office decorum or hurl insults. Simply because I am not used to insulting others. I can differ in my opinions, but there can be sober ways to express it," explained Mitra. "I am not uncomfortable with aggressive women, if they work for the interest of the company or the department in general. However, if the person is just another egoistic lady who thinks that there cannot be a different view from other

s and all male colleagues are idiots, then I will certainly have a problem," he added.