Wiktionary
straw boss
n. (context US English) A worker acting as a supervisor of other workers
WordNet
straw boss
n. a member of a work gang who supervises the other workers [syn: assistant foreman]
Usage examples of "straw boss".
You're low dog in this pack until you show you deserve better, so you'll also obey anyone I appoint to straw boss you, including that damned orange cat over there if I say so, cheerfully and without complaint.
The physician looked at them thoughtfully and the straw boss who had fetched them was called in.
Most of my fellow copyists didn't speak much Latin either, so the straw boss-excuse me-author-read it off one letter at a time.
On the other hand, Beulah had been Buck's straw boss the whole trek-but I could not recall a gang of mules bossed by a mare.