Does name + "boss" mean something?

One of my colleagues in Britain keeps addressing me as "Armen boss" in mails and skype.

Like,

Hi, Armen boss. Can you please verify...?

I am in no conceivable way his boss and our relationship is restricted to occasional work-related correspondence. Does this form of address mean anything in British English or is it an idiosyncrasy I will have to either silently accept or get the courage to ask him about directly? As far as I know, he's a native speaker of British English.

Solution 1:

I am British and I sometimes call people "boss" in a very informal way, e.g. "Cheers, boss!" as an alternative to "Thanks, mate!" Thinking about situations where I would say that, it does tend to be with someone I don't know very well, like a shop employee, and most often when they have been useful or helpful. A typical conversation might be:

"Can you tell me where the baked beans are?"

"Certainly, they're on aisle 22, past the tinned tomatoes."

"Cheers, boss"

Hence, it would appear that there is a tiny amount of deference involved in how I use the word, plus I feel that it would make the person providing the information feel that I had treated him as an equal, rather than adopting a customer/server relationship.

I haven't come across anyone saying "#insert name# boss", but I can certainly imagine it happening in a jokey, light-hearted atmosphere.