Comments on: Help! My Boss Is Younger Than Me!

By: GK Ong

GK Ong — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:01:53 +0000

I agree that attitude is highly significant and it applies to both bosses and non-bosses. For that matter anyone else anywhere around the world. This cant be easily learnt in primary/grade school or graduate school.

By: Jenny Ho

Jenny Ho — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:19:38 +0000

Yes Dave. Attitude is everything. This is one criteria that will never change when companies are looking for good people.
I was in a bookstore last weekend and saw a book titled “Age Doesn’t Matter Unless You’re a Cheese”. How amusing but true!

By: Dave Cayford

Dave Cayford — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:17:44 +0000

I am an older worker and have worked for many bosses younger than myself.
Some of my best bosses have been decades younger than myself.
I have no problem with the age of my boss, or the gender.
Most of the people I have worked with over the last 15 years have been the age of my children and a mix of nationalities.
This has been very enjoyable.
Problems only occur when bosses have little or no experience of the job their workers do. In this scenario if a boss does not trust his workers and cannot understand what they are saying then frustrations occur. This is not confined to younger bosses.
However we live in the real world and these situations occur. It just means that you have to have more discussion to get a point across.
I have found that many younger bosses are not really interested in the opinions of the older worker. This again is real world, after all who listens to their parents. The human condition is to learn by your own mistakes not others.
Age is usually not the problem, attitude is.
Mixed age environments are very stimulating so they should be embraced.

By: Jenny Ho

Jenny Ho — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:41:51 +0000

This is great sharing Eric. Thanks!

By: Eric Zoetmulder - Occidental Oriental Consult

Eric Zoetmulder - Occidental Oriental Consult — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:05:24 +0000

Nothing new here. There have always been work situations where nominal rank and age diverged widely. It is truly a little simple to equate age with relative authority.
I experienced this in my grey past of national service during the Cold War. As a wet behind the ears 20 year old , I was put in charge of a Scout’s platoon, stationed right next to the East German, Warsaw Pact, border.
With the benefit of a year’s failure doing Economics, a chequered career in Varsity rowing and the 6 months training Her Majesty’s finest could afford, I had the pip and little more.
Half my 32 national service heroes were older, my driver had a Master’s in Economics and my Platoon Sergeant was ancient at 38.
I quickly learned that the onus of dealing with the age issue was with the leader, not with the troops. Leadership is little more than paying a great deal of attention to the people you work with, capitalising on their experience and adding the larger picture, the thing you are hired to do.
Armies have worked like this for ages, bringing about the best in young officers.
Younger or not, the Leader, supervisor as you call him, drives initiatives and learns as much as he can about the strengths of his men and women, and optimises their skills to get the (his) job done. A boss too daft to see that does not belong in the job and the grovelling that your strategies promote only triggers the wrong side of his ego.
Frankly, you shock me with your premise: ”Help! My Boss Is Younger Than Me!”. If after a few years in the real world, you have not been promoted to a leadership position, you need to grow up and accept that you will always have a boss and simple math tells you that he may be a she and is increasingly more likely to be younger. So wake up, join the 21st Century and shake off the limitations of a stratified business environment. Today, we work in teams with different skills, outlooks and motivation.
As a management consultant, almost all my paymasters (bosses?) are older and I love to see them go out and make a whopping success of their businesses. I may have helped a little, I chewed some ass on occasion, but what matters is getting the job done. Reflected glory is not bad, trust me .
So enjoy working with a younger person, quietly take on a mentoring role and love her or him for doing good.