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How Gen Y Should Talk To Old People At Work
jfruh writes "A lot of ink has been spilled explaining to Boomers and Gen Xers how they can best manage, motivate, and retain talented members of the Millenial generation on the job. But it's a two-way street, and those born in the '80s and later could also use a lesson on how to best communicate with older co-workers, who after all will determine their promotion and pay raises for the foreseeable future. Advice includes: make actual phone calls, mirror the level of formality your co-workers use in e-mails, and for Pete's sake don't ask them things like 'R U going?' in a non-texting medium."
You treat them as you want to be treated, and don't worry about if they are younger or older.. They are your coworkers, that is all that matters.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I thought using proper English and a little courtesy and respect in writing was required of *all* generations when dealing with business, especially customers and "the boss." Equally silly, I always thought it was only *courteous* to use the phone or even (*shudder*) walk over to someone's office to talk to them!
But I guess the "kids" think it's funny to use text-slang instead, further exposing their ignorance and lack of respect for others.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
As a Boomer (age 59), I'm finding it more important to embrace the future than ask the young 'uns to adopt the past. I think the last time I used a land line phone at work was over three years ago, and that was an exception; it's all Skype and Hangouts now, and I like it better.
I do miss some of the perqs of the past: private offices, beer at lunch...
That said, now get off my lawn!
...to work eighty hours a week for the first three or four years to prove our worth,..
As a Gen X'er, I saw my Dad bust his ass.
Then get laid off when management made cuts to make their numbers. R&D was ALWAYS one of the first cuts. My father told me "Do NOT become an engineer! Become one of the bean counters."
What did I learn? Busting your ass does NOT prove anything. It will NOT be rewarded. Living to work is stupid: you work to live.
That's why all the Baby Boomers are now a BURDEN on our medical system: all that work and no play made them obese, diabetic, and with heart attacks. They ran themselves into the ground with work.
Even though they worked that hard, they are taking more out of the system than they EVER put in.
And now we have a bunch of self entitled ...
I'm 30 and just at the very edge of the gen x-millennial divide. One thing that has been a major problem for me and most of the gen exers and millennials I know that are somewhat intelligent with regard to the boomers is respecting them as a generation. Sure, there are individuals worthy of respect but in my experience they are, as much as any generation can be, the epitome of what is wrong with and killing America. This is true of them, taken as a whole, regardless of whether or not they are liberal, moderate, conservative, etc.
The fact is that when the generations before the boomers handed over the reigns of power starting in 1992, we saw a precipitous decline in the quality of governance in corporate America, governments and everywhere else you looked. Boomers can squawk "correlation is not causation" until they are all entitled to Medicare paid out of my generation's meager earnings, but you cannot deny the *ahem* "correlation" there. Since the WWII and Silent generations have waned in their influence, our society has gone off a fucking cliff.
And you know what the worst part is? I have "conservative" boomer acquaintances who merely find a conservative angle for their entitled attitude. They'll say "I earned my Social Security, you young fucker" and I say back to them that it's mathematically impossible for most of my generation to even have a shot at that, we're still paying and you motherfucker want to tell me how you are entitled to cut of my paycheck because you didn't vote for anyone who was willing to restore the Social Security trust fund LBJ liquidated to fund Vietnam? Piss off! If they got started in 1992, it would probably be fixed by now.
And then they get to tell us how evil we are...
I was born in 1959 and this article is shit.
Use the phone
Fuck no. Use email for work - we want a trace for fucks sake.
Return email etiquette: When you receive an email from a Baby Boomer, reply using a similar format. If they begin with “Hi Joe” in every email, then you return every email with “Hello Eric”. If they end every email with a letter-like ending such as “Best wishes”, “Best”, “Thanks”, or another equivalent, return your emails with the same courtesy.
Oh fuck, I bet this guy top-posts.
Discuss technology at an appropriate level: As you read this, note that it’s coming from a life-long techie, former CIO and current CTO of a company I started. It’s easy for Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers that grew up using technology to technically overpower those who did not grow up on technology. We are digital immigrants and you are digital natives. There is a difference.
WTF? People older than me invented all this shit! I don't have to be worried abot some kid blinding me with anything other than bullshit.
Work hard: Baby Boomers have an extremely strong work ethic.
Is this guy delusional? Work to live, don't live to work.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Grown men who play with children's toys are creepy.
You almost have a point there. I mean, the average age of game players is 30 years old, so by that definition, if you're a gamer, you're creepy.
An occasional animated show is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
An occasional football/baseball/basketball/foosball game is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
An occasional movie is fine; is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
An occasional book is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
An occasional opera is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
Eating the occasional meal is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
An occasional comic book is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
Collecting the occasional stamp is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
Playing the occasional guitar is fine; making it the center of your life is weird.
Anything is weird if you take it to some crazy extreme. Who are you to be the gatekeeper of what hobbies are weird and which ones aren't, based on some arbitrary scale of weirdness?
What exactly did his desktop background disrespect? Why does it concern you? it's his desktop background, not yours.
Disliking portrayals of violence isn't uncommon, and it concerned me because I sometimes have to see it when I work with him.
There is obviously a scale. The plain, default blue background at one end, and something like pornography / gore at the other. In a normal office the violent film clip isn't far over my boundary line, but at a school it would be. At school, something gothic with skeletons is just a bit odd, but I'd choose something else at the hospital.
Essentially, I'm judging someone else by comparing their behaviour to mine.