My nephew's wife just had a baby. Guess who's feeling old.

My sister shocked me, she told me her son, my nephew turned 30 this year. That just can't be. I remember holding him over my should to burb him.

My sister shocked me, she told me her son, my nephew turned 30 this year. That just can't be. I remember holding him over my should to burb him.

 

Know the feeling. I remember when my sister brought my 4-week-old nephew over to my house, and now he's in his 30's. Can we say ouch?

Another thing with strong "ouch" value is realising that a sizable fraction of your colleagues are younger than your career...

Another thing with strong "ouch" value is realising that a sizable fraction of your colleagues are younger than your career...

 

That's never bothered me. My last 3 bosses were all 10+ years younger than me, and everyone at my last long-term job except for a few were an entire generation younger than me. I can learn from them just as well as they can learn from me, and I know younger people with fresh new perspectives aren't always going to be wrong, and they being right doesn't mean what they say must be anything I agree with. And I'm okay with that. I'm not beyond willing to learn.

 

I think older workers really shoot themselves in the foot when they lord over younger workers, beating them over the brow with phrases like "far more experience" and "back in my day."

 

It comes across as belittling, stifling, and dismissive. When older workers anoint themselves as the scions of the only valid source of experience, the arbiters of the One True Knowledge in a company, walking around with a cup of coffee, finding fault with every last terrified youngling sitting in his or her cube (or standing at a desk), we simply reinforce in their minds that it's time for us to go.

 

Not that younger workers need what older workers think younger workers need. No. They bite their tongues, not saying what's really on their collective mind: that it's time for an entire generation of older workers to set the coffee cup down, stop flattening the tiles, stop spouting off about the glory days of CP/M and Cobol, stop using up all the available oxygen, and just leave.

 

The absolute best thing we can do as older workers is be gracious, patient, and listen, and leave our four-decade-long resume where it properly belongs: in a desk drawer, preferably at home, not deployed in one's fist, at the ready, to smack younger workers the second they make a mistake or do something counter to what we expect should be done.

 

We should be handing them the baton to carry on after us, not beating them with it.

Edited September 12, 2020 by xordevoreaux

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what you're saying and all. The ouch thing was more about the specific moment when I realised that.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what you're saying and all. The ouch thing was more about the specific moment when I realised that.

 

It's like when you go to the doctor and you think it's doogie howser, or the police walking around are just boy scouts in the wrong colour uniform.

And the older you get, the faster it goes.

Another thing with strong "ouch" value is realising that a sizable fraction of your colleagues are younger than your career...

 

Heh... one of our (very talented) junior devs had a day when she was feeling a little self-doubting and wanted to know how on Earth I managed to know all that I do. I replied that I'd been doing it longer than she'd been alive so it'd had plenty of time to hammer into my brain - no magic ability, just time... Helped her, made me feel old

 

That's never bothered me. My last 3 bosses were all 10+ years younger than me,

Not that younger workers need what older workers think younger workers need. No. They bite their tongues, not saying what's really on their collective mind: that it's time for an entire generation of older workers to set the coffee cup down, stop flattening the tiles, stop spouting off about the glory days of CP/M and Cobol, stop using up all the available oxygen, and just leave.

 

One of the things that I love about my job is just how things change over time, and how often it is that the juniors teach me new stuff - that's just fantastic

However, I've met plenty that act as you describe unfortunately. In fact I think they all hang out at the theregister.com - a UK-based tech newspaper - that's a great example of the above - if you're not individually-crafting each 0 and 1 you are somehow not worthy!