4-16-10 To The Under-30 Crowd

And…. Also to the over-30 crowd! Allow me to explain. I received an email today from my aunt (thanks Deb!) and it got me to thinking, once again, about why we so desperately need age diversity in the work force. (You can see one of my original posts about this here. 3-22-10 Age Diversity, Part 2)

At any rate, the body of the email follows. And yes, it DID make me smile and laugh out loud. But it also reminded me that all of the things that the original author (who is unknown to me) said about the under-30 crowd are also what makes them so unique and valuable in the workplace. For example, the technology of today fuels their curiosity and creativity. And the technology that they demanded helps us all (where WOULD we be without email or the internet?!). Those are just a couple of examples that come to mind. I’m sure that you can think of many, many more.

So, read, enjoy, laugh…. But most importantly, think about how it changes the way you view your younger colleagues.

Cheers!

Growing up without a cell phone

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot.... BOTH ways… yadda, yadda, yadda.

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends." OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat bastards!

And not many of us had microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!

And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats and seat belts - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd

3-22-10 Age Diversity, Part 2

Last week I talked a little about why the executive needs the older workers on his/her team… because they bring a significant level of knowledge and experience along with a vast network to the table (3-19-10 A Couple of Things to Consider). Now on the other hand, you absolutely NEED the young kids on your team as well. Why?

Rarely a day goes by that there isn’t some type of article or news story on the “graying of America“ (or insert your country here as it is happening all over the world!). The average age of the workers in the industry where I worked was about 47 or 48 years old. It doesn’t take a genius (or a news report, for that matter) to tell us that our workforce will be retiring in droves over the next few years. And there certainly aren’t as many numbers in the next generations as there has been in the boomer generation. So you will be competing for a much more limited resource. You had better be hiring them now and getting them hooked on your industry and company so that you have the needed people when your boomers retire.

Beyond the availability of people, you also need the kids (I always called them the “baby engineers” or “baby mechanics”) to bring a different point of view to your business. To understand the different point of view, here’s a social experiment for you to try. Right now, act like you are ringing a door bell. Which finger did you use? Next, ask someone under the age of 25 to act like they are ringing a door bell. Which finger did they use? If you are a boomer, you likely used your index finger. The younger person? They likely used their thumb.

So what’s the point? The kids have spent a significant amount of time on gaming --- using their thumbs way more than we boomers ever thought of. As a result of their gaming and other activities, they typically have a very different way of looking at and accomplishing things than do the boomers. If you take advantage of that different world view, you can bring a freshness back to your business. Status quo is often the death knell for a business. The younger worker can help you to avoid that.

So what do you do to keep your younger workers engaged?

You absolutely have to listen to them. No one likes to be marginalized, that’s for sure. But in the case of your younger workers, remember, they have come from a much smaller family (fewer siblings) where they’ve had lots of attention from their parents. They expect the same in the workplace. And frankly, they deserve it --- if you are looking for new and fresh ideas.

It is important to help them learn about the importance of establishing a network. As I’ve said before, that is how real business gets done. As their executive, you should spend time helping them get this network going.

And finally, its time to give them some responsibility. You will never know if they have to capability to be one of the leaders if you don’t give them the responsibility and then help them grow into it. If you don’t stretch and test them, you will likely lose them to some other company that will.

So to the Generation X and Y folks in the audience, did I miss something? Speak up and tell me…… I still have lots to learn about this.

Cheers!