I was promoted about a month ago, and I began supervising other employees two weeks ago. Although a few of the people I’ve supervised in the past two projects are also in their twenties, the majority of them are at least 20 years older than I am- I’m 27 ftr.
Prior to this, I’d read a book (I forget the title, sorry) about how common it is for there to be clashes when Baby Boomers work with, and particularly under, Gen-Xers, because the older workers resent younger people being in power positions even if the younger person is more qualified and/or has seniority in the company, so one had to be mindful of these dynamics etc etc . Now, with some time to reflect on this, I think this book did me a real disservice, since it made me anxious for no reason at all. There’s no seething resentment like the author implied, even from the employees who are both older and have been there even longer than I have.
So, what about you? Would it bother you if you started a new job (most of the people I’ve been supervising are new employees) and discovered that your new boss was half your age? What if you’ve been there at least as long as your new boss?
I’m trying to figure out if the author got his ideas legitimately, or he just made things up
I’m 38–so a boss half my age would be 19. That’s probably a bit too young!
As for how I’d react to a boss much younger than I (say your age, 27), that’s a tough one. I wouldn’t resent him or her unless I felt they got the position unfairly (e.g. they were the company owner’s brother in law or something). If that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t worry about their age so much as whether they have the experience needed for the job. At 27, you’d be pretty young to be my boss. You’d need to have started pretty early or have had a meteoric rise in your career. Even if you had a lot of experience in the field, I’d worry that you hadn’t been through enough up and down markets to know what to do if business conditions changed suddenly. Our office worked very differently when we were having a tough time recruiting (too many good jobs chasing too few qualified applicants) from the year we were all stressng about lay offs. Managers had to function very differently in each case. However, you could prove yourself to me by doing a good job. I would never hold your age against you if you did.
Probably the biggest issue I’d face would be my own insecurity. I’d wonder why you were in a superior position when I was still plugging along at my level. What went wrong in my career? But that wouldn’t be your fault. And if there were others my age at my level, I’d suck it up and eventually get over it.
I wouldn’t have any problem if they were compitent at what they do. Strangely one of my first ever bosses was quite a bit younger than me (I was 25 he was 20) but he looked older than me. I felt quite bad about having given him a hard time when he made misstakes after I found out his age.
My previous supervisor was half my age. I started working in this business before he was born. I just accept it as part of the territory. I can’t be resentful of it, because where I work, and probably where you do, too, they need somebody who can be a supervisor. They need somebody who knows the department inside out. They need somebody who does a specific subset of tasks that make somebody else’s job easier. All of these can’t be the same person, that’s too large a task. I don’t expect anybody to have my 30 years of experience. So I just do my job properly, and let the others do their jobs as well. If I were as green as they are, there’d be problems. Fortunately, if there’s one person there who knows what is supposed to be happening at any given moment, it’s me.
I’ve seen numerous examples of a person in charge not really having enough experience to be in charge, and not much of an idea how to accomplish it without pissing people off. That’s why I have to do my job right. I don’t mind being a cog that turns the big wheel. I’m often the last person our product passes by before it goes to the public, so as long as I’ve got it right, the supervisor can do whatever it is they do, and it makes them look good, whether they knew what I was doing or not.
No problem, really (I’m 40, btw), as long as they treated me “personally” and professionally with respect. The first nine years of my adult life were spent in the military, where job performance is all that counts (well, theoretically, anyway).
My current first-line supervisor is four or five years younger than me.
I’ve worked under people **less than **half my age, before I became self-employed (YAY!). It never bothered me, so long as the person earned his position. In one case, it was a close relative of the owner, and a really snotty individual, so I didn’t stick around long. Other than that, no problem.
One word of advice: Don’t be reluctant to ask the older guy for advice. He’s got years and years of experience that you don’t have, and he’ll respect you for asking.
Also: If you’re the older guy, do not go on and on about the “good old days,” especially if you’re in a line of work in which the standards have gone downhill (don’t get me started).
So I was talking to the other new supervisor who young (not-quite-30) who works on the second shift and it seems that I’ve been luckier than her. She has a guy in her group that the book could have been written about…
Do things like " Let me drop on your vast experience" come out of someone’s mouth without the speaker realizing that they’re being a jerk? Perhaps the man in question doesn’t realize that the supervisors are the ones who decide if new hires are asked to return once their first project is over. :dubious:
I’m actually in your situation, elfkin477. I’m 27, and I manage (supervise, whatever) about 8 to 15 people, all my age or older. The person one rung below me is more than twice my age, however. There were some problems when I first started (he had been here for 14 years, I’d been here for 1), but we worked out a system that works well for both of us. It was a bit annoying for the first couple months, as he felt I had to prove to him that I could do the job, but it all worked out. He also realized pretty quickly that he didn’t want my job, and was actually pretty happy where he was.
I guess my advice is to be as nice as your job allows, respect the older folks experience, don’t be afraid to go to them with questions (if they’re open to that sort of thing), and just do your job the best you can. If you do it well, people will see past your age. Good luck!
I have this happen to me all the time. Our school goes through assistant principals like Chicklets, and most of them are at least 20 years younger than I am. Never any problems. If they are competent, and I am competent (two BIG assumptions! ) then everything runs smoothly.
Seriously, I’m 40 and I wouldn’t have a problem. I was a little unnerved when I first had a younger boss (I was in my twenties at the time), but I doubt that it would bother me now.
With only a couple of exceptions, however, they’ve got a month’s worth of experience, and I’ve got more than three years, so I haven’t run into a situation where I’d need to ask any of them questions - not that I wouldn’t if they had a clue. I’m sure it’ll come up later when we do other projects (for some reason my boss likes to reassign groups just about every project. I’ve no idea why, and never have) when I get some people in my groups who have worked there longer than me, so it’s good advice anyway.
100% of the other supervisor’s people are brand-new so she’s just grinning and bearing it until the project ends…If she doesn’t strangle him before the end of the week she should be okay since the unofficial rule of assigning groups is you don’t have to have a jerk in your group for two projects in a row, so our director’s bizarre obsession with rearanging groups works in the team leaders’ favor.
I must admit that it would bother me, so your concern isn’t unfounded. Actually, it does bother me because it could soon have a boss younger than me, and I’m not sure whether I’m going to resent it or not.
On the other hand, I’m in the same position as you. Or rather in the reverse position. It never happened to me before. My bosses always have been older than me until now. So, I can’t tell for sure how I’m going to react. Also, it could be that I will resent it at first but later will get accustomed to this new situation. Your future subordinates, contrarily to me might be accustomed to such situation hence not bothered the slighest bit.
I would add that a lot of people, IME, don’t really seem to care about that. I don’t remember someone complaining about about their boss being too young for their taste in my job environment. I also supervised a significantly older employee, and she didn’t seem to care about my age. However, I’m not invasive or controling, and she’s easy going, so it’s not necessarily representative.
Contrarily to her, however, I tend to be easily irritated when my boss doesn’t hold up to my expectations. It’s very possible that if I’m not convinced by the competence of my new boss and he’s younger than me, I will be less compliant than with an older boss whose “natural” position is above me.
I know my post isn’t a well thought analysis. I just wrote what crossed my mind as the thoughts went along.
I think I’m in a different industry than you (I’m a software engineer), and that might make a difference, but anyway… I’m 48 and have had (and currently have) various managers who are younger than I am, but they’re not as quite young as you are (they’ve been in their mid-30s, I guess). I think it would be pretty tough to find someone your age who has the ability and knowledge to manage a large software development project. However, if there were such a brilliant person, I’d be happy to work for them.
It sounds like it’s very clear to everyone that you have more experience than the people who work for you, as well as seniority in your company. That being said, I don’t see how it could bother anyone to work for you simply because of your age. It’s obvious that you’re sensitive to the potential problems of alienating employees who are significantly older than you, so if someone that like is brewing I think you’d spot it and handle it. So basically I wouldn’t worry about it. If someone is going to have a chip on their shoulder just because of your age, then THEY have a problem. Good luck with your new position!!
) then everything runs smoothly.