A coworker was promoted the other day, and he’s my new boss. So far so good, we got along well anyway. I’m 45 years old, and this is the first time in my life that my boss was younger than me. I’m kind of peaked out in my job, and not looking for promotions, so this day was inevitable.
So how old were you when you first had a boss that was younger than you?
- My boss was 27-28, something like that.
I don’t know for sure, but I would bet that when I was laid off end of last year that my supervisor was younger than me. (He had been over our team around 2 months) I was 38 at the time and would guess that he was early 30’s.
Now, I’ve had plenty of supervisors that I was far more intelligent then. That of course is a different question though. 
I’m younger than at least two of the people who report to me. As far as I know it’s not an issue for any of us.
I was in the military, so I would say that I was about 23.
6 people report to me, 3 of them are older than me. I’m 50, they are 52, 56, and 65.
The first time I reported to someone younger than me? I was 32, she was 29.
Never been something that bugged me.
It sort of happened when I was about 32. My ‘boss’ was just a few months younger than me. I was in a technical position and he knew little about anything technical. He couldn’t fire me but he could give me stuff to do and give me typical bossy nonsense in a Dilbert sort of way. It didn’t work out well for any of us in the end. His whole management structure five levels up and down to him imploded and they either left or got forced out all at once depending on the story because they created more problems than they solved.
He was a nice guy in general but a horrible manager. The technical group like me had real, actual work to do and we started falling behind. His response was to call daily update meetings 3 times a day every day starting at 8 am and more often during crunch times. That was the worst thing you could do. The reason we were falling behind in the first place was because the managerial overhead was so high. The only way you could do your actual job was at night, weekends or holidays when the managers weren’t around. If they were around, you would just be filling out spreadsheets about work you were supposed to be doing but couldn’t, explanations about why things weren’t being done and being called into endless meetings about why work was falling behind. It was beyond ridiculous and caused some extreme health problems for me because I had to stay up until 3 am most nights to do my actual job because I couldn’t actually do most of it at work because that was mostly just for show and tell. Never again.
I work for a very well respected company now with a matrix management model which is interesting. There are some very young executives <40 but I am still younger than the vast majority of the people at my level and above. You can honestly say that you have 50 bosses or none and each statement is equally accurate. There is no one person that directs everything you do. Instead, you become an expert on something and then guide others in it and they do the same. You can be the boss on some things with the same people that are the boss to you on others. Things like vacation and leave or governed strictly by policy so, if the rule book says it, you can take it. It has its drawbacks but it works really well in general.
Offhand, I don’t think I ever had that situation. I guess I was the guy who put other people in that situation.
So far none, I’m 27 and one of my bosses was a girl from high school who was few months older.
This is nothing. Just wait until Presidents start being younger than you, then see how it feels! That alone was almost – almost, mind you – reason to vote for McCain. (Still went with Obama though, that whippersnapper.)
I have been with the company for 36 years. The General Manager, who is in the process of buying the company, is 39.
Most of my crew was not yet born when I started working for the company. My Fluke meter is older than the youngest guy on my crew…
I’m 33. One of our road supervisors is 22. She got hired as a bus driver at 20, promoted to trains at 21, applied for, and got a road supervisor position.
When I worked at a movie theater in college, some of the managers were high school kids (I didn’t work enough or care enough to become a manager). The theater had a policy that all managers and up were to be addressed as Mr/Miss/Ms. Lastname so that was awkward for me.
They were good kids tho, so it didn’t get hairy.
I just dodged that bullet. Obama is ten weeks older than me.
I was in my 30s when we picked a doctor who looked to be about 12 - we called him Doogie! 
He was actually very good, but it was our first younger-than-us doctor.
My current dentist graduated from college in '96 from the same college I attended in '72/'73.
My last boss before I retired was 10 years younger than I was. At one point, I did the math and figured I was old enough to be the mother of half of my coworkers! The last 3 or 4 commanding officers (I worked at a Navy facility) before I retired were younger than I, and they were full birds! One of my last supervisors retired the same day I did.
And, yes, the President is younger than I by over 7 years - in fact, he’s a bit younger than my second-to-youngest sister.
None of this ever bothered me - mostly I found it amusing. Circle of life and all that.
I’m 47, my boss is (I would say) in his late 30s. He’s been my manager for a year now - I don’t have a problem with this - management of the people in my team is a quite distinct skillset and function from the actual day to day activity of the team - so I’ve never really seen the step to management as a career progression path from here.
The first time it happened I was 31. Then it happened again a couple of years ago; I’m 51, my boss is about to turn 50.
Hasn’t happened yet, though it is only a matter of time. I am 45 and currently the people who I report to (I have 4 bosses Bob, 4!) are 48, 50, 65, and 70. I don’t plan ever dipping my toe in management again, so sooner or later I will report to somebody younger than me…
About 36. He was a couple of years younger.
Not quite, but my boss just found out I’m only a year younger than him, and he can’t shut up about it. I don’t think that means he’s going to stop treating me like a child, in fact he seems to think I’m less valuable because I hold the lowest position and he’s the president, when we’re practically the same age.