How did this happen? When you were a teenager, you were very clearly smarter than your parents. Then you went on, and got yourself a whole bunch of education, worked hard, and are now leading a team of people. Half of them are old enough to be your parents.
Managing your mom? You didn’t sign up for this.
Oh to be a Baby Boomer — The single most important demographic cohort in the history of the planet. The baby boomers have absolutely dominated the workplace since the 1960s, and are only slowly giving up their grip now. If you were born after about 1965, then it is a good news/bad news story for you.
The bad news is the Boomers racked up your “societal credit card debt”, that will take several generations to pay off. The good news is they’ve already cured erectile dysfunction, and they are bound and determined to stay youthful forever, which bodes well for all those that follow.
In the workplace, this has a number of ramifications. If you’ve got a boomer working for you, you might have to put up with the occasional tardy arrival, if you are to believe the Cialis commercials. It also means when you start talking about ISPs, ASPs and HTML, their eyes will glaze over faster than Paris Hilton’s would on Jeopardy.
Keep in mind that there is something to be learned from this generation. Yes they were financially reckless with your future, and made the planet into an environmental disaster, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know a thing or two about whatever business you are in.
The Boomers have seen several business cycles come and go, and will tell you (with certain credibility) that they’ve seen it all previously. Everything in business comes full circle – just the details are marginally different. If you listen carefully to the Boomers working for you, you just might get a jump on whatever is going to happen next.
They can’t manage email to save their life, and they think microwaves and fax machines are high tech, but if you discount their input and feedback, it is at your peril.