7 Tips for Working for a Younger Boss

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it's mainly establishing yourself as a leader. yes,you maybe younger than your subordinates but you can certainly prevent management conflicts. act your age.do not let your emotions neither your people intimidate you.and lastly, keep in mind that in the end of the day,YOU are still the supervisor.

marion of NJ 11:02AM March 26, 2010

it's mainly establishing yourself as a leader. yes,you maybe younger than your subordinates but you can certainly prevent management conflicts. act your age.do not let your emotions neither your people intimidate you.and lastly, keep in mind that in the end of the day,YOU are still the supervisor.

marion of NJ 11:02AM March 26, 2010

I'm a business owner having to employ staff as the need arises. In the firm's 11 years of existence, i remember employing a colleague at a time who was older and apart from that who I knew during our primary school days. At first, i was a bit disturbed as to how to relate with him for the above reasons and secondly, i employed him to assist him come out of his financial predicament. It was really difficult! I wasn't encouraged by his sluggish/slow pace of doing things and couldn't reprimand him. I was able to manage him till year end when the relationship had to be severed amicably.

Obi,

edge nominees (www.edgenominees.com)

Lagos, Nigeria

obioma ajaonu, former Secretary General of APBN 10:35AM March 26, 2010

hi..................

murugan of ID 10:04AM March 26, 2010

I do agree with the statement. The young boss should also know that he is a public servant, although he is a boss. We are answerable to the public.He should have a good adoptability with all the employee young or old.He should have a good governance, ethical values, social and professional touch. Without that leading a business is meaningless.

gopinath of NY 9:21AM March 26, 2010

After 12 years in the U. S. Navy and 11 years working various mechanical jobs, I had much experience working for younger and older supervisors and supervising younger and older workers. Four years ago, I was tired of laying on a creeper pulling transmissions and asked my oldest son if he could help me find a job in the oil and gas industry where he worked (and made three times what I did). A few weeks later, he called me and said there was an opening, so I quit that day. The next morning I had a new job and not a clue what I was doing. I started as a junior helper so I was hammering pipe and building valves with guys less than half my age and I felt like a new man. After a couple of weeks, I went out on my first field assignment working for my own son! He was hesitant at first, but I told him not to worry and I was there to work, just treat me like the other guys. We've both moved on to other employers, and I have observed other son-father teams in the field, and in fact actually trained my younger son and stepson when they came to work in the field. A few months ago, I came to this company, and on my first field job we had a crisis. A piece of eqiupment failed and started a cascade failure down the line. The lead operator, (16 years my junior) started to panic and was yelling orders that made no sense. I stood in front of him, eye to eye, said "Calm down! what's the first step?". He told me, so I did that, and we quickly solved the problem and had everything running smoothly again. He later apologized for screaming at me and thanked me for helping him "reset". Remember older workers, patience with the young ones, honed by years of experience raising children and grandchildren, is one of your greatest assets. I'm not saying treat them like kids, and cut the fatherly (or motherly) advice to an absolute minimum, but keep it in reserve like a fire extinguisher. A good work environment, and a profitable business, takes advantage of the pontiential and knowledge of its youth and the experience and patience of the mature in its employ.

Richard of TX 8:55AM March 26, 2010

How would you hand a stubborn and unrepentant nagging subordinate clerical staff or secretary-Typist who believes she has god-father in who used his influence to put her there in the first instance? She is arrogant to virtually everyone even visitors and clients complain bitterly of her unfriendly attitude. Unfortunately, she happens to responsible to her senior boss. She pays allegiance to him alone in anticipation of promotion and financial upliftment.

On the other hand, the so-called CEO sends her errands. And puts her in the position that she would have to be reporting anyone who falters in any form. On many occassions, her fellow colleagues have quarreled with her during and after working hours.

She has turned the harmonious workplace to a typical residential yard of uncivilised people from varied backgrounds. This is a typical scenario of the one-man business enterprise common in Nigeria.

In this kind of workplace, the socalled CEO or MD and the various departmental heads believe on eye-service and people who pretend to be the most hardworking and loyal. This phenomena has caused industrial disharmony untimely dismissal of several innocent employees for no justifiable reasons.

By JOHNSTON AKPAN

Manager, Research & Training

GTI Consult Limited, Lagos Nigeria

Johnston Akpan 4:34AM March 26, 2010

You're EXACTLY who I'm talking about...EXACTLY...look KID, first off, learn how to spell, or at least LEARN HOW TO PROOFREAD...maybe you've heard of it before?...na, I doubt it...anyways, EXPERIENCE is EVERYTHING

You're right when you say "Listening to elders, people with more life experiences, and assuming that beacuse they have been there and done that means it is a guarantee is foolish" I've been saying that for years but that's EXACTLY what we do, when was the last time you had an 18 year old professor in college? If there is an 18 year old professor, does that make him smart because he's only 18 years old and teaching college? or does that make him good at remembering things he's told by someone else? That's what college is, you sit in a room and listen to someone tell you something they heard from someone else, and so on and so on and so on.

I'm talking about EXPERIENCE, I'm not talking about what you're probably talking about which are things like computers, cell phones, etc, which is kind of obvious from this comment "What worked in 1966 don't work now other than the train. What worked in 1999 (10 years ago) is out of date and ancient" Out of date and ancient, that's what we say about computers and all things electronic, once again, I'm talking about EXPERIENCE

Here brainiac, let me help you understand the concept of EXPERIENCE, when your car needs to be repaired, say your brakes, yea, I said BRAKES, not BREAKS like you probably would, say your brakes are bad on your minivan, do you want someone who just graduated from a tech school to work on them or do you want someone who's been working on brakes for twenty years? Here, let me make it more personal for you, you say you're, yea, I said YOU'RE, not YOUR like you did, you say you're a father, I really don't care what it is, but say your five year old little girl has a problem with her heart, do you want a doctor who's only done two heart surgeries to work on her or someone who's done 500.

I'm not saying older workers are perfect, they're not, I'm saying that we DO know a lot more than younger bosses do, like I said before, it comes from LIFE EXPERIENCE, if we've been doing a job for years and years and years, and than we have someone in their 20's get hired to be our boss, fine, some of us don't want to be a boss, some of us just want to do the job we were hired to do, but when I have 20 years experience in my job and you come along and try to tell me HOW to do my job, than THAT I have a problem with...

armybeef68 of CA 4:19AM March 26, 2010

As a young employer as feel I respect, listen to, learn from, as well as teach to the "elder" work force as armybeef68 labeled them.

Listening to elders, people with more life experiences, and assuming that beacuse they have been there and done that means it is a guarantee is foolish.

Bottom line is this, if you want all the young folks who are obvioulsy less deserving, worth and intelligent to take your every word of experienced adivce, be the boss! You had 20-30 more years of positioning yourself through your "been there done that" past versues younger people that you should be the boss/employer by now! But for some reason or reasons your not! So as a young father with a "Lord Willing" long future ahead of me, should listen to only those who have been there. Well, there is here. What worked in 1966 don't work now other than the train. What worked in 1999 (10 years ago) is out of date and ancient. Respect, yes! Learn from, yes! The best thing to do, not always. respect is a two way raod for young and old.

Jim of SC 12:56AM March 26, 2010

I am over 65 yrs old. And I know I don't know it all, but everyone no matter what age have experience in one area or another. The young manager will bring new ideas the may or may not work. However if he/she does not try, they will never gain the experience needed to help their company move forward. The same goes for older employees who work for a younger manager. They may have experience in some areas the younger manager may not. The older employee should share their experience as a suggestion to help the younger manager succeed. Remember, many of us are nearing the end of our careers, while the younger manager is starting his/her career. So, work together and don't sweat the small stuff.

Giovanni Serra of IL 8:59PM March 25, 2010

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