Comments on: Managing up: How to manage a baby-boomer boss http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/07/16/managing-up-how-to-manage-a-baby-boomer-boss/ Advice at the intersection of work and life Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:39:22 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Babies http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/07/16/managing-up-how-to-manage-a-baby-boomer-boss/comment-page-1/#comment-218433 Babies Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:55:48 +0000 http://lolindrath.dyndns.org/lolindrath/wordpress/2006/07/16/managing-up-how-to-manage-a-baby-boomer-boss/#comment-218433 The trick is to stay calm. As a young mother I would never freak out and so my daughter became very easy going and relaxed all the time. Remember that they can read off of your emotions. The trick is to stay calm. As a young mother I would never freak out and so my daughter became very easy going and relaxed all the time. Remember that they can read off of your emotions.

]]> By: Managing Up, Millennial Style « Kinetic Beans http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/07/16/managing-up-how-to-manage-a-baby-boomer-boss/comment-page-1/#comment-186183 Managing Up, Millennial Style « Kinetic Beans Fri, 22 May 2009 13:55:02 +0000 http://lolindrath.dyndns.org/lolindrath/wordpress/2006/07/16/managing-up-how-to-manage-a-baby-boomer-boss/#comment-186183 [...] Trunk’s Brazen Careerist also offers up advice on managing a Boomer boss (from 2006). One of the things she reccomends is using the “language of diplomacy.” She [...] [...] Trunk's Brazen Careerist also offers up advice on managing a Boomer boss (from 2006). One of the things she reccomends is using the "language of diplomacy." She [...]

]]> By: Aviva Gabriel http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/07/16/managing-up-how-to-manage-a-baby-boomer-boss/comment-page-1/#comment-157475 Aviva Gabriel Sun, 27 Jul 2008 02:40:18 +0000 http://lolindrath.dyndns.org/lolindrath/wordpress/2006/07/16/managing-up-how-to-manage-a-baby-boomer-boss/#comment-157475 You wrote, "When I spoke with Gen-X demographer Laura Shelton, she reminded me that to a boomer, meaningful goals might be a reserved parking space and a new title. So you need to make sure your boss understands that you want shorter-term goals and that you care most about issues like being challenged, learning new skills, and preserving your personal life." As a baby-boomer myself, and having been the "boss" of 35 employees within my own business, I can tell you that Laura Shelton's appraisal of boomer goals is patently prejudiced, absolutely ageist, and ignorantly inaccurate. My goals - from my first days of work at the age of 16 to this very day - have always been to "be challenged, learn new skills, and preserve my personal life." In fact, I believe that it is these very goals and priorities - which I stubbornly stuck to at the expense of following "normal" career paths - which have led me to a situation where I'm now earning wages rather than salary, and reporting to folks half my age. But the bottom line point I'd like to make is this: Most "baby boomers," especially of my generation, were the ones who "dropped out" of society in our teens and twenties precisely because we refused to settle for "titles" and "parking spaces." Most of us, despite the fact that we've had to re-enter the very world we rebelled against in order to make a living, and despite the fact that our ideas of sociopolitical and cultural "revolution" soon devolved into notions of "evolution" by working within hated structures to "make a difference" and "effect change," are NOT even SLIGHTLY interested in title, rank, perks, or anything of the sort. Most boomers struggled mightily against hierarchy. We refused to settle for it in our colleges and universities, and struggled to throw all hierarchical pyramids of authority on their asses by tossing them upside down. Many of us have NOT succumbed to the allure of ego-gratifying bestowals of rank and privilege from the "powers-that-be." Laura Shelton is probably describing a small subset of boomers, I imagine. But she's not describing my generation, that's for sure. She's not describing the "creatives" and "change agents" and highly proactive, pioneering boomers that I consider my "tribe." Not at ALL. You wrote, "When I spoke with Gen-X demographer Laura Shelton, she reminded me that to a boomer, meaningful goals might be a reserved parking space and a new title. So you need to make sure your boss understands that you want shorter-term goals and that you care most about issues like being challenged, learning new skills, and preserving your personal life."

As a baby-boomer myself, and having been the "boss" of 35 employees within my own business, I can tell you that Laura Shelton's appraisal of boomer goals is patently prejudiced, absolutely ageist, and ignorantly inaccurate.

My goals – from my first days of work at the age of 16 to this very day – have always been to "be challenged, learn new skills, and preserve my personal life."

In fact, I believe that it is these very goals and priorities – which I stubbornly stuck to at the expense of following "normal" career paths – which have led me to a situation where I'm now earning wages rather than salary, and reporting to folks half my age.

But the bottom line point I'd like to make is this: Most "baby boomers," especially of my generation, were the ones who "dropped out" of society in our teens and twenties precisely because we refused to settle for "titles" and "parking spaces."

Most of us, despite the fact that we've had to re-enter the very world we rebelled against in order to make a living, and despite the fact that our ideas of sociopolitical and cultural "revolution" soon devolved into notions of "evolution" by working within hated structures to "make a difference" and "effect change," are NOT even SLIGHTLY interested in title, rank, perks, or anything of the sort.

Most boomers struggled mightily against hierarchy. We refused to settle for it in our colleges and universities, and struggled to throw all hierarchical pyramids of authority on their asses by tossing them upside down. Many of us have NOT succumbed to the allure of ego-gratifying bestowals of rank and privilege from the "powers-that-be."

Laura Shelton is probably describing a small subset of boomers, I imagine. But she's not describing my generation, that's for sure. She's not describing the "creatives" and "change agents" and highly proactive, pioneering boomers that I consider my "tribe." Not at ALL.

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