intergenerational workplace

[hydroazuanacaine]

what do your older or younger coworkers do that either drives you crazy or makes them great to work with?

everyone over the age of 30 puts too many spaces after a sentence. they say this is because of typewriters and it used to be that you always hit the space bar twice before starting a new sentence. but most of them just hack at it a random number of times after each period. and then tell me about the olden days when i point out that their copy is full of difficult to see typos. typewriters? this is work. do it right.

 

[Pretty_Diamonds]

LOL.

I hate when they can't hear you well. THEN IT'S LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING AND IT'S SO embarrassing. Discretion man!

 

[thujone]

i've always liked the intergenerational workplace. for better or for worse, the old ones are pretty good about keeping the spastic youngins in line but there were always a few that were so fucking immature they would bring their high-school mentality into work and cause drama. some kids are such tossers i just wish i could be the fly on the wall when they get hit with the reality check of a lifetime. damn. is 30+ really considered old these days?

 

[herbavore]

I'm an old lady and I teach little kids....does that count?

I like anything that is intergenerational--there is not enough of that. When I was young I made sure I had some old friends wherever I lived--helped me immensely when my peers drove me crazy (or my own relationship to them did). Same now that I'm the older one: I enjoy being with young people and middle aged people as well as my peers.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

i enjoy the intergenerational workplace as well, but it can be frustrating. here's an email i just received from a coworker who i'd guess is mid to late 30s ...

Hi ******,

I have some pictures from last night's event. What’s your cell phone number?

i'm just going to reply with my number. if i try to explain a better route, she'll feel out of her element and might not contact me to share material in the future.

if you go a decade or two further out, i have coworkers giving me printed copy in hard copy and only in hard copy.

is 30+ really considered old these days?

i wouldn't have thought so. i'm not that far away from 30 myself. but if someone cites their generation as the reason they don't really know how to use a word processor, they're old. that's the line.

 

[socko]

Paris is the only place I have been where the very old and the young regularly interact in work and social settings. Old people are friendly here. In the US, it is the opposite. So many old people hate the young and seem very happy to be living off entitlements payed for by the young. Most seem to have the "GET OFF MY LAWN!!!" attitude.

 

[thujone]

i enjoy the intergenerational workplace as well, but it can be frustrating. here's an email i just received from a coworker who i'd guess is mid to late 30s ...

i'm just going to reply with my number. if i try to explain a better route, she'll feel out of her element and might not contact me to share material in the future.

if you go a decade or two further out, i have coworkers giving me printed copy in hard copy and only in hard copy.

i wouldn't have thought so. i'm not that far away from 30 myself. but if someone cites their generation as the reason they don't really know how to use a word processor, they're old. that's the line.

I don't understand why you think being a luddite is a generational thing? I mean I read blogs posted daily by people in their sixties, and not being able to use a word processor literally makes a person unemployable in this country for anything but the most basic McJobs or assembly-line work. I haven't had anyone older than me ask for my phone number since the noughties, in fact younger colleagues are the ones likely to ask my e-mail address now, the older ones would just find me on Facebook. The kids these days aren't even using Facebook because they know that all generations are on it now and they don't want parents and grandparents on their friend's list.

I am really curious as to where you work to be exposed to people who are so disturbing out-of-touch with the real world. Seriously, if you're 30+ and actually think it's OK to not be able to use a word processor, you're so fucked for life it's not even funny.