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Ryan Healy graduated Penn State University in the Spring of 2006. He recently left his consulting position to start 
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Starting out in the corporate world immediately after graduation is no easy task. College and the real world are barely even comparable. In college, your peers are your age. All of a sudden you join the corporate world and your peers are in their thirties, forties, fifties and even sixties. It’s a big adjustment to feel comfortable collaborating with people who could be your parents or grandparents, but it is actually quite easy when you get beyond the numbers. Here are a few ways I fit in with my older colleagues.
Make fun of your age. The day after my 23rd birthday I was at work and needed to use the extremely slow color printer for the first time. I had a rather large document printing and a co-worker and my boss were also waiting for their documents to print.
My colleague said, “So you think now that you are 23 you can use the color printer?”
I sarcastically replied, “I thought you had to be 23 to use the color printer. Why do you think I never used it before?”
Yes, it was a very corny joke, but we all got a good laugh out of it and nobody took it seriously. It’s nice to be able to joke around with your older colleagues and bosses. If you take yourself or your age too seriously, people will consider you the arrogant young guy who thinks he deserves more than he actually does.
Joke about your co-workers being “over the hill.” There is a very fine line between joking around and being mean. Be careful with this one and don’t get out of line. If someone brings up their exciting weekend of doing yard work and going to bed bath and beyond, say something like “My weekend wasn’t quite as exciting as going to bed bath and beyond, but I did go on a date on Friday and to a concert with my old college buddies on Saturday.” A quick one liner like this will not upset anyone and it allows you to chime in when your older colleagues are talking about things that you really can’t relate to.
I must warn you. I don’t work with too many women on my current project, but I know they can be a little more sensitive when it comes to their age. Use your best judgment when deciding who to poke fun at for being “over the hill.”
Tell stories about your exciting weekends at the bar. My older co-workers love hearing what I did over the weekend. If I say I took it easy and stayed in, they are actually upset that I am “wasting my youth.” They love to hear these stories because they used to do the exact same things. Often, co-workers will talk about their crazy adventures when they were “twentysomethings.” You can really learn a lot about your coworkers by discussing your good times at the bar!
Be Yourself. This sounds simple enough, but it’s easy to put on the corporate face and try to act older then you actually are. Don’t make dirty jokes or get too wasted at happy hour with your co-workers, but there is no need to pretend you are older then you actually are. If I know nothing about cub scouts or Sponge Bob Square Pants I’m not going to pretend I do.
However, when little league stories come up, I chime in about my days as an All Star. It was only about 10 years ago after all; Phone cards; those days are still pretty fresh in my mind! Your co-workers will respect you and appreciate you for being genuine, and you won’t look stupid talking about kids toys.
In the end, all of the young jokes coming from your colleagues are fun and harmless. Go ahead and let your older co-workers relive their twenties through your stories. This will humanize you and build solid relations that can extend beyond the office.
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I started working in a warehouse when I was 16. The next youngest person I worked with was my boss, who was 30 at the time and marrried with two kids.
For the most part they loved teasing me and giving me a hard time about being a kid (I worked there on and off until about a year ago). But I worked hard, so they never had anything against me.
The one difficult relationship I did have was with this older guy named Mark*. Mark did not think a warehouse was an appropriate place for a young lady to be spending her days. And he most certainly did not approve of the particular conversations that were conducted in my presence. He was a guy with a pretty rough exterior. But it turns out he had a soft spot for his daughter’s softball team. I talked to him about how my sister played softball. His daughter did Girl Scouts. I was a Girl Scout.
By finding some common ground he let down the gruff exterior and we were able to at least engage in civil conversation while at work.
My co-workers like to make fun of me because of my age, especially when I talk about things I read on “my favorite blog”. They like to poke fun at how young I must be to even know where to find one, let alone have a favorite.
I let it roll off, because I know, soon enough, one of them will have some kind of technology related problem they can’t figure out and my young, tech-savvy self can rush in to the rescue and its my chance to make fun of them for being old and out of date.
Ryan - Other than talking about exciting weekends at the bar, this is pretty good advice for those of us dealing with the other end of the age spectrum…
I agree that the suggestions are useful for getting to know co-workers as people and develop satisfying working relationships. We had this kind of discussion at one of the *Cross-Generational Conversation* forums I run.
I do suggest you think twice about joking too much with Baby Boomers about being “over the hil.”" Most don’t ever see themselves as “old.” Not just the women either. So you need to get a sense of how sensitive they are about age before using that line of conversation. If you are good at conveying you are joking, it should be OK.
Phyllis
I am a woman in my mid 40s and you just need to be yourself at work and in life.
I work with people that are yonger than me and they tease me about being older. It does not bother me. If you let it bother you, it only makes it worse - for you. Plus, I don’t look and feel my age. I do not see my self as “over the hill” because OLD is a state of mind!! In fact my co-workers tease my by saying “the 40s are the new 30s …..” I don’t worry about my age because I am active and healthy.
Some Baby Boomers are sensitive about the aches and pains assocated with getting older. So, I would take Phyllis’ advice above to heart and get a sense of how sensetive Baby Boomers are about their age before you start teasing them.
I find it interesting that there are several comments about how baby boomers could be sensitive about jokes that label them as old, but no one mentions how some millennials may be sensitive to jokes about being too young.
I don’t usually take such things to heart, but when it comes from the same people repeatedly, it can be perceived as a sign of disrespect.
Take the older gentleman in my office, for example, who habitually refers to anyone under the age of 30 as “kiddo.” Not cool.
Jacqui,
Agreed, being poked fun at for being young can get really annoying.
Or here are a couple of other wacky and wild ways to get older coworkers to look past your age (which is code for ‘respect you’).
WORK HARD
BE SMARTER THAN THEY ARE
GET YOUR WORK DONE
GO ABOVE AND BEYOND - CONTRIBUTE
MAKE YOUR COMPANY BETTER BECAUSE YOU WORK THERE
Don’t get me wrong, tell bar stories is a tried and true way to earn respect, but these ideas may help too.
Charlie,
All of the things you mention are implied. Everyone knows that. Learning to BS with older co-workers is an art, and will actually get you promoted much quicker then some of the things you mention.
Ryan,
This is where you are wrong. Getting along with coworkers is ouf course important, but wont make or break you.
These things are implied but everyone thinks they do these really well. And the reality is that if you are only working 3 hours of the day and constantly asking your boss for more work, you are making a HUGE mistake. And you are most likely not doing these well, but you are fooling yourself into thinking you are.
When you have extra time - try this, make your way around the company and find your own project or your own work. Talk to others, ask people what they do. Buy people lunch and ask about their challenges. Learn your company inside and out. You should always do this within your first weeks of a new job.
Bosses don’t have time to hold your hand these days. People are too busy. I know the moms of Gen Y planned out every single minute of their kids lives (swim lessons, then school, then piano lessons, then this then that) and you are lost if someone isnt telling you exactly what to do.
But the corporate world doesnt work this way - especially if you want to be an entrepreneur.
I am 36 and have promoted many times and have had many a hand in deciding who gets promoted and who doesnt. And it is almost without exception that the person who “makes their own way” gets the nod over the person who needs to ask what to do next.
Trust me.
At 24, I’m not the youngest employee but I am always picked on at work for my age. Having me around makes my co-workers aware that they aren’t in their twenties anymore so I try and eliminate the divide as much as possible while still getting my jabs in here and there. The same compliment that would land me in HR if I made it to a single girl my own age creates an instant friendship with a woman who as both a wife and a mother is flattered and nothing more.
I work with some people who have kids that are my age, even older. Asking their opinion and giving them the same respect I give my parents shows them I’m not a cocky young punk and gives me a chance to gain wisdom from these people who have valuable experience.