5Ws Wednesday
What year did you graduate high school?
I never should have asked that question yesterday. My supervisor and the other new person on my team were in the car headed to a work event yesterday afternoon. We got to talking about where we were from and as it turns out, she and I went to the same high school. But I grew suspicious when I asked her if there were 1 or 2 high schools there when she went. When I graduated, there was only 1 high school for the county. It wasn’t until several years after I graduated that they built a new one. I was trying to gauge how old she was. No particular reason, just out of curiosity.
When she told me the name of her high school and I recognized it as the one I attended, I asked her what year she graduated. She hesitated and said, “I’m a baby”. She continued to hesitate and then said, 2019. Oh my. For perspective, I was the class of 2000. To be fair, the other new member of my team graduated from his high school in 1999. So he and I can commiserate on the “joys” of being old while also admonishing our supervisor to not get old. That’s what old people always tell the young people.
Honestly though, I’m good with a supervisor that is younger than me. Much, much younger than me. Because as I learned with my previous supervisor, the younger generation have a much different approach to management and supervision. I’m seeing a lot of similarities between my new supervisor and the one I had at my most recent job. And you know what, I’m good with that. She asked me yesterday what I expect from her as a supervisor and how I prefer to be supervised/managed. I could never imagine my old “mentor” ever having a conversation like that with any of her subordinates. She would laugh and ridicule the person if she heard about people leading in that way. Welcome to a new generation! These younger leaders are different and more accommodating and flexible and just all around better. Don’t get me wrong, I will still absolutely be shocked and appalled when she isn’t familiar with a cultural reference that I mention in conversation. It’s what us old people do.
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