Having worked with some departments where the average age was 50+ I've definitely seen flagrant rule bending for risky behavior (e.g. not carrying radiation detectors, working on roofs without proper "safety" equipment, etc). The thing is these people got the job done. The younger generation (which I belong to) would likely throw up their hands and claim they couldn't complete the task because some prerequisite for a rule wasn't in place.
Why would you work in an unsafe environment without proper tools and safety measures? If you get injured the insurance company won't pay a cent, since you broke the safety protocol, and the employer will probably just fire you. Dead people can't sue for damages either.
If you are an just an employee, it makes perfect sense to throw up your hands and claim you can't solve a problem, when the alternative is taking risks that reward the company, rather than yourself.
It depends on values. Many of a certain age grew up in an environment that placed less emphasis on benefits to an individual and/or their employer and more on "gettin' it done".
Not endorsing either POV, just noting that one's formative era affects one's behavior.
Also, in an entity large enough, you may find that your incentives clash all the time as different parts of the organization have different views of what constitutes success; one department may put the organizational equivalent of barbed wire and minefields in your path, while another department, blissfully ignorant of said minefields, order you to charge ahead.
So, what do you do?
a) Throw up your hands in despair and do nothing, annoying whoever asked you to wade through barbed wire only to find the minefield.
b) Get down to it, step on a few mines after getting cut to shreds on the barbed wire, annoying the people who placed the mines as well as the ones who asked you to charge ahead (which are, by now, annoyed that you didn't complete the task on schedule.)
c) Try to point to the inconsistencies of The System and ask for clarification and advice. Annoy both the people who put down the mines (who fail to see why anyone wouldn't want a mine field there, it's not like they put them down for fun!) and the people who simply want you to do your job (noting that you complain that the sappers keep you from doing it well, rather than just getting down to it.)
My pet theory in big organizations is that the next cohort of workers (40-50 year olds) have been mostly languishing waiting for old people to die, because big organizations are mostly not growing.
The younger people get stuck in a mid career cul de sac because the dinosaurs rule the important things, so career success is on peripheral things like the PMO. Those jobs are great for getting promoted, but not great for actually knowing anything.
I'm in my mid-50s, and I definitely agree that I'm a lot less risk-averse than younger people. (Hell, I still ride a bicycle and roller skate without a helmet haha!) I don't really give a shit if what I say on the internet becomes associated with me, even though I use the standard 90s protocol of using fake names. I know it can be traced by someone, somewhere, in some government agency, and certainly by some asshole like Mark Zuckerberg. So what? I have very little to lose. The people who know me already know what an jerk I can be and yet they still let me come around, and the job I have wouldn't bat an eye since my private opinions have zero effect on their corporate image.
Every generation feels like they're waiting for the next generation to retire. I feel that way about Baby Boomers. (No, I'm not a Baby Boomer. I'm more like Gen X, but that's not quite right either. I'm in between those two, which is why I have feelings of contempt for the people who invent sociological models....but I digress.)
I am at an age where my experience counts for something with some organizations, and is considered a complete liability for other organizations. I have changed fields entirely several times in my life. Some of the skills I have that make me uniquely qualified to do valuable things for big organizations are completely unmarketable to those same organizations because I do not have an appropriate credential they can accept to certify my knowledge and expertise. I have given up on them, too.
My point is that there is always room for younger people to really shake up the dinosaurs, but if you are trying to influence my generation, you'd better be willing to take some risks and really just say it straight. I know that's difficult for people younger than me, and I know that people in my daughter's generation (she's 29) aren't very good at being blunt and usually screw it up when they try, but truth-telling without worrying about political nuance or whatever the hell it is that everyone worries about that keeps them from just saying what they're thinking is very attractive and useful, at least to people my age.
Oh, and don't whine when you're telling the truth. Not many people who are my age like whiners.
The generation in-between is Generation Jones, to which I regard myself the anti-thesis of that.
In my 20's, my work environment was literally refered to as pirates vs dinosaurs. I learned that the dinosaurs had a lot to teach and that a lot of pirates weren't willing to go too deep. Easily intimidated. If you were willing to go deeper into things your peers were afraid of, you could make quite a nice niche for yourself.
>and usually screw it up when they try
Best advice I got when I was 24: "kid, you need to screw up enought to get noticed"
Reading this, you could be talking about me. So, I wonder if this attitude is something tied to being in between. I'm stuck between the millennials and Gen-X folks, not really belonging well to either.
Yup. I'm in this club too. Born in '83, not exactly a gen-xer nor a millennial. It's a weird spot to be... I, with all due respect, find that a lot of my older colleagues are too stuck in their ways, and find that the younger ones are self-entitled "everyone gets a prize" whiners :). Tough to navigate; at least the ones my age and older appreciate when I tell it like it is. The younger ones I feel like I have to be careful around, lest there be hurt feelings.
I work in volunteer convention running. I made someone cry once because I called their plan a "dumb idea" - this person mind you has a Ph.d in physics. I was dumbfounded.
I get frustrated by the younger folks because they all want everything RIGHT NOW (for no work), and I get frustrated by some of the older folks, because they're unwilling to question the status quo.
If you were born in '83, you're a (senior) millennial. While the definition of "Millenial" is fuzzy - you were a young adult (17 y.o.) when Y2K happened
