Young bosses work harder to gain respect
By Del Jones
USA Today
In the movie "In Good Company," actor Dennis Quaid plays Dan Foreman, a 51-year-old, successful magazine ad salesman who gets a 26-year-old boss.
Universal Studios
Sounds entertaining but probably less so to the growing number of real-life young bosses and older subordinates who negotiate dicey relationships daily.
Actors Dennis Quaid and Topher Grace play the roles of an older worker and a young boss in the film "In Good Company." The film portrays an increasingly common scenario in workplaces.
In the movie, boss Carter Duryea is played by Topher Grace of "That '70s Show." He looks barely 20, is fresh out of business school, smart but inexperienced. Many baby boomers, ages about 40 to 59, know what it's like to have such a boss. They have hit career peaks and have little choice but to watch bright youngsters leverage technological savvy and a better understanding of younger consumers into promotions.
It's a trend that took off during the dot-com boom and will likely continue as older workers delay retirement.
In the past, there were more rungs, but organizations are flatter, says Bill Byham, CEO of human-resources consultant Development Dimensions International. Companies are moving star performers up faster.
As "In Good Company" portrays, such relationships are uneasy. They not only buck established workplace protocol but also the human history of wise chiefs and respect for elders.
Ask Julie Smolyansky, the 29-year-old CEO of Lifeway Foods. Nineteen months after taking over, she says she is still uncomfortable asking older subordinates to get her coffee, much less initiate major production changes.
"I have a fear of pushing my opinions too hard on people who are older," says Smolyansky, who took over at the 75-employee health food company in Morton Grove, Ill., at 27 when her father and company founder, Michael Smolyansky, died suddenly.
The young boss trend is increasingly international. A September editorial in India's The Hindu newspaper said: "Older employees resent the new brood of bosses telling them what to do. The young bosses wonder why the old horses won't just retire." It ends with a warning to impatient young bosses: "You could be working for one of your subordinates someday."
Kid gloves may often be appropriate. Older workers have less patience for a new boss who hasn't paid dues, and they especially have trouble taking seriously bosses who are younger than their children.
Not just an Issue in the U.S.
"I try to make requests in the most nonauthoritative way," says Smolyansky, who was being groomed by her father but didn't expect to take over the company until she was 50.
Smolyansky says she respects those with 25 years of experience and their ability to solve problems. But she must also guard against their resistance to change and technology.
Smolyansky says her situation is more difficult than in the movie because she's a young woman trying to exude authority over a workforce accustomed to a graying man in charge.
Sean McCloskey, CEO of Alpharetta, Ga., software company Visiprise, is 37 but has been supervising fiftysomethings since he was 29. He says he has never found it uncomfortable to give orders to older subordinates, partly because he started out during the dot-com craze when young executives were common and partly because he encourages those who aren't confident in his leadership to move on.
However, being boss at 37 is easier than it was at 29, he says.
Maria Cabal, 51, a new hire at public-relations firm Porter Novelli in Fort Lauderdale, says just about everyone on the job is her boss, including a 30-year-old supervisor, Yennie Rautenberg, who is three years older than her son. Cabal says she is treated with respect and feels "infused with energy."
Dianne Durkin, founder and president of Portsmouth, N.H., human resources consulting firm Loyalty Factor, says such smooth sailing is probably the exception. Conflicts between young bosses and older workers have become her pet subject of interest.
Just as Foreman portrays in the movie, Durkin says, the success of baby boomers was built on personal relationships. Older workers are frustrated at young bosses who have no patience for technophobes and prefer e-mail to face-to-face interaction.
"It drives boomers crazy," that young bosses are always glued to the computer and won't even pick up the phone, she says.
Young bosses were educated in schools with a lot of team projects. That means they care less about individual recognition than team results, while boomers are much more competitive and crave the praise, Durkin says.
In the movie, the middle-aged Foreman fears for his job. Smolyansky says she has never had to fire an older employee, but she has fired consultants who were condescending.
"I do sign the checks," Smolyansky says.
