re: Baby Boomers in industry

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The average 50 or 55 or 60 year-old is conservative in their workplace and work ethic whether they were born in 1900 or 1955 and it will be true for the 1985 birth year folks.

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Yep. They have seen an tried new technology, made advances where possible, and know to question snake oil when it is trumpeted as myrrh.

All of this because one time they were the innovators and learned their lessons.

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I'm 37, been at it for 15 years now. First 12 years were pretty consistent in a corporate setting, smart and stable middle managers and colleagues were a mixed bag but mostly educated and competent.

Flip over to operations, in three years I never imagined the dysfunction and downright toxicity that I have had to work through with the older established field management. The higher ups are nothing more than politicians and only look to promote informants who are inept within their discipline, totally noncommittal, and nothing more than master outsourcers and backstabbers. The whole lot rejects technology unless it's something that they can use to control while absolutely failing to leverage its full capabilities due to lack of innovation and technical acumen.

When these bullshitters move on (if it ever happens, most haven't saved shite) our economy will boom.

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LOL, you millenials and your obsession with Boomers. Nevah been dun befoe.

Get yourself some originality, but first get your lazy arse to work.

22 up votes and 5 down votes on that post

An overwhelming majority agree with my assessment and here you are projecting and playing d. I made this thread to help you all.

As an Operator, I only allow the best and the brightest on my crew. I got a 57 year old that is the king of Lotus Notes, so I don't judge by age when it comes to technology. He is a whiz with FORTRAN and COBOL as well.

I typically get deployed to fix broken managers and unfrick their inept processes. They hate me until they realize that I in all likelihood quietly saved their career.

I'm 38 and often see people with exceptional tech skills but you still have to explain to them like a 5 year old what, exactly you are trying to figure out. They can't see the objective/end goal but can come up with the info you need much faster once you make that part clear.

Nothing like a good ole generalization.

Shitty people are shitty people. Those baby boomers who you talk about have forgotten more than you will ever know about their business if they have been in it for 40 plus years. You may be more efficient but their knowledge is irreplaceable. My FIL died at 65 2 years ago and was building and rebuilding badass computers and could have schooled me in the technology field. He came up in the paper industry and had nothing to do with technology but he enjoyed it. My Dad who turns 54 tomorrow is retiring from BP in the next two months and can barley operate an iPhone but the sumbitch can do anything he puts his mind to when it comes to hard work like welding, building fences, building shops, heading and heeling, training horses, or any other manly things you can think of. I'm 35 and pay somebody to do everything from cleaning my house, mowing my grass, change my oil, and doing general repairs around my house. I also still keep a paper calendar for my work schedule.

Houston O&G is flooded right now with 50-60 somethings with 30+ years, tons of useless corporate knowledge and little prospects in anything but consulting

Lucky for them they got packages and pensions to live on but now what do they do? Too young to retire, too experienced to re-purpose themselves and too educated for most of the jobs available