Ask HN: How do you manage older employees who report to you? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you manage older employees who report to you?

10 pointscodegeek9 comments

It is obviously not very uncommon to be 32 while your direct report is 55. Those of you in situation like this, how do you manage it ? A very generalized question of course but just want to hear your stories/ideas/experiences. Also older employees who are direct reports to someone younger, feel free to tell your side of the story too.

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I'm close to 55 and have no problem reporting to someone much younger and have done this on numerous projects. As long as we have mutual respect there's never a problem as we both have the same goal completing the project successfully. There are a few things though I don't have in common with the younger generation (e.g., video games) but I make up for that with my "in my day" stories about life before the internet.

Simple: With respect and value them. Kinda like every one else.

The same as you would anyone else.

Try to develop a rapport with them where you can joke around and talk shit to them. But overall - there might be some who won't want to ever work with you, and that's not your fault. All you can do is work with the one's who do want to work with you, treat them like gold, and most likely, the other ones will come on board over time. That goes for everyone who reports to you.

Work with the ones who do want to work with you, do good work and let upper management know about it, and wait for the other ones to get on board.

Assuming you actually are competent, this is a non-issue. I reported to someone younger than me for five years. No big. Seriously.

By treating them like, you know, human beings?

Exactly the same as anyone else. If they have a problem with that then it's their problem.

It's not like you are a teenager, both of you have enough experience in adulthood.

You can get more technical detail on these CALEA backdoors by Googling around for "cisco CALEA". The Cisco 6500 CALEA configuration guide is great. Several documents from several vendors are publicly-findable.

Here's one example to get you started:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/bts/4.1/comman...

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