Life Outside a Trolley- Is age a measure of worth?

Welcome Gals, Guys, Universe Folks, and everyone in between to another Meg talk. This week’s topic deviates from a supermarket story specifically, but tells a story of experiences and witnessed experiences that have since burned holes in the periphery of my brain. The million-dollar questions. Am I old enough to be taken seriously, and comparatively is my boss too old to be taken seriously? For reference there’s about a 35-year age gap between my boss and I. I’ve barely made it into the Millennial category, most would say I’m on the cusp between Millennial and Generation Z, while my boss is a Baby Boomer, well on his way to retirement. So how does age play into our life’s worth?

Most people I know, who interact with an older authority, dread their interactions. I’ve heard countless stories about their older counterparts not getting the new trends, stifling their creativity and just being difficult to work with, talk to and generally exist. I’ve heard even more stories about younger folks, where, they are viewed as know it alls, who are aggressively ambitious and need to be micro managed, lest they actually succeed in taking over the world! Listening to these horror stories, about what I can only imagine to be some seriously toxic environments, I have to say my boss and I have a fantastic relationship; besides my late grandfather, he is arguably one of the greatest mentors that I’ve had in my overall life. For this story I’m going to call him Tom, because I don’t think he wants to be named, but if you know me, or worked with me, I’m sure you know who it is. Tom, is one of the oldest professionals in the office currently, he’s 59, and had been around for almost the entirety that the business was around. I’d describe him as a big muscled Pitbull dog, who under all the regular stereotypes really isn’t all that ferocious, and I’d say I’m a smaller less built Pitbull, but I do have a hard bite. So here are my insights.

As I have grown into the business, I’ve noticed that in every team meeting whenever Tom asks a question about our newest initiative or a new piece of technology, there is a resounding unfavorable response by my teammates and sometimes even the external parties who are part of the pitch. The discomfort is written all over their body language, there’s a silent sigh and I can’t help but wonder, is this what’s instore for me 30 years later when I’m the “oldest” in the room? So, what, if he doesn’t get what the new project is all about right now? So, what if he’s unfamiliar with the new technology we want to implement? Yes, he asks ten million questions. Yes, every discussion, has a history lesson thrown in. But how do you build something new or innovate the design of a structure without knowing or understanding what it once was, or what its foundation is??This guy didn’t thrive in this environment all these years because he is incompetent. He isn’t persecuting the idea, or rejecting this advancement, he’s simply trying to grasp and understand exactly where we are trying to go. If we can’t explain it to him, how are we going to effectively explain it to a potential customer? The answer is, we can’t. This “old” guy that everyone calls the dinosaur in the break room, or outdated after a board room meeting, quite literally is the corner stone of the operation we have the privilege to even have a say in today.?His age is not a liability, his experience is the asset. How can you move forward without knowing where you’ve come from, or consider the wholistic viewpoint of all the moving parts that play a role in the creation of anything? I mean, I definitely know I’m not God, I can’t create something out of nothing.

This then leads me to the other end of this spectrum, am I, a mere 25-year-old them, really taken seriously? If this is how Tom, a professional with years of service under his belt is now treated because he's reached a ripe age, are my colleagues really taking me on when I voice an opinion? The honest answer, is that at the start of this work relationship, I really didn’t know. I didn’t know if my colleagues, who are at least 10 to 20 years my seniors, actually valued my opinion or if they simply saw me as the eager new puppy in the office.?There were lots of challenges to overcome, I unintentionally stepped on toes I didn’t know were there. Some thought I was too eager, and that someone my age, really had no place taking on whole projects. People would speak to me via phone or email, and then be taken aback when they met me in person. The response went something like this,

Jane Doe: “I’m here to see Megan, my name is Jane Doe.”

Me: Yes, I am Megan, we spoke on the phone.”

Jane Doe:?*watching me up and down* Sizing me up. “Oh ok, I was expecting someone a little older, is there someone more senior?”

Me: *que nervous laughter* “I get that a lot, no it’s just me today.”

At first, I used to be uncomfortable, I would question whether I was adequate in my functions within the role, whether it was work, school or other activities or whether I was missing the picture. My boss quickly, changed that perspective, my age didn’t matter to him. He identified that there were things that I was more knowledgeable than him on, and when those particular projects rolled around, he put me in the driver’s seat without hesitation. He never looked down on me, he met me right where I was as an equal, with the potential to have just as much effective say as him. He nurtured my seeds of doubt into trees of confidence. That confidence enabled me to to lead people, “older” than me on multiple paths of life’s journeys. My boss may be a well-seasoned pot of curry beef in his own right, tender, through years of experience, but me, a 30-minute curried shrimp, taste just as good. The key, is not to categorize people's limitations by age, but to recognize that age simply brings different perspectives, all the different ingredients make the dish. Being respectful of everyone and open to their unique perspective is what breeds great team work, and a flourishing creative space regardless of age.

They say, familiarity breeds contempt, maybe it's true. We think we already know everything about a project, a technology or even a person and what they have to offer, that we forget things can change, people can grow and new innovations occur almost every minute. Age really is just a number, it is not a currency, it cannot dictate your worth. You can’t teach an old dog a new trick, is a blatant lie. You probably just don’t know how to teach that particular dog the new trick, but I’m pretty sure there's someone else who can, we can ALL learn new things at any age from any age. My advice as shown to me by my boss is, if you’re reading this an you belong to the “older” generation, nurture the talents of the up and coming, give them room to grow, and generally be respectful of each other. To the up and coming, patience is a virtue and experience is not only gained through action but by listening, you can learn a thing or two without falling into the same potholes that the ones before us fell into (something I learnt quite quickly and painfully, because believe me, this is Trinidad, it have plenty potholes)!