Mr. Boring

It is interesting to see yourself growing mature as you grow in your career and you grow older. Sometimes this so called maturity is nothing but an impersonation imposed by the demand of your role. Some people are able to handle this transition gracefully without loosing the original zeal in the character. But for me it was not so. I had grown little quieter and serious in the demeanor. Unlike any other industry, the IT industry changes rapidly to match with the speed of technology development. This in turn, indirectly impacts the workforce and work culture. I used to tell my team that generation in IT workforce changes every 10 years.

During my IT industry association I was able to gel well with my next generation, i.e. 2000-2010, however there after it started becoming a challenge for me. The youngsters joining were full of talent and enthusiasm. They were bubbly, chirpy and always in the celebration mode. Changes in settled environment are generally uncomfortable but many times brings in positives. Although little skeptical, initially I thought this could be good to boost the overall energy level of the team so I tried to play along. These fresh members were reporting my next level team leaders so as to bridge the (IT) generation gap. However, I observed that even they were struggling a little bit in managing the affairs. So I had to conduct brief guidance-cum-counselling meetings.

The main challenge with Gen Z is that they are dreamers but with a disconnect from reality and which is not totally their fault. The smartphone revolution poured in the entire world in 6 inches screen and the advent of social media was little too much for them to handle. They soon landed in a virtual universe where everyone was like them, everyone was happy having so many options to choose from with no need to adjust, adapt or compromise. And they were expecting everyone around them to be part of this virtual universe and were dismayed and surprised with the non-compliance, writing off the older(IT) generations as orthodox taskmasters and sadists. I remember that they gave me a code name, Mr. Bore or Mr. Boring, which I once happened to catch in the chat window of one of them when I went in his cubicle to discuss a showstopper defect. He went crimson but I simply smiled and continued the discussion. We had good laugh later on when I told this incident to my peers.