Imagine a middle-aged advertising executive reporting to a boss who is half his age.
The scenario–featured in a plot in the 2004 movie “In Good Company”–isn’t farfetched.
More than ever, young workers are being hired or promoted as managers earlier in their careers compared with past generations, experts say. The shift is prevalent in part because layoffs and buyouts of more senior workers have pushed twenty- and thirtysomethings into management jobs.
Younger workers also are using their skills at mastering new technologies to move up faster. And increasingly, the old rules of paying dues, climbing the hierarchical corporate ladder and seniority don’t always apply.
“Dues-paying has lost its relevance, which means that over time, people are going to think less about whether you’ve been here long enough to be promoted. It’ll be simply about looking at your skills and maturity,” said Robert Wendover, managing director of the Center for Generational Studies in Colorado. “And that’s the advantage for young people.”
It’s a change that does not sit well with everyone, even though most workers could find themselves facing such a scenario at some point in their careers.
Experts say not all older employees and managers feel comfortable–at least initially–working for or hiring a boss who’s closer to their children’s age. Some of that is due to resentment or worries about the younger manager’s lack of experience or maturity to handle the work at hand.
And some young workers are deliberately shunning management jobs in part because they don’t want to make serious career commitments, said Chuck Underwood, president of the Generational Imperative, a workplace consulting firm in Cincinnati.
Still, workplace consultants say they’re seeing more managers younger than 35 attending management-training seminars throughout the country.
And young managers say they bring a strong work ethic, fresh ideas and advanced technology skills to the table. They think age isn’t much of an issue as long as their work matches up.
“We expect to move up the ladder pretty quickly,” said Laura Crovo, 27, a public-relations account director at MGH, an advertising and public-relations firm in Owings Mills, Md. She recently was promoted to a senior management position after spending two years as a midlevel manager.
“It was my goal to come here, grow and learn as much as I could as quickly as possible,” said Crovo, who manages six people.
Lynda McDermott, president of EquiPro International, a leadership development and consulting firm in New York, said the shift is producing interesting relationship dynamics.
Young managers always have been called on to supervise their peers and workers as old as their parents. Increasingly, young managers also find themselves overseeing workers who are their grandparents’ age.
“There’s more multigenerational complexities that these young managers need to manage,” said McDermott, who has written about new young managers.
BY THE NUMBERS
A 2004 study by the Families and Work Institute found that 71 percent of 254 surveyed workers 58 and older expect to be managed by significantly younger people.
The study suggests that one in five older workers might have problems with their younger bosses. But the study also reveals that older workers feel that younger supervisors are competent and supportive.
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