Peter Allen, 1974
Isn’t it interesting that when Boeing Corporation was having troubles building
their 787 Dreamliner, they hired retired, former employees to finish the stalled,
over-budget project? Boeing came to realize that outsourcing things like engineering
and manufacturing wouldn’t ever be as seamless as outsourcing a call center.
They had discovered that ‘everything old is new again’.
In my own experience, I’ve seen more than a few companies who have made the same mistake as Boeing. They believe younger contract employees with less experience and little training can produce the same results as older employees, who in the Boeing example had helped create the world’s largest aerospace company. I propose balance.
If this isn’t enough to make you groan, while shedding experienced workers many of these same companies state their principles include programs to enhance diversity and inclusion. Though truth be told their bromides explaining these initiatives usually fly in practice as well as Boeing’s Dreamliner, before they brought back their own retirees, to reintroduce bedrock work practices.
Employers with negative attitudes towards older workers is endemic across industries and locations. No revenue generating group or occupation is immune. Sometimes it’s blatantly obvious like with online application software which scans resumes for keywords to determine an applicant’s age. Or it appears in less obvious forms: when I’ve appeared for an interview in a respectful jacket and tie, I’m quickly judged by the interviewer in jeans as having a profile for which no position currently exists. No matter that I had already been through two interviews with technical staff and they had given me their endorsement for hiring. A form letter rejection was all that followed.
If a necktie can trigger a hiring disqualification, then what other questionable decisions are being made? How about the classic office meeting, which now routinely allows attendees to have their laptops open and cell phones ringers on. All the while the meeting presenters show PowerPoint slides on multiple screens, in an atavistic juxtaposition which only makes me ask, “Why are these people meeting in the first place?” The real question here is one of perspective, or the lack thereof, and how did someone decide that these are all good business practices. Nobody points out the obvious: people’s attention is elsewhere.
They had discovered that ‘everything old is new again’.
In my own experience, I’ve seen more than a few companies who have made the same mistake as Boeing. They believe younger contract employees with less experience and little training can produce the same results as older employees, who in the Boeing example had helped create the world’s largest aerospace company. I propose balance.
If this isn’t enough to make you groan, while shedding experienced workers many of these same companies state their principles include programs to enhance diversity and inclusion. Though truth be told their bromides explaining these initiatives usually fly in practice as well as Boeing’s Dreamliner, before they brought back their own retirees, to reintroduce bedrock work practices.
Employers with negative attitudes towards older workers is endemic across industries and locations. No revenue generating group or occupation is immune. Sometimes it’s blatantly obvious like with online application software which scans resumes for keywords to determine an applicant’s age. Or it appears in less obvious forms: when I’ve appeared for an interview in a respectful jacket and tie, I’m quickly judged by the interviewer in jeans as having a profile for which no position currently exists. No matter that I had already been through two interviews with technical staff and they had given me their endorsement for hiring. A form letter rejection was all that followed.
If a necktie can trigger a hiring disqualification, then what other questionable decisions are being made? How about the classic office meeting, which now routinely allows attendees to have their laptops open and cell phones ringers on. All the while the meeting presenters show PowerPoint slides on multiple screens, in an atavistic juxtaposition which only makes me ask, “Why are these people meeting in the first place?” The real question here is one of perspective, or the lack thereof, and how did someone decide that these are all good business practices. Nobody points out the obvious: people’s attention is elsewhere.
What’s worse, a closer look reveals a baseless preference by these companies
for younger workers, who grew up in this hyperactive milieu. This choice is then
combined with a quiet disdain for the very people who invented the Internet, and who
can actually recall a time when the world was completely different.
Currently, technology’s face has mostly been young, but there are many skilled computer engineers and innovators who can lend value to a balanced workforce comprised of young, creative geniuses working side by side with these veteran techies.
I have lived in an incredibly bountiful age. One in which the fruits of a century’s worth of accomplishments, like giving women the vote and abolishing child labor, offer us a clearer understanding of the across-the-board benefits of being as inclusive as possible. These truths are self-evident and only a sad, tortured line of reasoning will try to defend these practices.
The good news: our times include five generations available to be employed by our companies. Each one with their own unique abilities and talents, all are worthy of our esteem. What we need is to grasp the meaning implicit in Boeing’s Dreamliner. It requires an acceptance by each generation of the other’s strengths, and for each to make allowances for the other’s weaknesses. Then we’ll live and work in a world where neckties are no more a sartorial blunder than a pocket protector.
Currently, technology’s face has mostly been young, but there are many skilled computer engineers and innovators who can lend value to a balanced workforce comprised of young, creative geniuses working side by side with these veteran techies.
I have lived in an incredibly bountiful age. One in which the fruits of a century’s worth of accomplishments, like giving women the vote and abolishing child labor, offer us a clearer understanding of the across-the-board benefits of being as inclusive as possible. These truths are self-evident and only a sad, tortured line of reasoning will try to defend these practices.
The good news: our times include five generations available to be employed by our companies. Each one with their own unique abilities and talents, all are worthy of our esteem. What we need is to grasp the meaning implicit in Boeing’s Dreamliner. It requires an acceptance by each generation of the other’s strengths, and for each to make allowances for the other’s weaknesses. Then we’ll live and work in a world where neckties are no more a sartorial blunder than a pocket protector.
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