A Gen X’Er Client I Know Struggles With Remote Work & a Younger Team. I Empathize.

Embracing an uncomfortable sea change at 51

“I struggle daily to get work done. It used to be about work. Now? About people. Where are they? I don’t know.”

Simple, punchy, and straightforward.

This is not yet another simple lament in the workplace. It is about the world we know, shifting radically under our feet.

I empathize with May. I do.

Her team is 15-strong. It doubled from last year because she needed additional headcounts to melt her tower-high workload.

May is 51 and is a Senior Manager. I trust she knows what she is talking about.

Her team might have gotten bigger.

But her workload?

Not any lighter.

On Distributed Teams & Remote Work

It is commonplace to fill a role in Country A while interviewing and hiring the headcount from Country B.

There are [obvious] economics at play.

• The skillsets we seek are widely available overseas.
• Salary difference for the same role plays a role.
• That headcount might be hired for dual roles.

I can go on and on. But that is not the issue.

What is… is the presence of that person.

Where is he, she, or they?

This question makes the digital-savvy Gen Zs uncomfortable. Forget Gen Zs. Let’s use Elon Musk’s Laptop Class in place of that.

Most work we handle as white-collar workers no longer requires us to report to our cubicle daily. WiFi, laptops, and the Internet changed all that.

I no longer work in the office daily. 3 days in, 1 day at the client’s office, and 1 day of WFH works for me. It is my perfect rhythm.

The internet returned me a reasonable degree of freedom. I love it.

However, such changes have yet to filter into the classical managerial realm. This is the realm that is,

• Foreign to the young guns,
• And perfectly understood by the rise-through-the-rank folks.

May belonged to the latter.

At 51, she thought she had seen it all. I don’t blame her. After all, she started working at 22. That is 30 years of corporate work-life under her belt.

Yet, an empty office on some work days confuses her.

Like, when it is visibly empty.

“Call me a dinosaur. I cannot understand this. When I need work to be done urgently, I can no longer find the person responsible. Are they online? Okay, I text them. But they are ‘Away’. How does this work?”

My quarterly business meeting with May [last week] started with this question.

She was frustrated.

Why? Because she needed Alfred to dial in. No one did.

She wasn’t lamenting. She was genuinely asking.

I tried to be helpful.

“Have you tried calling him? Is he more responsive on What’s App? Did you try dropping him a message?”

And then.

I realized the difficulty May was going through at that very instant.

That person used to be just there. She could walk there, tap on the shoulder, and make a request of urgency. There might be head butts for 5, 7, or 10 minutes due to multiple time-based conflicts.

But, at least, communication was apt.

Now?

It is predicated on finding people.

“You know those 2 blue ticks on What’s App? It should mean that he read it, right? I am certain he read my messages. Still… there are no replies or acknowledgments. I wonder whether my work is done. Really.”

Okay.

I note that.

And then she went on to grouse about people in different timezones.

It is difficult to work together when there is an emergency. Again, I get that.

When Younger Colleagues No Longer Believe in Work [In Relative Terms]

“I hate it when retrenchment cycles are based on costs. It forces us to release very experienced people. So dumb.”

I shrugged my shoulders and forced a smile. Everywhere’s the same, I said with nonchalance.

May did not buy it.

“You cannot say that. It takes years to groom a professional. Why groom them and then let them go? This is not just about a headcount issue. Our bond at work and team efficiencies goes down the drain. Jim was bloody good.”

Jim was Alfred’s predecessor. Jim was axed. Alfred was brought in.

What she said next hit my point of interest.

Intergenerational conflict in the workplace.

“It is not easy to replace the experienced with the young shoots. Those in their mid-40s, and late 30s, are battle-tested and resilient. The younger folks need time to accumulate experience. It is a double whammy.”

Headcount replacement, according to May, is pure corporate horsesh!t. She just went through one such major exercise.

She is not a fan.

Here’s why.

“Finding a young one willing to commit to their work is so hard. It is rare for my team to accept a task without talking back. They think they are smart. It is tiring. The experienced folks let their intelligence shine through their work.”

I laughed. Like, loud and hearty.

“Welcome to the Dark Side, May.”

She shot me a look of annoyance.

“Hey, we have problems, too. Our kids get sick and we may not comprehend technological advancement better than the younger ones coming in. Cheer up. They teach us the meaning of paid overtime, too.”

I guess she was too annoyed to listen at this point.

There was no Alfred even after 20 minutes.

He was ‘Away’ still.

The Close

I empathize with May’s struggles in the workplace. Alfred is not the only one, according to her.

Maybe they work better at home? It could be.

Are there easy solutions to her empty office problem at work?

I have no idea.

I am confronted by this sea change, too.

After all, how can we connect with someone that is not there? How can we work with folks who are made mobile by their laptops?

I don’t know. Really.

Unfortunately, there are no Ivy League MBA programs teaching us effective ways to cope with intergenerational friction at work.

Our struggles are ours to own.

Like this story? Hit Subscribe!

Oh, oh, you can buy me a cup of black too! Thank you!