Just like the government, too many people in the most senior positions are senior citizens. They have been in the company so long that they are old, crusty, irrelevant. They don’t know life outside the walls of the organization. Their career is built entirely on the knowledge of how to work the internal system of the monolithic bureaucracy of a 145 year old organization. Nothing more.
Discuss.
The original OP here- great feedback and I feel bad about the way I framed this up. It absolutely has nothing to do with age, some of the most inspiring leaders I know are in their 60s and still rocking it.
I was trying to point out large contingency of folks that have been here for 30+ years, failed to keep skills current, and bring no value.
Think Diane Feinstein. Know when it’s time to step aside and let others move up the tanks with fresh ideas. RTO is a perfect example of an approach to business that is so 20th century .
I'm a 69yo craft employee and I'll put my physical abilities and endurance up against ANY aged manager or technician company wide! I'm not some overweight person with a sedentary job eating chips and drinking soda all day! I'm in great shape for my age and know my limitations which are very few if any at this time!
The problem with T is overpaid union guys who ask for OT when they dont work during the day, managers who don't do anything or manage anything, the friends and family network amongst people, the leadership or lack thereof, the morale of working in such an environment, the mo--nic decisions of the past ki-ling the present, these layoff boards, and greed. And yes that monopoly mentality does nothing when you have competitors who can get the job done at a fraction of the cost. Good luck!
I think the bigger issue is people with low intelligence making gross generalization. It is this kind of thinking that has got this company where it is. Age does not directly correlate to someones ability other than amount of experience which many of the newer employees lack. That is not a knock on them that is expected and often a good thing since they can bring new ideas. To many people got comfortable and choose to stay on a job that was easy and not learn new things. I on the other hand and ensured I gained relevant experience and have been hit up easily 100 times over the last two years from people asking me if I am interested in an opening they have.
It is about adapting, improving and striving to be at the top of your game, not your age that counts. I am just waiting for the package info and timelines but am not worried about finding a better place to work. My suggestion to you is, if you are in a position where you can take some of the free Azure and cloud training that you take advantage of that. Those skills along with Cybersecurity are in high demand and if you know both you have nothing to worry about.
Way too much of a generalization.
Watched Service Delivery Q&A this week with VP who looked to be about 25 years old. Didn’t really know how to answer questions but real good at smiling and peddling face to face collaborating. I think bringing youth to upper mgt is a good thing but they lack experience. A better solution might be working together to learn from each other, rather than get on here and put each other down.
Not sure it is age...more incompetence; and that is fatal at any age.
I'm a decade older than peers, and have people in my chain of command who are a few years past half my age.
I end up being the one explaining cloud technology and what other companies are doing with their tools. I spend a lot of time staying current with best practices in industry, but I'm also old enough to know that yesteryear's Object Oriented Design is yesterday's Six Sigma is today's Agile—none of it replaces understanding complex relationships and processes that are proving very expensive to migrate. There's a reason COBOL is still around (though I'm not aware of any instances inside the company).
That said, my biggest fear is ageism in going after a new job. Thanks @OP+1n0hVWgZ for confirming to the general audience here that ageism a real and continuing issue. From my point of view, it's not age but settling in. A fortysomething whose only job has been AT&T probably has more ossified opinions than a sixty-something who worked in other companies and industries. Exhibits A and B: Randall Stephenson and John Stankey.
i'm definitely not crusty
Harsh and accurate………