Bringing Older Workers Up to Speed

This is quite true. We have two computers I use at work. Both flat screens but one I cann't get the fonts to be clear enough for me, I'm 51 and near sighted. the other works just fine. Another thing I found is with our MP2 program and Groupwise some people like to maximise the page screen which puts to much white in it. Makes it tough to see. As we find more seasoned citizens staying in the business/manufacturing world it will pay to accomodate them in the jobs they do. There is a wealth of experience out there.

we are victims of punk, discrimination. the young bastards alter the screen image on purpose and then hide the "fix" so it isn't easily accessable. The only defense is to be as computer savy as they are. Its not easy but most of their tricks are just that. A keystroke or two and you are back in the drivers seat. Spend some time on the machine and customize it for yourself. You already have the knowledge and experiance they won't have for another twenty years. Don't let them intimidate you because they grew up playing computer games.

I agree, I am 67 and quite capable of keeping up with anyone with the same training on the same equpment.

I can learn new stuff too. I just have not gone through school full of new stuff, so I am not that familiar with self levelling setups for RF measurements from HP etc. In my day it was all time consuming standardization over and over as you went up frequency

CR4 not letting me log in this morning, indicitave of the young clueless IT Mercenaries trying to beat me up. (lol).

Really, at 60, I disagree, we oldsters don't hide behind the CRT and/or phone to make things happen. We have people skills, which are needed to make things jump and jive in the field. We learned to smile, turn the other cheek when facing stupidity, and learned just where to hit the machine with the hammer.

A lot of us with these interaction skills can't learn from Videos, we need Hands on and People to make it real.

In fact, on the Shop Floor Videos failed even the Youger Blue Collar Worker and my last great effort is compiling a Manual of 100 year old Mechanical Tips to teach them.

We are critical thinkers, logical fixers, and trainers. Heed what we were taught and want to pass on because we do our thing for love first, not profit.

Sure, as a Consultant, I do 6 figures a year, I have taught myself everything I know about Hardware & Software by thinking outside the box, and because of Logical Thinking and Troubleshooting I get called to fix what the canned Program or Programmer can't figure out.

In fact, more calls for Consultation then I could handle in 2 lives.

We ancients just don't accept the status quo, as now taught in all schools from K thru Grad, we need to know why; so maybe we can be percieved as a little slower, but the fix does not usually need to be put in more than once.

I could write a book on the faults I have found in IT as I travel the world, most pretty darn simple oversights that embarressed someone, someone whose pride couldn't let them admit it.

IT can fail and we will survive, or at least some of us, but lose common sense, reason, and logic and we as a people are doomed.

Come out from behind your Screen/Telephone and find the joys of personal interface with other people.

Hope I get this registering thing ironed out, still no email from CR4, It is sure slow, ain't it.

If I had to depend on it in a life critical situation I would be dead by now.

qaqcpipeman, the cranky old goat of Industry.

Finally got the email from CR4 and I am now logged in.

Send those replies.

In Australia during the 90s we went through a really "ageist" period (over 35 was too old). In other places this was a result of "downsizing", here it was the "recession we had to have". I am pleased to say the worm has turned. In fact there seems to be a growing fear of ever worsening skills shortage when we "baby boomers" hang up the spurs.

Talking of older people and their achievements, what about our parents generation? They built things like the Hoover Dam or the Snowy Hydro and put men on the Moon. With the combined effect of the depression and two world wars education was a luxury, yet they still did it.

Computer challenged people learn best when flow charts are used as a map to what they have done, are doing and, will do in the class. This is a printed chart which steps tham through something like a simple project in MS Project or an Excel workbook. Older folks learn at widely variable speeds and should be taught "one on one" whenever possible.

It is easier to train a mature person how to use a computer and associated software than it is to instill experience in a young person.

We also must add instilling confidence, that is the real killer today, even with the young PEs I come across.

They (we) share a willingness for the tasks.

RichH

I bet that a large protion of us old fogies still know how to use a slide rule... for when the batteries are dead on the calculator.

You will get my abacus when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

Several years ago I interviewed with two different software development managers over the phone, and both managers begged and pleaded with me to please come in for some face-time. "You've got exactly what we're looking for!" one of them said. They worked for a fast-growing internet software company and they needed someone who had experience writing Windows device drivers, Windows applications, and who knew Windows internals inside and out. I have that experience and a whole lot more, but when I arrived for an in-person interview they saw my age and lost interest immediately. I'm now 52 and I still sound very youthful over the phone. Not only do I keep current with technology, but I've helped develop some of it myself. Most of my career has been spent right on the bleeding edge, and sometimes even past it but, during my short visit, these folks repeatedly emphasized how most of their employees were young and enthusiastic and that maybe I should look elsewhere? The whole company culture revolved around youth worship. None of the company's founders had reached the age of 30 and yet they had become millionaires almost overnight. Then came the dot-com crash.

What happened to Cult of Youth, Inc? They downsized. Then, a few months later, they evaporated completely. Poof! And a little while after that, the business section of the local newspaper autopsied their former corporate darling and posted the results: no experienced management. None whatsoever. And no experienced senior software developers, no experienced software architects, no experienced anyone who might have saved their youthful behinds. The company's technology was diversified enough that it might have weathered the crash - had it someone a bit more mature and experienced the helm. But it didn't survive because no one there had any experience with survival. Not only had they no experienced people, but they actively (and most certainly illegally) turned away everyone who did. The company was "all indians and no chiefs," said the epitaph.

So much for a Culture of Youth prevailing over the disposable, forgettable, obsolete, can't-teach-an-old-dog-new-tricks older professional. Little did they know that having been around the block a few times ain't necessarily a liability when the weather turns foul. But you never would have convinced them of that no matter how hard you tried.

The company's founders never resurfaced again, as far as anyone knows. But we "useless" older folk are still going strong because we've been through both the sunshine and the rain, and hopefully we've learned a little from each. These kids had never seen rain by the time they graduated into the workforce - but their parents had. But what do parents and older people know? A lot, actually. And if it can be said that a person learns something new every day, then I'd say my having twice the years of that company's average-aged employee means I just might know a thing or two that they don't: like how to survive. Not just to survive, but to thrive when every third corporate ship at that time was foundering on the rocks.

The aftermath would almost have been comical, if it weren't so downright pathetic. Cult of Youth, Inc. were desperately scrambling to unload their Beamers, yachts, and palacial homes at deep-discount prices and yet couldn't find any takers - except for some of us older folk who found some really great deals! (survival is sweet revenge, I must say.) I also suspect that not a few of these same folk have since traded their "Get lost, old man!" nastiness in for some genuine, character-building "You want fries with that?" humility.

There really is nothing new under the sun.

I'm in england and over here we have a severe shortage of young people joining the engineering industry. My particular field is Quality Assurance and Quality Control. The young people that I have been able to bring in and train have been excellent. They don't have an issue with age and they hang on to my every word. They want to learn and are very rarley mouthy.

There are a lot of young people who want sorting out but lets not all get to much of a downer on all the younger people.

Well said,

The current crop of Apprentices I've dealt with (early 20s) are going to contribute mightily too.