A Milliennial's Viewpoint

                Millennial Ann Friedman wrote an op-ed this morning in the LA Times, her topic?

                                     "How to handle baby boomers at work"

                      I read it 4 times and it took me all 4 reads to realize she was serious.

"NEVER say, 'This is so easy.' Recognize that baby boomers have a lot of fear and anger about technology, and tread gently."

Ann, Ann, Ann, Ms. Friedman, my first brush with technology was college registration in 1963. My class choices were put on a punch card (best tech we had at the time) the class assignments were organized by a mainframe computer, printed and we picked them up in the admin building. It would have been nice to have them emailed,  But Va Shiva, the baby boomer who invented email was a toddler at the time. Ray Thomlinson the pioneer programmer, who first used the @ sign for electronic communication was a member of the generation born before the baby boomers.

When I started working after college, believe it or not Ann we had an IBM computer in our accounting department and we soon added another. I don't think anyone was afraid of the technology, at least not that I can recall. Even the ancient woman who was the head "book keeper" liked the speed and convenience the huge and clunky IBM box provided.

"it's important to never assume that your baby-boomer colleagues, born between 1946 and 1964, are unfamiliar with new technology. It's far more likely that they've read about it, tried it once and decided they hate it."

Jesus, you Millennials are snarky little shits. I had a computer in my office in 1975, yes it was a crude, early DEC, but I used it via a dial up line to send and receive information across (amazing as it must seem to you) the entire country. Imagine that.

"In a boomer-majority office, it's often necessary to ignore mild but routine sexism, cautioned many millennial women. Remember that some boomers joined the workforce before anti-harassment policies were created. For sexist transgressions that seem too small to take to HR, millennials may want to establish a group text thread — a safe space for venting."

Ah yes, I remember those days, some boomer men did take their cues from the older workers and treat women badly.

You have to remember Ann, we boomers were the ones who got rid of a hell of a lot of the sexism and workplace discrimination and we're rather proud of that.

Why focus on the "old codgers" who may call you sweetie or honey from time to time, you may want to take a long, hard look at the vicious little dicks of your own generation. You know who I'm talking about, the guy with the goatee who's laid back and pleasant at work and spends much of his non-work time attacking you and other women anonymously on line. Gamer-gate comes to mind.

“There are people there who want to learn things like social media but don't have the confidence.”

Really Ann? It takes confidence to learn social media? I use it all Ann. It takes about two minutes to learn how to use most of it, not a big achievement.

What's hard to learn is face to face communication, like sitting and talking in complete sentences, making a presentation to your co-workers without technology as a support system. It is a basic and essential skill. You guys spend too much time looking at your phones.

Here's a tip, it's hard to close a deal if the only way you can communicate is via text, email or social media. Look people in the eye, it's really hard if you haven't done it. Human interaction takes practice and confidence. You can do it, give it a try. Another tip, you might want to talk to the old guy down the hall who has been doing it for years. Maybe even have a face to face lunch with the older woman in your office who has carved out a career, while putting up with things and situations that would make you weep. Talk to them, drop the hip façade, when you do.

Some of the best advice I've gotten in my life was from people who grew up with only one phone in their house. They even wrote and mailed letters. Think about that.

What you have, that our generation didn't, is the ability to communicate instantly. It's nice, convenient, but not that big of a deal. When I was in college and went to the student union to have coffee, we actually talked to each other. I imagine it's difficult today to discuss the ass kicking exam you just finished taking in International Econ via text, snap chat or twitter.

On a personal level, take a minute and think about the BS artists who use electronic dating services. A jerk on the web is the same jerk you meet at a party or in a bar. Sooner or later you have to actually communicate face to face. It's valuable skill Ann, work on it.

What I love about you guys is the fact you are pretty much color blind, open and welcoming people. Then again, you can be racist, homophobic bastards when you hide anonymously on social media.  

I have Gen Z grandchildren who think you guys are a bunch of slacker, Luddite, old school slugs, so watch out, they're coming for you.

Communication at the Speed of Light...

There was a story in the LA Times this morning about the beginning of WWI in 1914. A steamship arrived at a Pacific Island with the news the war had started three weeks before. The English and the French living on the island were surprised to find out that they were now the enemies of their German friends on the island. And had been for three weeks. Slow communication.

A book came out a few years ago about the change radio brought to every corner of the country and the world. It wasn't a very good book, but it opened something like this...

"Imagine you are living on a farm in a remote corner of one of the western states, it takes you a full day to go to town and back. When you go, maybe two or three times a month, you get things you need for the farm and your family, you haven't any idea what's going on in the world until you get to town. You get your mail, you see the local paper, you talk to friends and shop keepers. At the end of the summer you travel to the state fair and you see for the first time something called a radio. It requires electricity to operate, you have none. But this radio has a wind powered device that makes electricity to charge the radio's batteries. You buy the radio and take it back to the farm."

What changed for this farmer and his family in their little, remote corner of the world? Everything. Grain prices in the morning, national and local news and baseball. Late Saturday afternoon Standard Oil brought the New York Philharmonic to the farm. For the first time in your life you heard the voice of the President. You had music to listen to anytime you wanted it and you had weather forecasts. What's more important to a farmer than the weather?

When we built our lake cabin in the 50's we had a 30's era Zenith (my grandfather bought it new) console radio with a cat's eye tuner in the corner of the living room. The big old Zenith had AM, something called FM and multiple bands of shortwave. My grandfather ran the antenna wire to a window screen and the old set was ready to go. The Zenith had push buttons below the dial just like a car. The buttons were labeled with the call letters of the big clear channel stations of the time. WCCO, WGN, WLS, WLW, WBBM, KMOX and of course, North Dakota's first radio station WDAY. I listened to the sinking of the Andrea Doria as it happened on that radio. The radio played rock and roll and it made me despise Patti Page. The first time I heard the BBC World Service was on the old Zenith. I heard short wave broadcasts in foreign languages, including I suppose Russian propaganda and our propaganda on Radio Free Europe

The old Zenith had a "eye" it looked like the eye of a cat when you tuned it perfectly on the station you wanted to listen to. Still a good idea.The sound quality was great on the old radio, better than the car or the little Arvin I had in my room. The radio in those days was a window on the world. Then I got my first 6 transistor radio, it fit in my pocket, it had a little speaker and ear buds. I could ride my bike and listen to Little Richard and Gene Vincent. I could listen to R&B played by John R "Way Down South in Dixie if I turned my little radio in the right direction at night.

Early in my career I worked with a guy named Lem Hawkins. Lem was from Oklahoma and had started as a radio musician on a station in Oklahoma City. The station was owned by the publisher of the newspaper, the publisher also owned a farm. Lem and his band mates worked on the farm, got in a truck at noon drove into the station and played hillbilly music on the radio from 12:15 to 1, Got back in the truck, drove back to the farm and went back to work. Lem started announcing full time and quit the farm. When I worked with Lem he had been in radio one way or another for 35 years. Lem should have written a book, he was definitely not the guy he "played" on the radio.

Today's instant communication and information would amaze my grandparents. They were born before radio existed. My parents grew up with radio and adapted quickly to Television, I grew up with both and I've adapted to the instant communication/gratification of the internet. I suspect my grandchildren will read this post with skepticism, shake their heads and laugh...as they sit at their 3 screen computer set ups with an I-Phone in their hand. Keep in mind kids all of this has happened in less than a 100 years, TV wasn't common outside of the big cities until the early 50's and the web since the late 80's and it didn't start to work very well until 10 or 12 years ago. Until the telegraph came along in 1837 people in Boston had no idea what was going on in New York for days, the telegraph, the first mass electronic communication system prompted massive changes in society including the adoption of standard time zones.

20 million people still listen to Prairie Home Companion on the radio, the replays and the web...a good show is a good show. Always has been no matter where you find it. And I still read the newspaper too.