Through The Storm
I wasn’t great last week, which is why I didn’t get this Not-Newsletter written. As usual, it was a combination of things - we were in the second week of a COVID lockdown, the days are getting noticeably shorter, I hadn’t had much social stimulation.
COP26 was shaping up as badly as I’d feared, we’re still in a pandemic yet we’re not doing the sensible things like mask-wearing (which is literally the least you can do) and COVID passes and my country is literally in the shit as the government have allowed raw sewage to be pumped in our waters with impunity. Oh, and our PM felt the need to tell the world we are not a corrupt country, which as someone pointed out is like a man trying to persuade his wife he’s NOT having an affair (something you’d think Johnson would be good at, wouldn’t you?).
The world is not ‘normal’ right now and we are unavoidably aware of it. Much is out of our control as we are collectively beset by multiple crises. We’re not suffering alone but it turns out suffering together is not really the answer. It’s not surprising we all have a wobble now and then.
I’d even been getting out running (I didn’t have COVID so I allowed myself that and essential trips to the shops) and spending a bit of time on self-care. But it still hit me again, another wave that submerged me temporarily. No doubt there’ll be others along in the not-to-distant future.
Be kind, to yourself and to others. We’re going to need to help each other as we navigate the uncertainty ahead.
My Generation
I listened to the Be More Pirate podcast interview with Carl Honore, author of ‘In Praise of Slow: Challenging the Cult of Speed’ and more recently ‘Bolder: Making the Most of Our Longer Lives, which got me thinking about age and ageing.
According to the stereotypes about ageing, I should be winding down to my retirement. Have you noticed?
It seems that there’s still a lot for us boomers to contribute and to achieve in our lives. We have much to bring to the table. We’re ‘…better at seeing the big picture, embracing compromise, weighing multiple points of view and accepting that knowledge can only take you so far.’ We also sort patterns and details faster and may even be more creative.
We’re also less concerned about what people think about us and so more inclined to speak our minds. According to Oliver James, a prominent British psychologist and psychotherapist: ‘That bluntness, that refreshing authenticity you find in older people, is hugely to be valued.”
I agree (well, I would, wouldn’t I?!) but what evidence is there that it is? I’ve rather rediscovered my forthrightness recently after having it beaten out of me in CorporateLand, where it most certainly was not valued. It should be but it is often labelled as being troublesome, rebellious and even disloyal.
As organisations struggle to adapt to the post-COVID world, and particularly to flexible working, it is often the older ‘leaders’ who are most resistant to change. At the same time, large number of older workers are taking early retirement, but my guess is that this is largely amongst middle management. I suggest there are two cohorts of ‘boomers’, those who have done well and are hanging on for dear life, and those who have suffered and are bailing out.
What we also see is a shortage of skilled people and a ‘fight for talent’. Gen Z are much less interested in entering the corporate world, with about half stating a preference to start their own business. The workforce now spans five generations, which is also creating its own stresses and strains.
It’s a mess, isn’t it? How do organisations navigate a way out of this mayhem?
I can’t help thinking that there is a solution here that involves re-engaging the older workers and bringing them back into the workforce by creating opportunities that fit with their life style aspirations. Giving them training to be coaches and mentors, allowing them to work part-time or on a flexible basis, tailoring their remuneration to suit their circumstances, for example.
There are couple of problems here, though. Firstly, it requires organisations to have the wit to recognise the value of the gifts older workers have and creativity to come up with ways for older workers to bring them to the workplace. Both have been sorely lacking to date.
And the second one is that organisations have ridden this group really hard, they have tilted the balance of the social contract away from them, have cut their benefits and jettisoned them when they felt they didn’t need them any more. How can they build trust back again? Can they really offer enough to entice these oldies back? Can they show they really value them and will treat them differently to how they have in the past?
Because if they can’t, any offer they make will be met with a blunt and authentic response that involves some advice on sex and travel.
Will We Talk?
I put up a post last week about the divide between the bosses and the employees on returning to the office. About 2/3rds of bosses want to go back full-time whilst only 1/3 of employees do.
I was actually quite saddened by this, and it reflected some other surveys I’d seen that suggests that the bosses are really disconnected from the people that work for them.
‘The bosses are out of touch with the real life of the workers’ is an easy trope to employ, you could even say it’s a lazy criticism. Only it is true.
The worst of it is that most bosses aren’t really interested in the lives of their employees. There’s a lack of curiosity and a lack of dialogue.
When I joined the workforce, we talked about the ‘Captains of Industry’ (in the UK), who commanded vast hordes of workers in factories and industrial plants, producing stuff. Those bosses were drawn from a separate class, literally, to the workers, from what was sometimes referred to as the “officer class”. Public school and University educated (a rarity back then), they were not only out of touch, they wanted to keep it that way with their executive dining rooms, private clubs and exclusive societies. Although the UK helped to create the German system of worker representation on management boards, our ‘Captains of Industry’ refused to have that sort of thing here.
How well that worked out can be judged by how UK industry measured up against German industry in the subsequent decades …
Today, we have the most highly-educated workforce ever. There has been a revolution in management practices, technology, organisation, psychology and many other dimensions of the workplace. There are fantastic opportunities to reinvent our whole approach to work and it’s place in our life.
Yet there is still this enormous gap between the bosses and the workers. I don’t think it’s going to work out well for those organisations that don’t address it but I do find it sad that it persists, even today. And that those at the top still don’t care.
One Of Us
I’m still looking for people who’d like to take part in my group coaching/leader development experiment that I’m calling the ‘Decrapify Work Pirates’. I want to share my hard-earned wisdom and blunt analysis (see what I did there?) with junior and middle managers who want to change their work environment.
So if you know of anyone who is about to get into trouble or give up completely; who wants to make work better for their people but is constantly frustrated by ‘the system’; or who is fed up having all the responsibility and accountabilIty but not enough authority to make things happen, send them my way.
They can find out more here
As always a great read mate. I wanted to comment particularly on the "My Generation" section. I get that the older one gets the less you give a f**k what anyone else thinks (I wish we all got over this way faster). But then, you know me... f**ks are not something I've ever given much of despite being a Gen X'er...but I digress...
What I wanted to discuss was Oliver James point re "...bluntness..." and ."..refreshing authenticity..." To mimic your question...where's this evidence? Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you've rediscovered your forthrightness (I have seen the changes and helped you with them myself), but from someone who is hired for their bluntness, and refreshing authenticity as an employee and consultant for the last thirty years, from where I've been standing I call bull s**t on this evaluation on this whole generation by Oliver James and others. If this exists, I'd like to see it in real life beyond 'Karen' videos on YouTube. (Although don't disagree with your overall argument of value in bringing back older people disillusioned by crap organisations that have bullied the 'creativity' out of them etc. You know I am a hater of all of that which is why FTSQ was set up to support the non-conformists in the first place.
What I did find funny was that this 'forthrightness' is '...often labelled as being troublesome, rebellious and even disloyal." because a) bring on troublesome and rebellious people (the non-conformists change the f**king working baby and b) since when did speaking your truth make you disloyal? No person that I ever knew that spoke their truth was ever the disloyal member of ever group I ever knew. It was always the sneaky one that hid their truth that I've always had to watch out for.
Anyway, thanks for the great read, continue to be more pirate mate x
Always solid plain-spoken perspective mate. That too is a rarity these days. My North American view is that much of the current work environment feels akin to running in molasses. A sense of momentum and an expenditure of calories but the movement (and certainly the forward progress) is rather limited. Is that fatigue, apathy or a spoonful of both?