»: How young age interferes with work and life. “Older, please!”: How young age interferes with work and life Show the meaning of their work

There is an old vulgar joke: the heroes discuss... Well, let's say, their personnel preferences. And everyone admits to weaknesses. One says he prefers younger employees because they are bubbling with enthusiasm and untainted by previous experience. The second one reports that he understands mature, experienced workers better. They don't need to be taught. On the contrary, you can learn something from them. And finally, the third states that he loves working with old people. The first two managers look at their colleague in bewilderment and ask: “Why is that?” To which he reasonably replies: “They think this is the last time, and they do such a thing!” In principle, this could be the end of our remark. But this is unlikely to satisfy the editors. Therefore, let’s give some explanations.

Our company has both very young and very mature employees. There are no old ones. There are only superstars. And this does not depend on age. And it depends, first of all, on the relationships between people - at all levels of the administrative ladder.

What do young people dream about?

There are always a lot of emotions when working with young people. They discover the market for themselves, make discoveries every day and step on the rake. And everyone is experiencing this intensely. You can get a buzz from this, feeling younger. But you also get quite tired of emotions. In addition, the process of adaptation of a new young employee is associated with an inevitable loss of unit productivity. After all, it’s easier and faster to do it yourself or entrust a task to an experienced worker than to patiently, over and over again make changes to the program code, an important document, the text of an article... But if you invest in training a young employee from the very beginning, you can compensate for the lack of time with freshness of view and originality solutions that, unfortunately, often disappear, giving way to experience.

There is, however, a nuance: the better you cope with your role as a mentor, the faster you can lose an employee. After all, you are calculating your budget for the year. And over the course of a year, the price of a young specialist can increase many times over. And the big question is whether, during the training process, you will be able to form in a young man an emotional attachment to you personally and to the company, whether you have enough non-financial incentive tools to survive until the next budget year, that is, until the opportunity to increase your salary.

Let us emphasize that non-material encouragement is very important for working with young employees. More and more young men and women give preference not to salary, but to an interesting and fashionable pastime. And if you can (and want) to ensure that the workplace meets these criteria, then the process of hiring young employees will be easier, and their loyalty will be higher. However, mature workers may not like such a “kindergarten”. But they are, most likely, the basis of your business. Even if you are involved in software development or game development.

What is important to veterans

Working with representatives of generation Y and generation Z (here we use the classification of comrades William Strauss And Neil Howe proposed in the book Generations) are devoted to journal articles, scientific publications and numerous entries in HR blogs. But the problem of effective use of older employees receives undeservedly little attention. Meanwhile, not all people aged 50+ dream of quietly waiting until retirement. They are called “downed pilots” and are almost never given the opportunity to return to the ranks. Frequent illnesses, slow learning are scary, and it can be uncomfortable to give orders to a person who is a couple of decades older than you.

If we talk about roles in the team, then the “old people” make good, responsible performers. And “young” employees are ambitious and can easily sacrifice a strategic goal for tactical gain. But they are more mobile, more enthusiastic and do not know that this or that task is difficult. They take and do easily what “mature” people were unable to do.

When working with both “extremes” (university graduates and tomorrow’s – or even today’s – retirees), the risks are great. You need to carefully and attentively talk with the applicant, identifying mainly his character traits. A grumpy old man may well destroy the microclimate of a young team. An arrogant student, confident that he is the bearer of the truth and up-to-date knowledge of how to conduct business, will irritate his senior comrades.

In other words, hiring at the designated “extremes” is similar to venture capital investing: experience, patience and luck can yield very large returns. And those who don’t take risks, as you know, don’t drink champagne.

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Experience or youth: who wins?

Who is better at work - young and zealous or older and experienced?

30 September 2013, 09:32 1801

« We invite you to the position of Director for work with the most complex issues. Requirements: higher education, knowledge of computer programs, experience working with personnel, age not older than 25 years.”

You will no longer see advertisements of this type in newspapers - it is prohibited to discriminate against potential employees based on age. However, when choosing from several candidates, no one is forbidden to pay attention to a younger or, on the contrary, an older one - at will. Who do they prefer to hire today? It is impossible to answer this question unambiguously. Thus, according to a study, 56% of companies that are quite “young” in terms of age composition (the average age of employees here is less than 30 years old) also have employees over 45 years old. On the contrary, more than half of the organizations that employ personnel predominantly over 41 years of age also work with young people under 23 years of age. Employers understand that both young and older people have their advantages and disadvantages and try to use the advantages of each age group of workers to the maximum benefit.

It is worth noting that specialists under 23 years of age (as a rule, without more than 5 years of work experience) are considered as “young” workers; employees over 45 years of age are considered as “aged” workers. What advantages do employers usually see in young and older employees?

The benefits of youth

Young people are more modern, they grasp new trends faster. The undoubted advantage of young people is that they are “in trend.” Modern young people seem to be already born with gadgets in their hands and in the fifth year of life they are able to carry out simple operations on computers. Accordingly, in such a rapidly changing world, when technical innovations appear almost every month, the young have a clear advantage. They are used to this, while many people of the older generation have to master modern technology almost from scratch. Unfortunately, not everyone succeeds, and some simply cannot stand the competition with fast-paced young people.

Young people are more active and achieve more. When you are already over..., it is much more difficult to endure overtime workloads, sleepless nights at the computer, long business trips and whole days without normal nutrition. The older a person gets, the more structured routine he requires. Unfortunately, modern employers cannot always guarantee such work to their employees. A young body can withstand constant stress, decisions “on the run” and other joys of emergency life much easier, therefore, if the activity involves a stressful regime, then bosses give preference to young people.

They are more sociable. Most young people's brains have not yet been clouded by the life stereotypes and attitudes that a person develops throughout his life. Such stereotypes do not always have a positive connotation, because often over time suspicion, mistrust, and caution develop in people. Young people, as a rule, do not suffer from such ailments; they have not yet had time to get into trouble and look at the world with clean, trusting eyes. In addition, the employees who are “for...”, for the most part, have a Soviet past with such slogans as “Watch out!”, “The enemy does not sleep” and other delights of the totalitarian regime. Young people make friends with strangers more easily and are open to new contacts. Therefore, it is precisely such workers who are indispensable as managers.

Young people are more creative and open-minded. The absence of rigidly formed stereotypes allows young people to be more “creative” and generate non-standard ideas. In this case, the lack of practical experience only plays into their hands - young people don’t know “how it’s done,” they don’t know that “they don’t do it that way.” Thanks to their unclouded consciousness, they can sometimes come up with such original ideas that are sometimes beyond the capabilities of older people.

Young people can be paid less. Youth, lack of experience, short length of service - all these things imply a lower salary level. Even if wages in an organization are strictly regulated, and in the same position a person of any age would have an equal amount of money, an older person would still have to pay more: a mandatory bonus for length of service, in addition, an older employee may have a myriad of titles, regalia, diplomas and awards, which also provide for additional payments and allowances. A young specialist simply would not have had time to earn all this yet; accordingly, he costs the wage fund somewhat less.

Young people, as a rule, are not burdened with family, they are ready to work more than the allotted time. This statement is controversial, but in practice this is usually what happens. Older workers jump up every minute and run to the store, to the children, to prepare dinners and teach the children homework. Young people often stay late, benefiting not only themselves, but also their employer.

Advantages of “older workers”.

Older workers have experience, an established database, and the use of abilities in various fields. Even a brilliant young employee does not have the experience that is so necessary in any field of activity. He is able to solve any problem in theory, without knowing the specifics of production, the people who work in it, and not taking into account the influence of many processes that took place when he may have gone to kindergarten. In general, the situation is from the series “The plan was written on paper, but they forgot about the ravines.” But all these things are known and taken into account by a person who has been working successfully for a long time, who has gone through fire and water. And, perhaps, he does not have those signs of genius that the young man has, but he will bypass the “ravines”. In addition, even the most untalented employee gains knowledge and invaluable experience every year, because usually at work he has to solve a wide variety of problems. Accordingly, the longer a person works, the more valuable he can be as an employee. And this is an undeniable advantage of older workers.

Older workers have a huge number of established connections and acquaintances. How many people has an older person met in a long life? And you can’t count them, but these acquaintances, friendships and friendships are one of the most valuable capital for an employee of any level. “Don’t have a hundred rubles, but have a hundred friends” - this saying is ideal for any process, because having a wide circle of acquaintances, you can solve almost any problem. Yes, young people can also be sociable and have many useful acquaintances, but, firstly, even quantitatively, due to age, there will be fewer of them, and, secondly, young people are often simply not taken seriously. Imagine, for example, who will you send to solve a problem, say, to the tax office? A girl who just came from university or an experienced accountant who has been drinking tea with this whole tax office for ten years?

Interest in long-term cooperation. Unfortunately, in our country there is a tendency that after 45 years of age it is quite difficult for a person to get a job. Therefore, every older employee definitely values ​​the place where they work now and will not “throw away” for them. If a young man can lose his temper and leave, reasoning that he still has everything ahead of him, then an older worker will not allow himself such luxury, because for the employer he will be the personification of stability and reliability. For young people, a specific place of work is often just a springboard upward, to new horizons, but you know for sure about an older worker: he will not let you down, will not wag his tail, and will not abandon you at the most crucial moment.

Serious attitude towards work. With age, the frivolity inherent in youth goes away, leaving room for responsibility, hard work, scrupulousness and respect for superiors. Experienced workers understand that they need to appreciate what they have and try to work to their full potential so as not to be left behind, being forced out by the “younger generation.” Even if they are sometimes considered boring and angry for being too meticulous in seemingly insignificant matters, you know for sure about an adult employee - everything is perfect for him, you don’t even need to double-check.

They have influence in the team. “Older” employees are often informal leaders in the team, since younger and inexperienced employees respect their experience, extensive knowledge, and ability to find a way out of difficult situations. The older the employee, the more life wisdom he acquires. Accordingly, he can resolve a conflict, find a common language with difficult clients, and achieve something from his superiors. Such qualities invariably command respect, and older workers often become indispensable intermediaries between management and the team.

Charismatic and leadership qualities. Have you noticed that even in our time, when people under 30 often become major leaders, there is still a distrustful attitude towards bosses who are too young? We often hear “He’s too young to be a boss, what can he know?” Still, in resolving serious issues, people prefer to trust more people with experience and knowledge who have gone through fire and water. In addition, over the years, people themselves acquire greater self-confidence, that is, a quality called charisma. Experienced employees are more difficult to confuse or intimidate, and they are internally prepared for many difficult situations that younger employees have to only guess about.

Of course, all these advantages are considered in general: among young people there are so-called “young old men”, scrupulous and boring, and many non-young employees have sparkling eyes and youthful enthusiasm. Everything described above is just stereotypes, to which, alas, employers are often subject. Fortunately, the majority still often focus on knowledge, skills and personal qualities, and not on the year of birth!

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Millennials, or Generation Y, have a hard time getting the work done in the same way as their older counterparts. Parents of today's youth - witnesses of the difficult 1990s - began to work in order to survive themselves and raise their children. There was not much diversity among professions, but this was not required: they worked for money.

Today, young people work rather for the sake of the process, which, in addition to the salary, brings them inner satisfaction. This is even reflected in company slogans: “Do what you like. Like what you do” (“Do what you like. Love what you do”) – says the Russian chain of coffee bars Coffee Like. A job you love, a job you want to wake up for - this is what became the priority for those born in the 1985-2000s in finding the coveted vacancy.

Millennials have begun to enter the workplace. Time passes. They discover that work is not always (and even most often) not a holiday: too boring, too much paperwork, too much work very well uninteresting work.

Sometimes these factors become decisive: a person leaves and looks for something else. Someone is attracted by the level of wages - but at the same time the work becomes almost hateful. As a result, young workers in the life process of the company: it seems that their work is not important, not needed. Then why do it well? Obviously, millennials need strong motivation to stay with a company—more than just a good salary.

Show how their work makes sense

Almost none of the young specialists understand their role in the company at the very beginning of their journey. They are doing something, busy with something, calling somewhere, finding out something. But real results from the work done are usually not visible. This is where the feeling of uselessness comes from.

Show the journey of the work they have completed. For example, if an employee prepared a report, tell us how it was received at the meeting, what information he gave, and what further decisions were made based on this report.

Explain what is happening in the company

Involve younger employees in the decision-making process. Tell us what is happening inside and outside the company, why these and these actions need to be taken now. Inform about the company's plans, ask for their opinion.

Do some brainstorming. Perhaps you will indeed find some solution to the problem. If not, that’s okay too: explain why their ideas are good, but not suitable for the company. Start with simple questions and make them more difficult over time. You will soon notice that the communication process between you and young employees will be much easier.

Remember praise and rewards

It has been said more than once that: they are used to completing levels and receiving rewards for it. Therefore, one of the obvious methods of increasing the motivation of young professionals is the introduction of gamification into the business process.

Do not skimp on words of praise, celebrate the employee’s smallest successes - this is especially important at the beginning of a career path. Celebrate their work. At the same time, be sincere and rely not only on your own opinion, but also on the words of other senior colleagues.

Remember about material rewards. If you see that an employee has really reached a new level, it would not be a bad idea to think about increasing his salary.

Find out about their career goals

Ask younger colleagues about their career plans. Firstly, this way you show that you really care about the person as an employee. Secondly, you will determine how willing your specialists are to stay in the company. Find out about their goals and dreams. After listening, tell them how your company can help with them.

If an employee expresses a desire to eventually join a large company, and your business is small, then be mentally prepared for the fact that one day he will actually leave your company. This is one of the characteristic features of generation Y - not staying in one job for a long time. However, with you he can develop his professional skills, abilities, and gain basic knowledge related to his activities. In addition, in a small company it is much easier to gain more diverse experience: often one person has to perform several functions at once and make many decisions independently.

Give your company a chance to be proud

Millennials are attracted to the opportunity to proudly declare where they work. Here you will have to try and find several reasons why a young employee can enthusiastically talk about the company. For example, tell young professionals:

1. • How did you become a leader in a narrow segment of goods or services;
   • Why do you always win the competition?
   • Which famous companies have you worked with or been partners with?
   • What are the most difficult problems you have successfully solved?
   • About possible internships in larger cities or abroad.

Think about what else could add weight to the company in the eyes of your young professionals. And then they themselves will start talking about you - without expecting questions from the interlocutor :)

Both in Russia and abroad, many companies try not to hire employees over 40–45 years old. But in vain: according to research, in many cases, “old people” are more valuable employees than millennials suffering from a lack of motivation

Photo: Thomas Peter / Reuters

In December 2017, The New York Times and the independent journalistic organization ProPublica published a scandalous investigation. Journalists have found that dozens of the largest American companies, when posting hiring advertisements on Facebook, use settings to make them visible only to certain age groups - in particular, to users from 25 to 36 years old. Among the ageists were Verizon, Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Target and Facebook itself. The investigation revealed an acute problem - even in the West, where close attention is paid to the fight against age discrimination, many companies strive not to hire workers over 40-45 years old.

In Russia, despite the legal ban, companies sometimes openly indicate the desired age in job descriptions. Recruiters they tell, that candidates often hide their age, and candidates complain that they are not even called for an interview if their resume says 40+.

Many employers believe that young employees are more active, they learn new things more easily and have a better understanding of technology. However, the experience of several Russian companies that have tried to assemble a team of young talents shows that, left without “adults,” millennials can lead the business to collapse. And modern scientific research forces us to look at “old people” differently: they are not only no worse than young people, but often even better - they work more efficiently, make fewer mistakes, and are more loyal to the employer.

Full millennium

In the 1990s, American historians William Strauss and Neil Howe formulated the “theory of generations.” Generation X was defined by the authors as those born during the U.S. birth decline, beginning in the 1960s and ending around 1981. Generation Y (millennials) are those born between 1981 and 1996. Next come those who are called Generation Z (centennials). The theory has become popular, although different countries call different generation boundaries: for example, in Russia it is proposed to consider those born between 1985 and 2000 as millennials.

By 2025, the share of workers born after 1980 will account for about 75% of the global workforce. This causes some concern among employers - it is widely believed that generation Y has a number of characteristics that companies will have to adapt to long and painfully. According to a Gallup report, only 29% of millennials feel included at work (the share of engagement among all generations is 33%). At the same time, generation Y is characterized by low loyalty: 32% of millennial workers plan to leave their company within a year (among employees over 35, only 24% are like that). Employers believe that millennials as a generation are characterized by a lack of experience and motivation, a unclear understanding of what they want to do, and a tendency toward narcissism. At the same time, critics of the theory of generations point out that the listed traits were characteristic of young people at all times.

Old vs young

Between 2008 and 2016, employees at 150 of Silicon Valley's largest companies filed a total of 226 collective and individual complaints of age discrimination—more than the number of complaints of harassment based on gender or race during the same period. There were also lawsuits: in August 2016, four former Hewlett Packard employees filed a lawsuit against the company for firing them, transferring their jobs to younger ones. The plaintiffs claim that this kind of “rejuvenating procedures” has become a system at the company.

If in the West the victims of age discrimination are mainly workers over 45-50 years old, then in Russia the problems begin as early as forty. “We are prohibited from indicating age when posting a vacancy, but this does not prevent employers from selecting candidates of the age they need,” admits Maria Ignatova, head of the HeadHunter research service.

Recruitment specialists argue that the topic is painful not only for applicants, but also for personnel officers themselves: obeying the instructions of management, they are often forced to refuse obviously valuable candidates who are older than the established bar. “In my practice, there was, for example, a case when a new HR director took up the task of “rejuvenating” personnel, giving recruiters an unofficial instruction to focus on the age of up to 35 years,” says Olesya Pravlotskaya, head of HR at BBDO Group. “The next step was to send everyone who had reached retirement age to a well-deserved retirement.” All this led to conflicts and public discussions on the Internet, which damaged the company’s reputation, but did not bring noticeable results.

Company executives just shrug their shoulders: what to do if young people are better versed in digital disciplines? “Technologies are constantly evolving, and in order to remain at a good professional level, an IT specialist must constantly learn new things,” says Vladimir Fomenko, founder of the hosting company King Servers. “This automatically creates problems for many people over the age of forty, when it is already difficult to change habits, master new tools, and learn what a particular company needs.”

In addition to IT, there are a number of other areas in which companies are more willing to recruit young people - SMM, PR, marketing, sales. “We hire only those 19-25 years old for web marketer positions,” admits Igor Stolyarov, CEO of packaging manufacturer CPC Group. According to him, modern marketing is primarily digital. And the best suited for managing digital networks and channels are the so-called digital natives—those whose birthdays fell in 1993-2000. « Retraining those who made corporate websites in the early 2000s is much more difficult than teaching those who were born with a tablet in their hands,” says Stolyarov.

Employers are actively hiring people under 30, including for leadership roles, inspired by the widely circulated examples of technopreneurs who founded their companies at a young age - Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin. And this often leads to an even more radical rejuvenation of the team. “I had the opportunity to work with a twenty-seven-year-old manager who refused to consider candidates for his team who were at least a couple of years older, because he could not imagine how he would manage older people,” says Pravlotskaya. It is significant that millennial employees themselves perceive “old people” as an obstacle in their way: for example, they believe that companies should get rid of people over 50 years old because they do not have the energy and motivation to work.

Young green

In the early 2010s, the PR agency Pro-Vision decided to focus on 25-30 year old specialists. “It was assumed that the expertise of millennials, who are well versed in trends in the communications industry, would help expand the number of projects with current clients, as well as attract new ones,” says Vladimir Vinogradov, president of Pro-Vision. However, the agency was faced with the fact that young employees lacked work discipline and responsibility. “We started receiving numerous complaints from customers. For example, one of the customers complained that a young event organizer regularly missed deadlines, and in general was not very interested in the tasks of the project. We had to part with the employee and take a more mature and responsible specialist in his place,” recalls Vinogradov.

Since 2015, the Pro-Vision HR department has stopped considering applicants born in 1980 for managerial positions. “It turned out that teaching new tools to more mature and experienced employees is easier than instilling a sense of responsibility in young people,” says Vinogradov. “This change in personnel policy has allowed us to increase revenue by approximately 25% over the past three years.”

Even in such a field as online promotion, a team left without supervision from older workers is often doomed. “It is believed that SMM is the territory of young people under 25,” says Maria Bolokhova, development director of the online store Vorsmaknife.ru​. “By promoting our knives on the Internet, we attracted well-known bloggers and hired those who we believed could find a common language with them.” After working with young employees for three years, the company’s management decided: we no longer hire “children,” we work only with mature people. “We were regularly doused with the hormones of youth: they were offended by the slightest criticism, they wanted to get big money for small work, they didn’t come to work simply because they had been out at a club the day before,” recalls Bolokhova. But the most important shortcoming of millennials was the lack of attitude towards work as an important, responsible matter. The young employees lived by the principle: if it didn’t work out, I’ll find a new place, I’ll definitely be useful somewhere.

Now Maria Bolokhova avoids talking about age as a significant hiring criterion: “Date of birth is not as important as the level of maturity. Its development is facilitated by children for whom employees are responsible, parents in their care, or simply serious goals for the coming years.”

Photo: Yuriko Nakao/Reuters

The furrows will not spoil

Are “old people” so hopeless compared to millennials? Modern research shows that Generation X and even their predecessors, the Baby Boomers (people born in the late forties and early sixties), are in many cases more valuable employees than young people. Including in the technological field. After studying the basic characteristics (gender, age, race, etc.) of 900 inventors, businessmen and company executives, each of whom makes a significant contribution to the development of the technology market in the United States, researchers from the non-profit organization Information Technology & Innovation Foundation found that the average age American innovator is 47 years old.

The creative activity of people in the technology sector remains high up to the age of 55, gradually declines over the next ten years and drops sharply only after 65 years. The study overturned the conventional wisdom that technology breakthroughs are made by young people fresh out of college: only about 6% of the top US innovators were under 30 years old.

The popular belief that “old people” are worse at mastering new technologies also turned out to be erroneous. In 2016, Dropbox studied how 4,000 IT company employees use various technology tools and concluded that, in fact, programmers and engineers over 55 have less difficulty using gadgets and applications in the workplace than younger ones.

Even workers of retirement age have some advantages compared to young people. Published back in 2010, a large-scale Cogito Study conducted by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development proved that people aged 65 to 80 years old showed more stable results in multi-day tests on the speed of perception of new information and memorization than those aged 20 up to 31 years old. “On average, older workers are more productive and reliable than their younger counterparts,” says one of the study’s authors, Axel Borsch-Supan.

And in 2011, researchers from the University of Mannheim studying workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant in southern Germany found that younger and much more educated people were less productive than older ones. The answer, according to researchers, is that bright young graduates get tired of everyday, routine tasks much more quickly. Millennials do not agree to do work that seems meaningless to them just for the sake of money, but older workers are not nearly as demanding of their functions.

Generation Y in numbers

63% millennials have higher education

77% would like to work flexible hours

30% live with parents

28% live with their family or partner

20% less Millennials earn on average compared to their parents

Sources: Ernst & Young, Deloitte, PwC, Goldman Sachs

Ageism or life

“The more experienced the specialist, the higher his qualifications,” says Maria Ignatova from HeadHunter. — There are entire areas where candidates 45+ are more successful than younger ones. A textbook example is ​insurance: clients are much more willing to trust mature people to insure their lives than young people.”

Video: RBC

Many companies deliberately try to assemble teams of different ages, where employees complement each other. “Ageism is the result of stereotypical thinking and a reluctance to understand the details,” says Roman Tyshkovsky, managing partner of Odgers Berndtson Russia. — Interaction between generations within a team is very important, as it creates an atmosphere of mutual learning and exchange of ideas. In our company, we see how people of different generations are drawn to each other. Young people usually do not have expertise, older people do not have energy, flexibility and learning ability.”

In general, company managers agree that the demand for specialists of different ages depends most strongly on the specific profession and professional tasks. “Is it possible, for example, to hire a person aged 60 as a “field” employee in sales? — says Oleg Paroshin, CEO of the biotechnology company Amgen in Russia and the CIS. — A person in this position spends 12-15 days a month on business trips. At 60 years old, such a schedule will be difficult. Neither the employee nor the company will benefit. But for the position of a product manager or analyst, which requires experience, knowledge of the market and the main players, 50-60 years is a completely suitable age.”

“Like all generalizing concepts, generational theory has its shortcomings. Of course, each generation has its own characteristics, and we are always talking about the “average” representative of millennials. When selecting a specialist, it is important for a recruiter to look at a specific person - his skills, character traits and life values, and not at age,” sums up Olesya Pravlotskaya.

With the participation of: Nikolay Grishin

And what to do if you encounter such a boss.

Still from the movie "Office Space"

How to understand that your manager does not know how to manage, and what to do about it, says Liz Ryan, coach, columnist for Forbes.

We are used to thinking that a strong manager is a person with a strong handshake and a commanding voice. We are used to thinking that being a strong manager means acting decisively and knowing the answers to all questions. But these ideas are already a thing of the past. Strong leaders adapt to the environment in which they operate. They know how to lead based on trust, not fear. They don't need to shout in a commanding tone, and they are strong enough not to always be right and not be responsible for everything.

Weak leaders snap and yell at people. They rule through fear. They simply must be right: no member of their team can have a better answer to any question than the answer that the manager has. Weak managers may sound important and bossy, but only because they don't want anyone to question their authority. They are too weak to participate in a real, vigorous discussion. They're afraid that someone below them will realize that they don't always know what they're talking about.

Today, more and more workers understand that not every manager and not every organization is worthy of their work. You have much more power and influence than you think, but this influence only comes when you are ready to use it: you are ready to stand up for yourself and have your own position. We are all now entering this previously uncharted territory.

The experience of weak managers can be extremely useful. But these are lessons like: “Never lead a team the way this person leads!” Here are 11 signs that your boss, no matter how high in the organizational hierarchy he occupies, is a weak leader who is afraid to lead with trust.

1. Your main concern at work is not to anger your boss.

2. Your manager criticizes much more than he praises.

3. Your boss believes that he has the last word on any issue.

4. Your manager doesn't want you to experiment and try new things.

6. Your manager relies on discipline and rules to keep you and your colleagues in line.

7. You and your colleagues can easily tell when the boss is angry with one of you.

8. Your boss attaches great importance to problems such as occasionally being ten minutes late to work. He (or she) clings to formal rules and applies sanctions whenever these rules are violated.

9. Your boss is feared, and people in other departments and departments feel sorry for you.

10. You are happy when you manage to get to the end of the working day without ever meeting your boss.

11. If you tell your manager about some amazing thing that happened to you - your blog won an award, you were awarded some special title or privilege - the boss does not rejoice with you. He doesn't want anyone to overshadow him.

Alas, there are a lot of weak managers. Too many companies still promote people to management positions based on their functional competencies, despite their lack of communication skills, empathy, and other people skills. And weak managers, deep down, understand that they are weak. That's why they behave so harshly.

There is no need to be upset if you realize that you are under the leadership of a weak leader. Each of us gets to work with such a boss at least once in our lives. But you won't have to tiptoe around it until the end of time. Better take advantage of this moment and make a good career plan for yourself.

There may be some valuable things and skills that you can still learn in this job - and it may take you two more years to master them. During this time, you can improve your resume, build your competencies, increase your self-confidence and clarify your future career goals.

Your weak boss may manage you all this time - or he may leave for another position, or even be fired. The more clearly you define your own goals, the less concerned you will be about your boss's obnoxious tendencies. This is just another dog that barks and doesn't bite.

Your weak boss may be horrified to learn that he is teaching you important lessons—lessons that will help you overcome larger obstacles in your path. But that's exactly what will happen. And the more you focus on yourself and your self-improvement, the less importance you will attach to your boss and his bad character. When you see your path clearly, weak people cannot stop you.