The fact that I'm anyone's boss is still very, very odd to me and I get weirded out when people call me their boss. And it is occasionally uncomfortable such as the time a new-to-me employee saw my profile picture and asked it if was me or my daughter. I'm one of the youngest in our company period, let along one of the youngest in a management position.

Personally I love that many of my employees have more experience than I do. I know that they don't need me to tell them how to do their jobs and I don't try. Their experience is a real asset to me in more ways than I can count. And my experience with some of the newer tools on the market that we use are an asset to them because they can often go to me instead of having to go to tech support. There's a lot of respect for each other's strengths and we learn from each other.

But sometimes I think I'm lucky because in my field it's not uncommon for someone who once was your boss to work for you at some point. Things jump around a lot like that, not just in our company but for many of our clients as well. There are occasionally issues with that of course, but for the most part it's par for the course. Also, I work from home and my employees work in different parts of the country or in different countries. The age thing isn't really in everyone's face. I'm mostly just a voice on the phone (although I do have a young sounding voice) or words in an email.

And for those younger workers who don't take advice from employees over 50 they are seriously short changing themselves. Personally I've found that neither my way nor the employee's way is the right way. It's usually someplace in the middle that we'd never arrive at without input on both sides.

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

And it's really realy really hard. My initial instinct, and I still think the correct one, was to hire people with more experience running companies than me. Which, in this case, meant hiring men who were at lest 15 - closer to 20 - years older than me.

It has been rewarding, interesting and very painful. Because a lot of times people hold the mistake belief that experience is inherently more important than anything else. And that is often not the case at all. But especially when one is working in new media, in a new business environment in which all the rules are changing.

Change rarely comes from doing the same things in the way they've always been done.

Being the boss is hard when, in addition to making strong decisions - in our case editorial and partnering decisions - we have to also change the minds of our co-workers or spend energy defending decisions that we know instinctively are right for the company. It creates a very hard and often unhealthy dynamic rooted in apparent distrust, but more likely in the silent fear associate with feeling like a fish out of water, or traveling to unknown lands.

Finding that balance can be really hard in day to day meetings of strategy and company design. I hired them because they have experience. The, I assume, wanted to work with me for my vision and energy. Both need to be valued, but that's harder to do, I think, when you come from different worlds and are creating yet another new one.

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Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com

Although I headed my own program, was the youngest person in the office at the nonprofit organization I last worked at. I can't imagine not wanting to work with and learn from someone older than me. The idea horrifies me. In fact, I often wished me boss would push back harder when I suggested a plan of action because I wanted to discuss why it might or might not be a good idea. (Usually he asked me why I decided to do something and then accepted it. Often this turned out to not be the best thing our organization could have done and I wished that he offered me more insight that would have let me change my plans before I learned from my own experience why I should not do something.) Not that everyone I've worked with who is older is brilliant and wise, but there's a lot to be learned from people who've been around a while. And I also am proud that some of my older co-workers learned things from me, too.

Suzanne Reisman, Contributing Editor - Feminism & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants

Indeed - I hired wisdom and experience..... The trick - balancing act - is in making sure that BOTH sides are listening..... I suspect (and have experienced) that more "experienced" people sometimes have a hard time listening to the creativity of youth who may want to do something very differently than they have done in the past. Likewise youth in the face of experience... We are stronger together, when we listen to and learn from each other - there's usually a path that is the right one - ans is somewhere in between each side....
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Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com

Either the readers of BlogHer skew younger or the folks who are older aren't interested in this conversation. I find it fascinating that the "younger" bosses are the folks who are sharing their thoughts and approach to working with boomers.

The other thing that is tricky about boss-staff relationships is that regardless of your age, many of us walk around with the attitude that we can do a better job than our bosses. So what might translate to a younger boss is they don't respect me because of my youth, the reality is, they would probably have issues with anyone who has an idea that doesn't align with their owns.

It takes special people to manage -- it is an incredibly tough job. I have done it. I don't think I was particularly good at it and I'm grateful that I don't have to do it anymore!D

elana
Blogher Contributing Editor,Business&CareersFunnyBusiness