Thursday, January 11, 2007

Could all the boomers please exit through the side door?

I have reached a point in my career where I am increasingly intolerant of the Baby Boomers who come to work simply to maximise their superannuation payouts (which is not all of them but at least twice too many). I don't mind that they're not as committed to their work as I am to mine, I'm frustrated that they won't either move on/out of the way nor will they accept they're out of date.

That said, I know a number of Boomers who have remained up to date and who's experience means that they can distinguish what is genuinely a new problem/solution from just new-speak - these people are invaluable and I seek them out whenever I can. I've no desire to repeat previous mistakes and appreciate how an extra 10 or 20 years can provide additional insight (I've always like the cliche; the ability to distinguish the signal from the noise).

Is there a solution? Boomers present a major challenge to the current and immediate working age group (which is shrinking relative to non-working age population in most modern post-industrial democracies). If they retire, we have to fund their massive super payouts (scares the hell out of State and Federal Treasuries in Australia). If they don't retire, they'll continue to be little more than ballast...

I feel somewhat better for having got that off my chest, but I still gotta deal with it tomorrow morning...

2 comments:

Chris said...

Do they play computer games when they are on the phone to you? I imagine that could be quite annoying... :-)

backin15 said...

Go on now.

Hey good post on your year in review. I enjoyed it. Great to see you doing exactly what you said you would mate. I'm jealous... but am also off to France for the RWC in September... will you still be in the UK then?