4 ms·
Age makes employees less flexible in some senses like not being willing to put up with some of the crap that younger people will (60 hour weeks, endless crunche
by nemo 12y ago
Age makes employees less flexible in some senses like not being willing to put up with some of the crap that younger people will (60 hour weeks, endless crunches, etc.) I once did, but will no longer tolerate that crap from an employer.
But being older doesn't mean you stop learning, adapting to change, or lose the ability to deal with moving targets. I'm hopping rapidly between roles and widely varied tasks at my current gig better than I would have in my 20s or 30s since I've got more perspective and experience.
A more mature person might point out that if your plans change weekly you likely have a systemic problem, though, and would be more likely to point out the breakage.
- crdoconnor 12y ago>Age makes employees less flexible in some senses like not being willing to put up with some of the crap that younger people will (60 hour weeks, endless crunches, etc.) This stuff is a false economy anyhow since it inevitably leads to a massive ramp up in technical debt even with the very best programmers.
- danieltillett 12y agoI am not a young developer, yet I recognise what it is about youth that is attractive to employers. This is reality and I don't think there is anything to gained by pretending otherwise. I am not suggesting that you don't have a problem if your plans change weekly, but unfortunately this is the way many businesses are run. When you have a very fluid workflow youth is very attractive.
- psaintla 12y ago> When you have a very fluid workflow youth is very attractive. i.e. you don't bother to spend an hour to plan a project. I don't think anyone wants to work at those kinds of places, young or old.
- danieltillett 12y agoIt is not a matter of planning, but of adapting to change. I have worked in environments where change occurred regularly (outside forces at work) and I saw it was the young who coped with this change best.
- psaintla 12y agoI would need a concrete example but I'm not buying your assertion. Some of the most flexible people I know are all developers, irrespective of age. If you told me that older developers were more likely to ask questions and seek evidence before making a change I'd believe that. I find that most people confuse easy adaptation to change with pliability due to lack of experience.
- czep 12y agoI've seen the exact opposite. Startup, pivoted 3x in 3 years. The younger devs have a much harder time accepting he pivot and figuring out how to adapt. So without any more substantive evidence, my experience definitely refutes this silly argument that youth is more flexible.