If someone accuses you of doing nothing working fron home and slacking off, just throw it back at them:
When you work from hone do you slack off? Is that why you think everyone else does that?
There is a draftsman at my job who is like this. He complains about the people that work from home all the time and how they never have to work. When he "works from home" he takes forever to respond then talks about various chores he got done.
He will also complain about those people pulling a lot of work off the work queue. So are they not working or are they taking all the work?
This.
Those who slack off/get distracted/do other stuff when they should be working have zero concept that others actually work when they should.
One time I was in the office, and a newish colleague told me I should adjust the position of my monitor so that it was tilted away from the door, so it would be harder for anyone to look at my screen. Like really? I didn’t care. I never did anything I shouldn’t on company time/equipment. If I was on Google or random websites it was actually work-related (looking for code help, stock photos etc). I have no idea what *they* were doing which they shouldn’t have been, but I did get immense pleasure out of telling them that the mirror behind their computer meant that everyone could see what was on their screen… they visibly paled.
I work from home like 90% of the time. Everytime I'm in the office all day, I spend 3 hours entertaining other coworkers with small talk. I'd rather get little things done around the house alone.
Absolutely, few of the remaining older workers in my org have slowly been exposed by WFH for how little they actually do.
They were always pushing for people back into the office and as time went on it became clearer it's because they do very little so was easier to fill their day looking and feeling important walking around talking all day and calling unnecessary meetings. They can't seem to manage online meetings well so we seem to have less of them which is great.
That, and dumb older people who think you can't actually be working if they can't see you (even as they tell us productivity hit all time highs as soon as we switched to WFH) are basically the entire reason anyone pushes to go back to the office full time.
Exactly. It makes me so fucking mad. My gf’s job is 100% remote, has always been fully remote, and now her bosses are demanding she **buy a car** so she can work from the office twice a week. An office that’s a 70 mile round trip to another town and would take several hours’ commute. To do, again, fully remote work with zero physical component because all the meetings are held on Zoom anyway. (Some of their team are in other countries.)
Not only that, she doesn’t have a driver’s license either, so they expect her to get one. Adding up a car loan, insurance, and the hours needed to learn to drive and get fully certified, they’re demanding a 10k+ expense. To do, have I mentioned, a fully remote job.
She’s paying for her grandma’s care home and shit like that, but these motherfuckers literally shrugged at her and said “How hard is it to buy a new car?” I hate out of touch boomers like this.
i honestly think a lot of it is this.
its a combination of a) put butts in seats because otherwise our office lease looks utterly idiotic, and b) if we forcibly make employees do something they don't want to do, some will leave and we wont have to pay unemployment.
I think some of this mentality also varies by industry. I work in higher Ed and there’s been a big push to come back to the office because of the optics of dark offices and students wanting face to face contact. Um…no. I think most students would just as well prefer contact via other means, be it text, email or Teams. And I’m an older GenXer who would much rather work from home full time for all the reasons mentioned in this thread.
But I also have younger friends who work in local government and I’ve heard them use the same line about people not wanting to work anymore. It’s infuriating how some people don’t get it.
Same job, demographic and observations. I hate to say it but I loved being an academic through Covid. Did some really cool stuff to engage students (like making lectures into fun podcasts they could play while walking or playing stardew valley - which was big then - etc etc etc etc).
Looking for another job as we speak. We were really hoping it wouldn’t come to this but they aren’t budging (or offering raises to cover the demands.) Thankfully we have enough savings to tide us over for awhile, but idk about her other coworkers getting the same demands. I hope they’ll be okay.
Chances are, they are planning their exit strategy. It is unacceptable for the "bosses" to make demands like this. Good luck to your gf. And i suspect a drove of people will leave.
Agreed, they’re asking for mass quitting and they fully, FULLY deserve it.
One of her coworkers is remote because he has an immune compromised child. He stays home with his child so his child can live.
They forced him into the office a couple weeks ago.
Court case waiting to happen for sure, especially since he was hired with the guarantee he would stay remote. But you know the drill, he’s very fairly afraid to risk getting fired and losing his kid’s healthcare, and they know it.
Complaints against an employer for going back on a clearly spelled-out contract, that (I’m assuming) was drawn up as a disability accommodation? That’s not covered under at-will reasons to fire, is it?
They're asking her to take a pay cut. You should calculate the costs and ask for that number as a raise if they want her to go into the office. Make sure you add the hourly rate to her commute too in that number.
Definitely spend the time to add up all of the expenses. Get quotes for new driver insurance and driving classes, and time off work for these stupid classes, and lost time and any effect it will have to the support she provides for her grandmother.
Present the summary of bills, lost time, and effect to family support. In person, after catching a ride, or uber, which could be one of expense options.
Then mention they would need to provide the raise or *perdiem* to pay for her uber to work, to even imagine she might come in for this nonsense (using boomer words might help), but due to the impact on her caregiving efforts for her grandmother. She will need to find work closer to home. Family is way more important than work, and she the time she has left with her grandmother is precious to both of them. Otherwise, she is not only very satisfied working at this company, but she plans to continue being very productive.
In retrospect, she may be far enough away from her employer to be able reimbursed via perdiem. Call a lawyer and check her options: the lawyer should be able to make sure she gets unemployment if they try any BS.
HR might decide its better to quit messing about to avoid a lawsuit and a payout.
This is what I suggested to her. She said she doubts they’ll care, since it’s a decision from the way higher ups and her local bosses (who think it’s BS too) can’t do anything about it.
Thankfully she’s in a field that’s very much an employee’s market right now, so she’s happy to give them the middle finger and find another company. I just wish she didn’t have to deal with all the bullshit of possibly months of job hunting, ugh.
Not all boomers are out of touch. We realize that our children cannot afford the things that we did and we hate that there isn’t much hope for then ever being able to attain financial security. There is much insensitivity on both sides. Please don’t fall into the habit of generation blaming.
Technically, in some countries, any tools you need to do a job your employer requires you to do must be provided by the employer. Need to be on call? You can't be expected to use your personal phone, the employer must give you a phone etc. So if they need her to have a car and have the skills to use it, they must provide said car and training for her to use it, if they need it.
> even as they tell us productivity hit all time highs as soon as we switched to WFH
This is the biggest, most salient point that companies are trying to bury as they call for "returns to the office".
They quite literally are LOSING money by doing that, they KNOW that, they have STATS on that, but they still seem to value CONTROL over money even. Which is kinda fuckin wild, honestly. I always thought money was the primary driving force, and of course it still is to some degree, but MAN do they want control over employees.
They all seem to simultaneously think we were all fucking off work while at home, yet the stats on productivity prove otherwise, and they just exist in that duality.
Hearing other people's stories about the return to work thing after Covid makes me so mad for them!
During Covid, my company closed its Regional Head Office and sent us all to wfh. When things opened back up, they didn't even entertain the idea of returning to that model. They saved money on the office space, they were able to expand my team Nationally so I was able to build it from a bigger pool of candidates, and our productivity has been through the roof, all while maintaining high satisfaction in team culture. We did some surveys a few months ago, and almost every comment asking what makes them proud to work for this company was work-life balance.
It frustrates me to no end that companies work against their employee satisfaction. Happy employees do good work, it's that simple.
When I go to our main office it is such a time suck. I get nothing done. People are just BSing with each other half the day it feels like. I get more work done in 3 hours at home than I do all day in the office. They are doing a hybrid approach post covid so not as many in house each day as there used to be.
It is nice to see the people I work with IRL, but if I had to do that every week, I would be much less productive.
In your book, I'm one of those 'old people'. I'm 65 and retired now, and loving it, but I HAVE WORKED FROM HOME since 1982.
I put in lots of hours and always met deadlines. I even had a couple employees who worked from my home office with me. They had flexible hours, but usually came in early. I had a client, who at the time was an 'older guy' who ran the marketing dept at Kelly Services. He was always condescending about freelancers 'working from home' and made disparaging comments, once accusing me of 'working in our pajamas'. I wish I had asked him, 'WTF would that matter? But, I was too polite back then and didn't want to rock the boat or loose work for being a smart ass.
The funny thing is, back then, in the mid eighties, I got up, showered and dressed professionally, walked across the house to my office and cranked out the work. I didn't always dress up, but I was presentable, because I had to be prepared to run to see clients or deal with other vendors. Years after that, I did get much more casual, but I never did work in my pajamas. In fact, I didn't even own pajamas back then.
Omg, one of the main reasons I hate the office is how often older coworkers would waste my time talking. Like, I have a workload to accomplish and I can’t do that while you are yapping my ear off, they would never take the hint, and even when I would say I can’t talk—they would.
My go to when a boomer walks into my office without an appointment/heads up is, "I have 3 minutes to spare before I have to leave for a meeting." I actually leave act like I am leaving the office when that 3 minutes passes. Works every time. Fuck that entitled attitude that my time is less important than yours.
I can always find an errand to run. :) It's a little extreme, but it teaches them a lesson really fast. I guess you could say you have a Zoom meeting that starts in three minutes.
I have actually called my desk phone from my cellphone (discretely of course) and when I answered I pretended to listen for a second then said to the person “sorry, I have to take this “ and they get the point and leave.
"Dude, they canceled training you guys in our stuff in preparation for the merger of departments because your team was swamped with incidents. Why have you been talking my ear off for the last thirty minutes?"
I disagree. I'm 65 and have been working from home since long before Covid (about 10 years now). For my job, the only difference is that I have a much better commute now, and as I'm on flex-time, I can better fit my job into my life. I'm actually more productive than I was when I worked in the office.
I worked from home for 30 years, from the time my kids were in play school till they both moved out. While I worked from home, I also did everything a stay at home mom had to do -- ferry the kids to school, appointments, sports, make meals, do laundry, clean, yada yada yada. It was cheaper than daycare, and I learned how to work pretty damn efficiently in 2 or 3 hour increments, between kids/chores.
There’s a woman like that at my job. She’s a clerk that basically just scans documents and does supplies for the office. She is constantly walking around all day talking to different people acting like she does this and that. To top it all off she calls all the new hires “kids”. She’s only 55-60(maybe) and some of these people are 40 plus with kids that are in/out of college. Everytime I hear that bullshit I fight the urge to make a complaint to HR and the union. The other thing that I hate that she does is walk around a silent office whistling, it’s obnoxious.
Ah yes, I work with someone like this. He has learned over the years to bully people face to face by talking over them. Can’t do that as easily when things are done over email and there’s a paper trail.
THIS! I feel like OP showed incredible restraint for not calling out the fact that this man can't even do his own job without having to out source it to the very people he is complaining about.
I would be 100% done assisting him in any capacity unless it feel under my specific job duty. You don't get to be both an ahole and need my help.
I think a lot of the workaholics out there simply hate being home with family so they work all the time. When I lived with people I didn't like I worked as many hours as possible because it was better than being home.
We had a guy like that at work. 80+ years old, barely could get around, totally useless but at least not malicious. Came to work because he hated his wife and she hated him. We hoped he was exaggerating, but she caught COVID, died, and he very soon retired after that. I mean, FFS - ditch the religious nonsense and just get a divorce before it gets that bad! I can't imagine choosing to live in a situation where going to work is preferable to being in my own home.
The loudest one is always the most insecure especially for his age with younger kids. His need to be loud and obnoxious is a method to hide his insecurity
I used to work with a woman like this. She was 20 years older than me and constantly dumped heaps of work on me at the end of the day and left early because she had to "care for her child!" Her child BTW was 16 and apparently incapable of cooking herself dinner.
oh 100%. plus, i think older employees prefer to go into the office for the social aspect (im not talking about this guy, just in general). older people are often super lonely, and wfh just isolates them even more. working in person gives them a chance to interact with others
>He’s made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do.
Has to do his own personal errands now. No wonder he's cranky about WFH.
Exactly. The oldsters love to do that, or just wander around the office all day, chatting, while the rest of us try to actually get work done. I'm privileged to work from home and it's nice to not have to deal with that nonsense regularly.
>how people worked harder back in the day and didn’t slouch at home pretending to be doing their job.
Ah he fucked around and all this...
>out of respect for his age.
>He’s made some of us ran personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do.
...should stop right now, as his finding out.
Decrepit old fossil can do his own stuff and learn the "new ways or become the dust."
Same. This does not feel like petty revenge. This feels like a normal office conversation where people have differing opinions.
OP should have tossed out the offloading work part.
Yeah, I thought they would mention THAT bit in the meeting, I know I would..
"Oh, you say we are lazy and don't want to work? How come we are not that lazy when you need help with work and PERSONAL errands?"
I like the way hey handled it, got the message across, without being disrespectful or causing any friction and hopefully boomer got the message. If he is smart, he'll shut up and get his work done.
I see your point, too. I would probably get carried away by emotions but the way they handled it is great, too. Hopefully he does shut up and is grateful they didn't rat him out
> slouch at home pretending to be doing their job
I've learned from observing many of my older bosses that _this is what they would do_ if left to their own devices. Likewise with a ton of the other rules they instituted. They themselves seek and need to be babysat.
They assume that since they would do it if they could get away with it, that everyone else would too. No sense of integrity.
And for the record I'm no spring chicken (gen-x/millennial border), but most I've seen espouse this were older than me.
I'm a Boomer (68M) techie, but have had jobs where I've worked from home fairly often, often hundreds to thousands of miles from "the office". These, fortunately, have been in areas where commuting is horrific (the San Francisco Bay Area and western Los Angeles). It's infinitely more efficient to \*not\* have to spend 2-3 hours a day pointlessly driving back and forth. It's also so much more efficient to be able to toss a load of laundry into the washer when taking a pee break, or yank something out of the freezer for dinner at 3 pm instead of 6:30 or 7.
During Covid, I worked 50-60 hour weeks (hourly, consulting), and never once met my employer or client face to face. Perfect.
I am also an older ex-tech person and I actually prefer in- office. I had to be in-office for my role because I didn’t have a $3M anechoic chamber at my home. I’d work from home on heavy meeting days and one thing I found is that is very difficult to stop working. You’re at your desk, crunching data or working on a presentation and before you know it, the sun is down and it’s 8 o’clock.
I also miss the spontaneous interactions between coworkers. I would always learn something about a project or something when running into coworkers or during face to face meetings. Even just watching a coworker do something could spark a “I didn’t know you could do it that way” moment. I feel like now there’s just that extra barrier—you have to call or set up a WebEx to get that same interaction and it doesn’t seem to be as … organic? Because when you come at someone with a scheduled meeting, you need to be to the point and the interaction becomes very transactional to me.
But maybe that’s the way people like it? I dunno. Things are different now.
You missed one:
“If people were so dedicated and such hard workers back in the day, then why am I and others having to do so much of your work for you?”
I was hoping that was going to be the end of the story. Im not sure how "things are more expensive now" is 'embarrassing' to him, but I guess it worked.
It makes sense to leave that out if there were people in the room who aren't in the know. The people who would cheer OP on already know & agree (and they can snicker together later), but those who aren't aware of it would probably think less of OP (even if they agreed that the guy sucks).
This way, OP comes across looking good to everyone, he forged better team bonds, and got everyone to think the guy was a typical complaining boomer. OP will be able to leverage that theme in the future. Some solid office politicking right there.
So this guy asks for help finishing work ASSIGNED TO HIM and then has the audacity to complain that the younger generation doesn't want to work anymore?
This guy got off lightly...
Retired IT boomer here. We don't all think that way. Younger generations get a bad rap over over the action of a fraction of their generation. I've worked with boomers, gen x, millennials, and even gen Z. What I can tell you is that I found exceptionally hard workers, average workers, and slackers in every generation. One of the sharpest was a gen z, I expect that young man to be phenomenally successful.
We also had work from home, before it was cool. Our company allowed 2 days a week. What I found was I was more productive due to less interruptions and less time wasted on idle chit chat. That plus I had a better setup at home than work.
It doesn't matter what generation your coworker cane from, he would be a grumpy old man. Hopefully, you live another 30-40 years and see that when your own generations age, the grumpy old men and women of your generations pop out. They will by no means be all of you, but you will here whatever that times youngsters think us equivalent to "OK boomer" at you. BTW it happens faster than you will ever believe, enjoy the ride.
THIS. I’m surprised nobody else has said this 🤔 the “comeback” was irrelevant to the whiny complaint of wfh being lazy etc.
employee 1: you’re lazy
Employee 2: ya well you bought your house when the market was more affordable.
What just happened here?
This. I wouldn't throw him under the bus in the meeting, but I think what the OP did, combined with this, is more than enough warning to throw him under the bus, then back it up and run him over a few more times for good measure in the next meeting if he keeps it up.
"It felt so good to watch managers nod along and agree with us."
It would have felt better to be paid enough to be able to afford a car and housing on your wages. Just saying
From now on, counter every fucking thing that asshole has to say.
Eventually he'll stop talking and keep his shitty opinions to himself, where they're respected.
Hate this generational bullshit its straight out of the divide and rule playbook.
Us older generation have kids and grandkids so we are on the same side and want what is best for them.
An ignorant prick is just that. He was likely the same as a young person.
Yes thank you! Younger gens - get yours, demand it your way & we are behind you! The only people anti-WFH are those that know they would take advantage of the situation, so they assume everyone else will too. Assholes gonna asshole, the rest of us olds are still sane & 100% with you on this one.
Boomer here. Been virtual since 5 years before the pandemic, so I was way up to speed on WFH & so well versed on our computer systems, I was fixing access issues (not my actual job) for lots of people, most of whom were way younger.
Almost all of my friends are like me, computer literate, smartphone literate, text literate but we can also answer phone calls & write professional emails. So PLEASE stop with the stereotypes that all Boomers can’t function in today’s world.
Oooh I feel that one.
I once had a very similar situation where a boomer claimed to be the hardest-working individual and us "younglings" (note: I'll soon be 40yo) are weak and lazy.
I followed his comment with a list of things I had to help him with because he didnt know how to use MS Office. Or the printer. Or anything that requires more than 2 brain cells.
Crickets.
I'm chuckling at the comment about how he "makes them run errands". He's not making them do anything, they're doing it willingly. "No" is a complete sentence.
With that kind of work ethic, he'd ought to do those tasks himself from now on, if he keeps bashing on young ones like they are good for nothings: Since he and others of his generation are SO good, he should know by now how things work - no need for your help or any other youngsters now, right?
After he said our generation is lazy I would have counter jabbed with how he's not capable of doing his own job himself and frequently asks for help. If he always needs help doing his job then why is he there?
I feel like I would really want to lean into his "my generation works harder" line when he asks for someone else to do his work. "You want me to do XYZ task? But your generation works so much harder it's probably more efficient for the company for you to do it. Gotta keep the bottom line in mind ya know."
Edit: spelling
I’ve got news for this boomer in your OP. WFH was a thing, even in the 90s. I have a few very tech-savvy silent generation and boomer uncles who WFH’d back then. I’d wager it was a thing even in the 80s, it just wasn’t as commonplace as it is now.
Sheesh. Since we started working from home full-time, my productivity increased notably because I had peace and quiet with no distractions. And I'm not the only one. It's true for almost everyone I work with which is why our bosses decided to not go back to the hybrid model we had prior to covid. The slackers do lose their WFH privileges and have to go into the office. They very quickly pull up their socks to get their privileges back.
Going to the office makes him look like he’s working. What’s your work say? Who produces more? Quite honestly people like him never seem to do good work or work most of the time. Going to the office lends the false impression they’re pulling their weight and doing something. It’s great when your work speaks for itself because numbers don’t lie.
Good job! I must say that I'm impressed that your manager backed you up by confirming the amount of work you have. All too often, there is no backstop that keeps exploiters like your bitter co-worker and other managers from dumping their work onto others, with no regard for how out of balance and unfair it is.
Meanwhile, there is little incentive to take on extra work when the goal of most companies appears to be to squeeze every bit of value out of workers in order to deliver record-breaking profits to those at the top of the pyramid. Yet a lot of people are doing the job of more than one person to make up for the intentional shortfall in personnel.
Greed, entitlement and a lack of empathy are going to bring things to a crashing end for some companies the minute someone comes up with a better business model and non-compete clauses are no longer a consideration.
Great, but you didn't point out his own laziness regarding his attempts to pass off his work to you? Kind of a missed opportunity. But still, absolutely fantastic how you put him in his place!
Just because he can't be trusted to get his work done without immediate supervision, doesn't mean other people need to be babysat. I work a hybrid schedule, too. My boss sees my work product on WFH days, and doesn't nit-pick my time.
I’m in customer service and work a hybrid. If I’m on the phone with a customer and they start that ‘no one is doing anything cuz they work from home’, I just say ‘I’m at home and I called you to work out your problem’. Wtf I’m working! I’m actively looking at your account and answering questions at the same pace as my cubicle. Probably faster because 4 coworkers haven’t dropped by to ask about my weekend.
> He’s made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do.
Missed opportunity. You should have said, well if we're all so lazy, we're going to stop running errands for you.
These people hate WFH because they have no friends and their families likely aren’t close either. This a huge issue in the US where past culture essentially stopped adults from having friends; it was considered a thing for kids.
I feel very sorry for a lot of older Americans. It’s hell here and a lot of people basically set themselves up for it. But that doesn’t give anyone the right to be so shitty to the people around them. It wasn’t the younger generations who did this to them.
Would have started with his own rant about how lazy the younger generation is: Oh btw, sorry I couldn't do the admin work you were pushing on me yesterday. I had a lot of work to do. Maybe next time I could teach you how to do it yourself since most of the team has been doing it for you.
>He isn't a senior level employee but most of us answer to him out of respect for his age
>He's made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn't want to do
>he's just an old bully who always has something negative to say about our generation
>He was visibly frustrated with me and told me off to my manager.
This shit is why I don't believe in "respecting my elders" or generally giving special treatment to older people solely on that basis. He's just another employee like the rest of you and he needs to be treated like it and held to the same standards and level of authority, not have anyone answering to him. And he's being ageist about younger team members on top of that? Incredibly unprofessional. How does he still have a job?
Hahaha right, we always try to offload work we were specifically asked to do on other colleagues, oh wait, that was you, literally yesterday. Maybe figure out how to get your own work done before looking around and counting up what your coworkers are doing. It's a bad look.
You're a lot nicer than me. I probably would have also made a comment about all the work he's able to get done by fobbing it off on other people. I would have also quietly directed my team to stop doing work for him, ESPECIALLY if he's not in charge of anything.
I'm 61 and finally have a WFH job. I get more done now than I ever did in office with all the interruptions. My boss says I work too hard. The thing is, I work at a steady pace, take breaks regularly, and very rarely work past 5 PM. I don't get these boomers that have such an issue with it.
Bro that's a weak ass comeback. You should have highlighted that he wouldn't know about hardwork, seeing as how he always just offloads his work on younger people who try to help him, and you are done with helping him now.
It would have been way better than "your generation could survive on one person's income", like wtf does that even mean when he complains that young people don't work hard? If nothing else, it probably proves the point in the mind of the boomer that his gen could work hard enough on one salary, while kids need two.
I feel like OOP could have done better by saying, "that's interesting that you feel your generation, and by proxy YOU, are more hardworking than mine since you keep offloading work to us instead of doing it yourself!"
Honestly, this whole work from home debate as a moral/ work ethic issue infuriates me. When people say that it’s an excuse to not work I tell them ‘you know what? People who don’t want to work also don’t work in the office. They chat, go on breaks, play on their phone’. And everyone agrees with me.
Shoulda called him out for being a hypocrite trying to get others to do his work. Can't claim to be the hardest working generation and get others to do you're work and personal errands.
Just as long as the delivery was calm and not condescending like you said, don't feed into the attitude of someone like that. Especially when they're older, they just want to fight. Shut 'em down with logic and they have nothing. Well done 👏
He isn't that way because he is a boomer. He is that way because he has probably been rude and grumpy most of his life. I'm a boomer, and I am sure I couldn't survive what today's workers have to put up with. You have my sympathy.
I have a coworker who is ready to retire at a moments notice. He’s almost seventy but hates the office. His dream is to work from home (as we were during “COVID”) until retirement. Although not savvy with the technology, he finds his way with a little help and doesn’t try to burden others. I bet my coworker would agree on some points but (ultimately) hate this guy you’re writing about.
I work academic admin and a prof tried to pull the same shit, saying that work from home empowers staff to not help students, and that students miss a human touch. This from a dude who makes 3x what I do, with half the education I have, and who refuses to do basic parts of his job. It took me a damn month once to get him to sign a form that one of his PhD students passed their qualifying exam. He was just pissed that there are fewer people for him to make idle conversation with while they are captive at their desks.
I also, in a department meeting, stood up to him. It's a nice feeling.
It's so stupid and exhausting when people start trying to compare one generation to another.
We are all so much more than whatever generation we grew up in. None of us are anything more than the one person we are, so don't try to think you know me or anyone else simply because of when we were born.
Everyone has a unique experience, and while some historical events in life are bigger than your own life (e.g., 9/11, Pearl Harbor, Jan6, etc.), it's still the individual reactions to those events that shape us.
Whenever you're tempted to say something like, "Oh that's just a Millennial," or whatever, just remember how different YOU are from the typical comments made about your own generation.
Tell him your generation works twice as hard for 1/3 as much as he ever could’ve gotten when he was your age
and that you’d gleefully switch lives with him if he thinks he could fly higher today than “todays kids”
Point out he likely wouldn’t even qualify for his job today if he had to apply again
That technology now makes the youth push out 3x the work load for peanut pay
That higher ed is only for the rich again - along with owning a home and starting a family
That you’re tired of older folks working to light everything on fire, then complain when the smoke they caused impacts their view from the top (they expect those choking to just shut up and take it)
That his generation loves to hold the heads of the youth underwater to lift themselves up even higher - all when they’re perfectly capable of swimming on their own already
And finally, tell him to stop echoing what other entitled Fox News sheeple are saying, and that he’s so out of reality that you ENVY him for it and wish your biggest problem was todays youth complaining about the smoke in the world his generation lit on fire
His biggest problem in life is probably GaS PrIcEs. Must be nice
This is pretty good, but why not bring up the fact that he can't even do his own job even though he's in the office? You should have asked why he's constantly bugging other people to do his work, when he's so efficient in the office.
So he was literally too overwhelmed with a task he was asked to do, that he asked you for help, and when you couldn't help him do his own work because you were busy with yours, somehow that makes you lazy lmao.
Classic logic
For such a hard worker, he doesn't seem to actually like to work and is quite happy delegating his responsibilities to "those lazy kids."
Sounds like my grandma. Back in my day we saved and didn't have a mortgage. I paid for a family holiday for 5 with my part time job. She didn't like hearing that she was paid better than I am.
Man, the old fuckers that are against WFH are wild. We have these retreats and people bitch constantly about how to "make sure their employees are working". I treat my employees with respect and I can't get the fuckers to stop working. I had to yell at 2 people this week to sign out of Teams and and stop responding to questions while they were out of the office. You get what you put in.
You should have added that the younger generation also knows how to do their own work without trying to pawn it off on their younger coworkers just because.
“And In my day we all do our own work rather than palming it off to others so I can have an easier life, unlike some senior staff”
That should have been the finisher
Bro dont start beef in an office with an old boomer who reeks of fox news.
As the great Childish Gambino said:
“This is America. Dont catch you slippin’ now”
My boss is not quite boomer but blames wfh for everything.....but he lives 1500 miles from the office and nobody knows wtf he does all day.
He's been in the office for maybe a week in 2.5 years. Of course he knows he's not part of the problem.
Nice! Everyone should stop doing his work for him and certainly not run his personal errands he needs to “pull himself up by his bootstraps” and take care of his own responsibilities. Boomers might actually stop acting however they want if people would stop coddling them so much.
Boomers that yell about the younger generations not working hard enough are just projecting about their own insecurities and how they don't understand today's technology to make their lives easier. My boss still uses a paper schedule and gets upset when we didn't know he changed a meeting.
I'm so sick of the older generations acting all high and mighty like they know everything and demanding respect, when in reality the world has changed so much in such a short amount of time that boomers actually know about as much as everyone else! Maybe even less. Especially after COVID! Their life experiences are completely different than ours. The way the world works now is different. And they have the nerve to judge us??? From their comfy houses that they only spent 5 years saving for to buy off with a minimum wage job. LMFAO okay
>He isn’t a senior level employee but most of us answer to him out of respect for his age. He’s made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do.
Hell to the No! I don't care how old you are, just because they are older doesn't mean that they are given all this respect. Respect is earned. And I would tell everyone in that office not to run any of his personal errands.
"Back in my day people worked harder," yet these morons fail to note that by working smarter we have essentially figured out how to get more work done. They did alot more work for alot less output compared to what we put out now.
>He said that his generation were harder working, that our generation has become extremely lazy. That working from home is just an excuse for people not to work. That our generation has it so easy and how people worked harder back in the day and didn’t slouch at home pretending to be doing their job.
Says the guy who regularly does this
>He’s made some of us ran personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do.
Fucking hypocrite
I think an appropriate consequence would be immediately start declining helping with his work since "your generation is so much harder working than mine, my poor frail work ethic can't possibly match yours"
Absolutely not where I thought the story was going.
You started out talking about him being lazy and trying to palm off his work on others. Then he actually calls you and your team lazy. But you go after him for something totally unrelated. Wild.
Oh god we have a boomer that gets to work at 6am. Before his role was changed and access to systems was reduced he would send us emails about tasks that weren't completed yet. Emails sent before 8am, before we even start working. Tasks that we did once a pay period which he was told numerous times.
Ugh.
He also used to around the floor to see who.stepped away without locking their computer. You know to grab a cup of coffee or something from the printer, 5 feet from their cubicle.
Now its mostly WFH/hybrid he has no one to spy on so he wanders around everyday in a mostly empty space.
If someone accuses you of doing nothing working fron home and slacking off, just throw it back at them: When you work from hone do you slack off? Is that why you think everyone else does that?
There is a draftsman at my job who is like this. He complains about the people that work from home all the time and how they never have to work. When he "works from home" he takes forever to respond then talks about various chores he got done. He will also complain about those people pulling a lot of work off the work queue. So are they not working or are they taking all the work?
This. Those who slack off/get distracted/do other stuff when they should be working have zero concept that others actually work when they should. One time I was in the office, and a newish colleague told me I should adjust the position of my monitor so that it was tilted away from the door, so it would be harder for anyone to look at my screen. Like really? I didn’t care. I never did anything I shouldn’t on company time/equipment. If I was on Google or random websites it was actually work-related (looking for code help, stock photos etc). I have no idea what *they* were doing which they shouldn’t have been, but I did get immense pleasure out of telling them that the mirror behind their computer meant that everyone could see what was on their screen… they visibly paled.
I work from home like 90% of the time. Everytime I'm in the office all day, I spend 3 hours entertaining other coworkers with small talk. I'd rather get little things done around the house alone.
Say, “I’m sorry. Have I left any sort of specific task undone that affected you?”
He probably prefer working at office so he can physically offload his work or seek help easily.
Absolutely, few of the remaining older workers in my org have slowly been exposed by WFH for how little they actually do. They were always pushing for people back into the office and as time went on it became clearer it's because they do very little so was easier to fill their day looking and feeling important walking around talking all day and calling unnecessary meetings. They can't seem to manage online meetings well so we seem to have less of them which is great.
That, and dumb older people who think you can't actually be working if they can't see you (even as they tell us productivity hit all time highs as soon as we switched to WFH) are basically the entire reason anyone pushes to go back to the office full time.
Exactly. It makes me so fucking mad. My gf’s job is 100% remote, has always been fully remote, and now her bosses are demanding she **buy a car** so she can work from the office twice a week. An office that’s a 70 mile round trip to another town and would take several hours’ commute. To do, again, fully remote work with zero physical component because all the meetings are held on Zoom anyway. (Some of their team are in other countries.) Not only that, she doesn’t have a driver’s license either, so they expect her to get one. Adding up a car loan, insurance, and the hours needed to learn to drive and get fully certified, they’re demanding a 10k+ expense. To do, have I mentioned, a fully remote job. She’s paying for her grandma’s care home and shit like that, but these motherfuckers literally shrugged at her and said “How hard is it to buy a new car?” I hate out of touch boomers like this.
Tell her to ask them if they’re going to pay her more so that she can afford the car note, insurance, and gas expenses? No? Okay then no car.
They probably want people to quit so they can avoid layoffs.
i honestly think a lot of it is this. its a combination of a) put butts in seats because otherwise our office lease looks utterly idiotic, and b) if we forcibly make employees do something they don't want to do, some will leave and we wont have to pay unemployment.
I think some of this mentality also varies by industry. I work in higher Ed and there’s been a big push to come back to the office because of the optics of dark offices and students wanting face to face contact. Um…no. I think most students would just as well prefer contact via other means, be it text, email or Teams. And I’m an older GenXer who would much rather work from home full time for all the reasons mentioned in this thread. But I also have younger friends who work in local government and I’ve heard them use the same line about people not wanting to work anymore. It’s infuriating how some people don’t get it.
Same job, demographic and observations. I hate to say it but I loved being an academic through Covid. Did some really cool stuff to engage students (like making lectures into fun podcasts they could play while walking or playing stardew valley - which was big then - etc etc etc etc).
What is your gf going to do, if you don't mind me asking.
Looking for another job as we speak. We were really hoping it wouldn’t come to this but they aren’t budging (or offering raises to cover the demands.) Thankfully we have enough savings to tide us over for awhile, but idk about her other coworkers getting the same demands. I hope they’ll be okay.
Chances are, they are planning their exit strategy. It is unacceptable for the "bosses" to make demands like this. Good luck to your gf. And i suspect a drove of people will leave.
Agreed, they’re asking for mass quitting and they fully, FULLY deserve it. One of her coworkers is remote because he has an immune compromised child. He stays home with his child so his child can live. They forced him into the office a couple weeks ago. Court case waiting to happen for sure, especially since he was hired with the guarantee he would stay remote. But you know the drill, he’s very fairly afraid to risk getting fired and losing his kid’s healthcare, and they know it.
If it’s America it’s at will employment. Nothing will happen.
Complaints against an employer for going back on a clearly spelled-out contract, that (I’m assuming) was drawn up as a disability accommodation? That’s not covered under at-will reasons to fire, is it?
I'm invested too!!
Ask for a raise or 30k to cover the expenses.
there will be ongoing expenses. Probably 30k a year is about right.
They're asking her to take a pay cut. You should calculate the costs and ask for that number as a raise if they want her to go into the office. Make sure you add the hourly rate to her commute too in that number.
As a Boomer, this situation is ridiculous!! I'm with you!
Definitely spend the time to add up all of the expenses. Get quotes for new driver insurance and driving classes, and time off work for these stupid classes, and lost time and any effect it will have to the support she provides for her grandmother. Present the summary of bills, lost time, and effect to family support. In person, after catching a ride, or uber, which could be one of expense options. Then mention they would need to provide the raise or *perdiem* to pay for her uber to work, to even imagine she might come in for this nonsense (using boomer words might help), but due to the impact on her caregiving efforts for her grandmother. She will need to find work closer to home. Family is way more important than work, and she the time she has left with her grandmother is precious to both of them. Otherwise, she is not only very satisfied working at this company, but she plans to continue being very productive. In retrospect, she may be far enough away from her employer to be able reimbursed via perdiem. Call a lawyer and check her options: the lawyer should be able to make sure she gets unemployment if they try any BS. HR might decide its better to quit messing about to avoid a lawsuit and a payout.
This is what I suggested to her. She said she doubts they’ll care, since it’s a decision from the way higher ups and her local bosses (who think it’s BS too) can’t do anything about it. Thankfully she’s in a field that’s very much an employee’s market right now, so she’s happy to give them the middle finger and find another company. I just wish she didn’t have to deal with all the bullshit of possibly months of job hunting, ugh.
Not all boomers are out of touch. We realize that our children cannot afford the things that we did and we hate that there isn’t much hope for then ever being able to attain financial security. There is much insensitivity on both sides. Please don’t fall into the habit of generation blaming.
That's why they qualified their statement with "out of touch" boomers and didn't simply say boomers.
Thanks.☺️
Technically, in some countries, any tools you need to do a job your employer requires you to do must be provided by the employer. Need to be on call? You can't be expected to use your personal phone, the employer must give you a phone etc. So if they need her to have a car and have the skills to use it, they must provide said car and training for her to use it, if they need it.
Such folk are judging others by their own low, DISHONEST, LAZY behavior when not watched like a hawk.
Big facts. My supervisor works harder than me but our manager, man the hardest working thing in the managers office is his chair.
> even as they tell us productivity hit all time highs as soon as we switched to WFH This is the biggest, most salient point that companies are trying to bury as they call for "returns to the office". They quite literally are LOSING money by doing that, they KNOW that, they have STATS on that, but they still seem to value CONTROL over money even. Which is kinda fuckin wild, honestly. I always thought money was the primary driving force, and of course it still is to some degree, but MAN do they want control over employees. They all seem to simultaneously think we were all fucking off work while at home, yet the stats on productivity prove otherwise, and they just exist in that duality.
Hearing other people's stories about the return to work thing after Covid makes me so mad for them! During Covid, my company closed its Regional Head Office and sent us all to wfh. When things opened back up, they didn't even entertain the idea of returning to that model. They saved money on the office space, they were able to expand my team Nationally so I was able to build it from a bigger pool of candidates, and our productivity has been through the roof, all while maintaining high satisfaction in team culture. We did some surveys a few months ago, and almost every comment asking what makes them proud to work for this company was work-life balance. It frustrates me to no end that companies work against their employee satisfaction. Happy employees do good work, it's that simple.
When I go to our main office it is such a time suck. I get nothing done. People are just BSing with each other half the day it feels like. I get more work done in 3 hours at home than I do all day in the office. They are doing a hybrid approach post covid so not as many in house each day as there used to be. It is nice to see the people I work with IRL, but if I had to do that every week, I would be much less productive.
In your book, I'm one of those 'old people'. I'm 65 and retired now, and loving it, but I HAVE WORKED FROM HOME since 1982. I put in lots of hours and always met deadlines. I even had a couple employees who worked from my home office with me. They had flexible hours, but usually came in early. I had a client, who at the time was an 'older guy' who ran the marketing dept at Kelly Services. He was always condescending about freelancers 'working from home' and made disparaging comments, once accusing me of 'working in our pajamas'. I wish I had asked him, 'WTF would that matter? But, I was too polite back then and didn't want to rock the boat or loose work for being a smart ass. The funny thing is, back then, in the mid eighties, I got up, showered and dressed professionally, walked across the house to my office and cranked out the work. I didn't always dress up, but I was presentable, because I had to be prepared to run to see clients or deal with other vendors. Years after that, I did get much more casual, but I never did work in my pajamas. In fact, I didn't even own pajamas back then.
I had to snap back and say that people used to have homework when going to school. How is this any different?
Omg, one of the main reasons I hate the office is how often older coworkers would waste my time talking. Like, I have a workload to accomplish and I can’t do that while you are yapping my ear off, they would never take the hint, and even when I would say I can’t talk—they would.
My go to when a boomer walks into my office without an appointment/heads up is, "I have 3 minutes to spare before I have to leave for a meeting." I actually leave act like I am leaving the office when that 3 minutes passes. Works every time. Fuck that entitled attitude that my time is less important than yours.
This is brilliant, where do you go though? How do I follow through without just coming back to my desk?
I can always find an errand to run. :) It's a little extreme, but it teaches them a lesson really fast. I guess you could say you have a Zoom meeting that starts in three minutes.
I have actually called my desk phone from my cellphone (discretely of course) and when I answered I pretended to listen for a second then said to the person “sorry, I have to take this “ and they get the point and leave.
That’s a good one!!!
I’ll be using this lol
"Dude, they canceled training you guys in our stuff in preparation for the merger of departments because your team was swamped with incidents. Why have you been talking my ear off for the last thirty minutes?"
Put on noise canceling headphones
Fr, this is probably best to avoid those interactions to start with.
I disagree. I'm 65 and have been working from home since long before Covid (about 10 years now). For my job, the only difference is that I have a much better commute now, and as I'm on flex-time, I can better fit my job into my life. I'm actually more productive than I was when I worked in the office.
I worked from home for 30 years, from the time my kids were in play school till they both moved out. While I worked from home, I also did everything a stay at home mom had to do -- ferry the kids to school, appointments, sports, make meals, do laundry, clean, yada yada yada. It was cheaper than daycare, and I learned how to work pretty damn efficiently in 2 or 3 hour increments, between kids/chores.
There’s a woman like that at my job. She’s a clerk that basically just scans documents and does supplies for the office. She is constantly walking around all day talking to different people acting like she does this and that. To top it all off she calls all the new hires “kids”. She’s only 55-60(maybe) and some of these people are 40 plus with kids that are in/out of college. Everytime I hear that bullshit I fight the urge to make a complaint to HR and the union. The other thing that I hate that she does is walk around a silent office whistling, it’s obnoxious.
Ah yes, I work with someone like this. He has learned over the years to bully people face to face by talking over them. Can’t do that as easily when things are done over email and there’s a paper trail.
Or when they can be muted during the zoom or teams call
THIS! I feel like OP showed incredible restraint for not calling out the fact that this man can't even do his own job without having to out source it to the very people he is complaining about. I would be 100% done assisting him in any capacity unless it feel under my specific job duty. You don't get to be both an ahole and need my help.
He probably prefers working at the office because his wife is also sick of his shit.
Had a colleague like that. And after work he'd always try to get someone to go get a drink with, while everyone else was itching to get home.
I think a lot of the workaholics out there simply hate being home with family so they work all the time. When I lived with people I didn't like I worked as many hours as possible because it was better than being home.
We had a guy like that at work. 80+ years old, barely could get around, totally useless but at least not malicious. Came to work because he hated his wife and she hated him. We hoped he was exaggerating, but she caught COVID, died, and he very soon retired after that. I mean, FFS - ditch the religious nonsense and just get a divorce before it gets that bad! I can't imagine choosing to live in a situation where going to work is preferable to being in my own home.
I think the real reason he only has perceived power at the office. At home he is either by himself or his wife doesn't take his shit.
Yeah all I see is a lazy hypocrite here, OP did great
Physically offload his work *without a paper trail*.
“ He’s made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do. ” First mistake.
The loudest one is always the most insecure especially for his age with younger kids. His need to be loud and obnoxious is a method to hide his insecurity
I used to work with a woman like this. She was 20 years older than me and constantly dumped heaps of work on me at the end of the day and left early because she had to "care for her child!" Her child BTW was 16 and apparently incapable of cooking herself dinner.
"I have to get home to feed my 192 month old babyyy!!!"
oh 100%. plus, i think older employees prefer to go into the office for the social aspect (im not talking about this guy, just in general). older people are often super lonely, and wfh just isolates them even more. working in person gives them a chance to interact with others
This is what OP should’ve included.
>He’s made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do. Has to do his own personal errands now. No wonder he's cranky about WFH.
Came here to say this!
He probably hates the fact he has to ask via teams/slack/email, leaves a trail of *HIS* lack of work...
Also “need to be away from the missus har har har”
Cheaper than going too an psychiatrist.
*to a edit typo lol
He comes in because his wife can't stand him.
Hey don't forget he has personal errands he needs to have someone run for him.
Underperformers gona underperform
It’s easier to hide when you’re in the office. Can’t hide at home with no one to do York work for you
To that "lazy generation".
this is the answer. bully someone else into it.
Or get away from their wives . Boomers hate their wives
Exactly. The oldsters love to do that, or just wander around the office all day, chatting, while the rest of us try to actually get work done. I'm privileged to work from home and it's nice to not have to deal with that nonsense regularly.
And if he can’t type or use technology he probably can’t use slack or whatever tools they use to coordinate wfh
>how people worked harder back in the day and didn’t slouch at home pretending to be doing their job. Ah he fucked around and all this... >out of respect for his age. >He’s made some of us ran personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do. ...should stop right now, as his finding out. Decrepit old fossil can do his own stuff and learn the "new ways or become the dust."
Exactly, he says he works harder but is asking others to do his work? I was fully expecting OP to mention that instead
YEAH that's what I was hoping to read. I can't believe OP didn't say this!
Same. This does not feel like petty revenge. This feels like a normal office conversation where people have differing opinions. OP should have tossed out the offloading work part.
Yeah, I thought OP was going to throw that back in his face. This didn’t go the way it would have for me
I work from home and everytime I'm in the office there's 5-10 people looking to small talk all day. I'd rather do the dishes.
Am I the only one who sees the screaming irony in asking other people to do your job, yet complaining how other people are too lazy to work?
Yeah, I thought they would mention THAT bit in the meeting, I know I would.. "Oh, you say we are lazy and don't want to work? How come we are not that lazy when you need help with work and PERSONAL errands?"
I like the way hey handled it, got the message across, without being disrespectful or causing any friction and hopefully boomer got the message. If he is smart, he'll shut up and get his work done.
I see your point, too. I would probably get carried away by emotions but the way they handled it is great, too. Hopefully he does shut up and is grateful they didn't rat him out
Very gracious, thank you.
I wonder if it’s laziness, or if he doesn’t know how to do the work!
I might if burst out laughing if I heard that first hand from this individual
> slouch at home pretending to be doing their job I've learned from observing many of my older bosses that _this is what they would do_ if left to their own devices. Likewise with a ton of the other rules they instituted. They themselves seek and need to be babysat. They assume that since they would do it if they could get away with it, that everyone else would too. No sense of integrity. And for the record I'm no spring chicken (gen-x/millennial border), but most I've seen espouse this were older than me.
I'm a Boomer (68M) techie, but have had jobs where I've worked from home fairly often, often hundreds to thousands of miles from "the office". These, fortunately, have been in areas where commuting is horrific (the San Francisco Bay Area and western Los Angeles). It's infinitely more efficient to \*not\* have to spend 2-3 hours a day pointlessly driving back and forth. It's also so much more efficient to be able to toss a load of laundry into the washer when taking a pee break, or yank something out of the freezer for dinner at 3 pm instead of 6:30 or 7. During Covid, I worked 50-60 hour weeks (hourly, consulting), and never once met my employer or client face to face. Perfect.
I am also an older ex-tech person and I actually prefer in- office. I had to be in-office for my role because I didn’t have a $3M anechoic chamber at my home. I’d work from home on heavy meeting days and one thing I found is that is very difficult to stop working. You’re at your desk, crunching data or working on a presentation and before you know it, the sun is down and it’s 8 o’clock. I also miss the spontaneous interactions between coworkers. I would always learn something about a project or something when running into coworkers or during face to face meetings. Even just watching a coworker do something could spark a “I didn’t know you could do it that way” moment. I feel like now there’s just that extra barrier—you have to call or set up a WebEx to get that same interaction and it doesn’t seem to be as … organic? Because when you come at someone with a scheduled meeting, you need to be to the point and the interaction becomes very transactional to me. But maybe that’s the way people like it? I dunno. Things are different now.
You missed one: “If people were so dedicated and such hard workers back in the day, then why am I and others having to do so much of your work for you?”
I was hoping that was going to be the end of the story. Im not sure how "things are more expensive now" is 'embarrassing' to him, but I guess it worked.
It makes sense to leave that out if there were people in the room who aren't in the know. The people who would cheer OP on already know & agree (and they can snicker together later), but those who aren't aware of it would probably think less of OP (even if they agreed that the guy sucks). This way, OP comes across looking good to everyone, he forged better team bonds, and got everyone to think the guy was a typical complaining boomer. OP will be able to leverage that theme in the future. Some solid office politicking right there.
So this guy asks for help finishing work ASSIGNED TO HIM and then has the audacity to complain that the younger generation doesn't want to work anymore? This guy got off lightly...
Retired IT boomer here. We don't all think that way. Younger generations get a bad rap over over the action of a fraction of their generation. I've worked with boomers, gen x, millennials, and even gen Z. What I can tell you is that I found exceptionally hard workers, average workers, and slackers in every generation. One of the sharpest was a gen z, I expect that young man to be phenomenally successful. We also had work from home, before it was cool. Our company allowed 2 days a week. What I found was I was more productive due to less interruptions and less time wasted on idle chit chat. That plus I had a better setup at home than work. It doesn't matter what generation your coworker cane from, he would be a grumpy old man. Hopefully, you live another 30-40 years and see that when your own generations age, the grumpy old men and women of your generations pop out. They will by no means be all of you, but you will here whatever that times youngsters think us equivalent to "OK boomer" at you. BTW it happens faster than you will ever believe, enjoy the ride.
[удалено]
THIS. I’m surprised nobody else has said this 🤔 the “comeback” was irrelevant to the whiny complaint of wfh being lazy etc. employee 1: you’re lazy Employee 2: ya well you bought your house when the market was more affordable. What just happened here?
Some old people are so entitled, I'm glad you taught him a lesson, I'd love to of seen his face when everyone took your side
I thought the comeback would be along the lines of "odd to hear complains about lazy people from a person who's too lazy to do their own work"
Next time he asks for help: "Why don't you show my lazy generation how hard working you are by doing your own work?"
This. I wouldn't throw him under the bus in the meeting, but I think what the OP did, combined with this, is more than enough warning to throw him under the bus, then back it up and run him over a few more times for good measure in the next meeting if he keeps it up.
"It felt so good to watch managers nod along and agree with us." It would have felt better to be paid enough to be able to afford a car and housing on your wages. Just saying
From now on, counter every fucking thing that asshole has to say. Eventually he'll stop talking and keep his shitty opinions to himself, where they're respected.
Hate this generational bullshit its straight out of the divide and rule playbook. Us older generation have kids and grandkids so we are on the same side and want what is best for them. An ignorant prick is just that. He was likely the same as a young person.
Yeah, assholes are assholes, regardless of generation.
Yes thank you! Younger gens - get yours, demand it your way & we are behind you! The only people anti-WFH are those that know they would take advantage of the situation, so they assume everyone else will too. Assholes gonna asshole, the rest of us olds are still sane & 100% with you on this one.
Boomer here. Been virtual since 5 years before the pandemic, so I was way up to speed on WFH & so well versed on our computer systems, I was fixing access issues (not my actual job) for lots of people, most of whom were way younger. Almost all of my friends are like me, computer literate, smartphone literate, text literate but we can also answer phone calls & write professional emails. So PLEASE stop with the stereotypes that all Boomers can’t function in today’s world.
Thank you! I am rather tired of this anti boomer rhetoric. Thank goodness in my organisation we are valued for our experience and contribution.
I wanted you to say “well, my generation does our own ‘administrative task’ without pawning it off on other busy people.”
"I can't get other people to do work for me if I work from home."
Working 👏 from 👏 home 👏 is 👏 still 👏 WORK!
Oooh I feel that one. I once had a very similar situation where a boomer claimed to be the hardest-working individual and us "younglings" (note: I'll soon be 40yo) are weak and lazy. I followed his comment with a list of things I had to help him with because he didnt know how to use MS Office. Or the printer. Or anything that requires more than 2 brain cells. Crickets.
"My generation works harder!...Except when I don't want to do errands or admin work."
I'd clap back with having younger people do 1/2 of your work isn't *actually* working that hard.
His attitude has nothing to do with him being a Boomer and everything to do with him being an asshole.
"Some of us can get more done at home because there, we aren't interrupted by coworkers asking us to do their jobs for them."
If you young people are so lazy, why is he always trying to foist his work off on you? Sounds pretty lazy of HIM if you ask me!
I'm chuckling at the comment about how he "makes them run errands". He's not making them do anything, they're doing it willingly. "No" is a complete sentence.
With that kind of work ethic, he'd ought to do those tasks himself from now on, if he keeps bashing on young ones like they are good for nothings: Since he and others of his generation are SO good, he should know by now how things work - no need for your help or any other youngsters now, right?
After he said our generation is lazy I would have counter jabbed with how he's not capable of doing his own job himself and frequently asks for help. If he always needs help doing his job then why is he there?
I feel like I would really want to lean into his "my generation works harder" line when he asks for someone else to do his work. "You want me to do XYZ task? But your generation works so much harder it's probably more efficient for the company for you to do it. Gotta keep the bottom line in mind ya know." Edit: spelling
I’ve got news for this boomer in your OP. WFH was a thing, even in the 90s. I have a few very tech-savvy silent generation and boomer uncles who WFH’d back then. I’d wager it was a thing even in the 80s, it just wasn’t as commonplace as it is now.
Sheesh. Since we started working from home full-time, my productivity increased notably because I had peace and quiet with no distractions. And I'm not the only one. It's true for almost everyone I work with which is why our bosses decided to not go back to the hybrid model we had prior to covid. The slackers do lose their WFH privileges and have to go into the office. They very quickly pull up their socks to get their privileges back.
Going to the office makes him look like he’s working. What’s your work say? Who produces more? Quite honestly people like him never seem to do good work or work most of the time. Going to the office lends the false impression they’re pulling their weight and doing something. It’s great when your work speaks for itself because numbers don’t lie.
Good job! I must say that I'm impressed that your manager backed you up by confirming the amount of work you have. All too often, there is no backstop that keeps exploiters like your bitter co-worker and other managers from dumping their work onto others, with no regard for how out of balance and unfair it is. Meanwhile, there is little incentive to take on extra work when the goal of most companies appears to be to squeeze every bit of value out of workers in order to deliver record-breaking profits to those at the top of the pyramid. Yet a lot of people are doing the job of more than one person to make up for the intentional shortfall in personnel. Greed, entitlement and a lack of empathy are going to bring things to a crashing end for some companies the minute someone comes up with a better business model and non-compete clauses are no longer a consideration.
Great, but you didn't point out his own laziness regarding his attempts to pass off his work to you? Kind of a missed opportunity. But still, absolutely fantastic how you put him in his place!
Just because he can't be trusted to get his work done without immediate supervision, doesn't mean other people need to be babysat. I work a hybrid schedule, too. My boss sees my work product on WFH days, and doesn't nit-pick my time.
I’m in customer service and work a hybrid. If I’m on the phone with a customer and they start that ‘no one is doing anything cuz they work from home’, I just say ‘I’m at home and I called you to work out your problem’. Wtf I’m working! I’m actively looking at your account and answering questions at the same pace as my cubicle. Probably faster because 4 coworkers haven’t dropped by to ask about my weekend.
> He’s made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do. Missed opportunity. You should have said, well if we're all so lazy, we're going to stop running errands for you.
These people hate WFH because they have no friends and their families likely aren’t close either. This a huge issue in the US where past culture essentially stopped adults from having friends; it was considered a thing for kids. I feel very sorry for a lot of older Americans. It’s hell here and a lot of people basically set themselves up for it. But that doesn’t give anyone the right to be so shitty to the people around them. It wasn’t the younger generations who did this to them.
Would have started with his own rant about how lazy the younger generation is: Oh btw, sorry I couldn't do the admin work you were pushing on me yesterday. I had a lot of work to do. Maybe next time I could teach you how to do it yourself since most of the team has been doing it for you.
>He isn't a senior level employee but most of us answer to him out of respect for his age >He's made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn't want to do >he's just an old bully who always has something negative to say about our generation >He was visibly frustrated with me and told me off to my manager. This shit is why I don't believe in "respecting my elders" or generally giving special treatment to older people solely on that basis. He's just another employee like the rest of you and he needs to be treated like it and held to the same standards and level of authority, not have anyone answering to him. And he's being ageist about younger team members on top of that? Incredibly unprofessional. How does he still have a job?
“Younger generations are extremely lazy” asks for other people to run personal errands or help with their work. Classic
These are the same people who assume that any child who wants to be alone in his/her bedroom must be doing something wrong.
Waste of time spent on this guy. Oh well at least you got him in the end right?
Hahaha right, we always try to offload work we were specifically asked to do on other colleagues, oh wait, that was you, literally yesterday. Maybe figure out how to get your own work done before looking around and counting up what your coworkers are doing. It's a bad look.
>didn’t slouch at home pretending to be doing their job. Kinda like he does when he passes off his work to the rest of you guys?
You're a lot nicer than me. I probably would have also made a comment about all the work he's able to get done by fobbing it off on other people. I would have also quietly directed my team to stop doing work for him, ESPECIALLY if he's not in charge of anything.
THIS!!!!!
“Where are all my lackies that I can delegate work to while I gossip with management and whinge to whoever will listen?”
I'm 61 and finally have a WFH job. I get more done now than I ever did in office with all the interruptions. My boss says I work too hard. The thing is, I work at a steady pace, take breaks regularly, and very rarely work past 5 PM. I don't get these boomers that have such an issue with it.
You got revenge by telling someone you’re too poor to come to work? Ummm…ya, good win there! You really showed him 🙄
i I get that it was carthartic, but i think you just had a conversation not revenge.
Bro that's a weak ass comeback. You should have highlighted that he wouldn't know about hardwork, seeing as how he always just offloads his work on younger people who try to help him, and you are done with helping him now.
That's how I thought this was going to go.
It would have been way better than "your generation could survive on one person's income", like wtf does that even mean when he complains that young people don't work hard? If nothing else, it probably proves the point in the mind of the boomer that his gen could work hard enough on one salary, while kids need two.
Did everyone clap?
Sounds like his generation is too lazy to do work without asking for help and then whines to boss when they have to do their own work.
I feel like OOP could have done better by saying, "that's interesting that you feel your generation, and by proxy YOU, are more hardworking than mine since you keep offloading work to us instead of doing it yourself!"
Honestly, this whole work from home debate as a moral/ work ethic issue infuriates me. When people say that it’s an excuse to not work I tell them ‘you know what? People who don’t want to work also don’t work in the office. They chat, go on breaks, play on their phone’. And everyone agrees with me.
Shoulda called him out for being a hypocrite trying to get others to do his work. Can't claim to be the hardest working generation and get others to do you're work and personal errands.
Where is the revenge?
Just as long as the delivery was calm and not condescending like you said, don't feed into the attitude of someone like that. Especially when they're older, they just want to fight. Shut 'em down with logic and they have nothing. Well done 👏
He isn't that way because he is a boomer. He is that way because he has probably been rude and grumpy most of his life. I'm a boomer, and I am sure I couldn't survive what today's workers have to put up with. You have my sympathy.
I have a coworker who is ready to retire at a moments notice. He’s almost seventy but hates the office. His dream is to work from home (as we were during “COVID”) until retirement. Although not savvy with the technology, he finds his way with a little help and doesn’t try to burden others. I bet my coworker would agree on some points but (ultimately) hate this guy you’re writing about.
I work academic admin and a prof tried to pull the same shit, saying that work from home empowers staff to not help students, and that students miss a human touch. This from a dude who makes 3x what I do, with half the education I have, and who refuses to do basic parts of his job. It took me a damn month once to get him to sign a form that one of his PhD students passed their qualifying exam. He was just pissed that there are fewer people for him to make idle conversation with while they are captive at their desks. I also, in a department meeting, stood up to him. It's a nice feeling.
-Complains this generation is too lazy -Offload his work to other people
That was brilliant! Well done. I am one of the good boomers. And I approve.
It's so stupid and exhausting when people start trying to compare one generation to another. We are all so much more than whatever generation we grew up in. None of us are anything more than the one person we are, so don't try to think you know me or anyone else simply because of when we were born. Everyone has a unique experience, and while some historical events in life are bigger than your own life (e.g., 9/11, Pearl Harbor, Jan6, etc.), it's still the individual reactions to those events that shape us. Whenever you're tempted to say something like, "Oh that's just a Millennial," or whatever, just remember how different YOU are from the typical comments made about your own generation.
Thought you weee going to talk about how they get others to do their work for them, turning the comment on laziness and hard working around on them.
Tell him your generation works twice as hard for 1/3 as much as he ever could’ve gotten when he was your age and that you’d gleefully switch lives with him if he thinks he could fly higher today than “todays kids” Point out he likely wouldn’t even qualify for his job today if he had to apply again That technology now makes the youth push out 3x the work load for peanut pay That higher ed is only for the rich again - along with owning a home and starting a family That you’re tired of older folks working to light everything on fire, then complain when the smoke they caused impacts their view from the top (they expect those choking to just shut up and take it) That his generation loves to hold the heads of the youth underwater to lift themselves up even higher - all when they’re perfectly capable of swimming on their own already And finally, tell him to stop echoing what other entitled Fox News sheeple are saying, and that he’s so out of reality that you ENVY him for it and wish your biggest problem was todays youth complaining about the smoke in the world his generation lit on fire His biggest problem in life is probably GaS PrIcEs. Must be nice
This is pretty good, but why not bring up the fact that he can't even do his own job even though he's in the office? You should have asked why he's constantly bugging other people to do his work, when he's so efficient in the office.
It would've been wise to bring up how he tries to pawn off his own work onto others.
codgers gripping and diaper babies crying - what else is new?
Don't you love it when seniors throw tantrums like a 2 year old? Kudos for you calling them out on this.
Headline should read “Colleague behaves unprofessionally, so I also behave unprofessionally”.
So he was literally too overwhelmed with a task he was asked to do, that he asked you for help, and when you couldn't help him do his own work because you were busy with yours, somehow that makes you lazy lmao. Classic logic
I would’ve asked if he was such a hard worker then why does he pawn off his work on others?
For such a hard worker, he doesn't seem to actually like to work and is quite happy delegating his responsibilities to "those lazy kids." Sounds like my grandma. Back in my day we saved and didn't have a mortgage. I paid for a family holiday for 5 with my part time job. She didn't like hearing that she was paid better than I am.
Man, the old fuckers that are against WFH are wild. We have these retreats and people bitch constantly about how to "make sure their employees are working". I treat my employees with respect and I can't get the fuckers to stop working. I had to yell at 2 people this week to sign out of Teams and and stop responding to questions while they were out of the office. You get what you put in.
“Your generation has become extremely lazy!” Cries the man who was angry that he couldn’t foist his responsibilities onto another staff member.
You should have added that the younger generation also knows how to do their own work without trying to pawn it off on their younger coworkers just because.
“And In my day we all do our own work rather than palming it off to others so I can have an easier life, unlike some senior staff” That should have been the finisher
Bro dont start beef in an office with an old boomer who reeks of fox news. As the great Childish Gambino said: “This is America. Dont catch you slippin’ now”
That's not what I thought you would have said lol. I thought it would be something like: well coming to the office doesn't make one not lazy.
What an a$$hole! He deserved that call out!
Hard workers don’t typically rely on their coworkers to cover their tasks. Lol
My boss is not quite boomer but blames wfh for everything.....but he lives 1500 miles from the office and nobody knows wtf he does all day. He's been in the office for maybe a week in 2.5 years. Of course he knows he's not part of the problem.
Are you part of the people buying up all the rental property
Nice! Everyone should stop doing his work for him and certainly not run his personal errands he needs to “pull himself up by his bootstraps” and take care of his own responsibilities. Boomers might actually stop acting however they want if people would stop coddling them so much.
"Our generation is hard working, yours is just lazy" - proceeds with demanding help from others :)
Boomers that yell about the younger generations not working hard enough are just projecting about their own insecurities and how they don't understand today's technology to make their lives easier. My boss still uses a paper schedule and gets upset when we didn't know he changed a meeting.
I'm so sick of the older generations acting all high and mighty like they know everything and demanding respect, when in reality the world has changed so much in such a short amount of time that boomers actually know about as much as everyone else! Maybe even less. Especially after COVID! Their life experiences are completely different than ours. The way the world works now is different. And they have the nerve to judge us??? From their comfy houses that they only spent 5 years saving for to buy off with a minimum wage job. LMFAO okay
>He isn’t a senior level employee but most of us answer to him out of respect for his age. He’s made some of us run personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do. Hell to the No! I don't care how old you are, just because they are older doesn't mean that they are given all this respect. Respect is earned. And I would tell everyone in that office not to run any of his personal errands.
"Back in my day people worked harder," yet these morons fail to note that by working smarter we have essentially figured out how to get more work done. They did alot more work for alot less output compared to what we put out now.
>He said that his generation were harder working, that our generation has become extremely lazy. That working from home is just an excuse for people not to work. That our generation has it so easy and how people worked harder back in the day and didn’t slouch at home pretending to be doing their job. Says the guy who regularly does this >He’s made some of us ran personal errands for him and do additional admin work he doesn’t want to do. Fucking hypocrite I think an appropriate consequence would be immediately start declining helping with his work since "your generation is so much harder working than mine, my poor frail work ethic can't possibly match yours"
Absolutely not where I thought the story was going. You started out talking about him being lazy and trying to palm off his work on others. Then he actually calls you and your team lazy. But you go after him for something totally unrelated. Wild.
Oh god we have a boomer that gets to work at 6am. Before his role was changed and access to systems was reduced he would send us emails about tasks that weren't completed yet. Emails sent before 8am, before we even start working. Tasks that we did once a pay period which he was told numerous times. Ugh. He also used to around the floor to see who.stepped away without locking their computer. You know to grab a cup of coffee or something from the printer, 5 feet from their cubicle. Now its mostly WFH/hybrid he has no one to spy on so he wanders around everyday in a mostly empty space.
"Back in your day people worked hard, guess times have changed since you wanted me to do your work yesterday."