A difference of opinion should not be a measure of whether or not you "feel" welcome or not. Ideally, if you have a particular thought and you truly aspire to that belief then defend it. To simply subjugate yourself to like minded people is easy and frankly rather close minded. Never know, when you have a discussion with somebody who happens to hold a different point of view, you likely will come away from a conversation either with more conviction or could learn something you didn't know or didn't consider that may change your way of thinking. It's a good exercise to have, so long as the conversation is constructive.

One thing to keep in mind regarding the older generations, while it is easy to cherry pick what they may have not done well, it's also worthwhile to consider what they did right. Even the best baseball player in the world didn't bat 1000. Some of the most ingenious engineering marvels today were built out of yesterday's repeated failures.

Ok! One thing to keep in mind regarding the younger generations, while it is easy to cherry pick what they may have not done well, it's also worthwhile to consider what they are doing right.

Everyone is welcome
 

Just because we have differences of opinion doesn't mean that you are not welcome. Don't confuse healthy debate with exclusion.

I find the young people at my firm are the same when I was young. They are relatively well educated, ambitious, and hard working. My kids, 26 and 23, fit into this category. For the most part they are fun and enjoyable to work with.

I do have to share an event that happened yesterday though, which illustrates that times are changing. One of our relatively new employees returned a project that was for one of our national defense contracting clients. He stated that he had a moral objection to doing work for that client. My response was that I respected his conviction and would reassign the work to another employee. However, I cautioned him that as much as I and my firm respect his opinion, he had an equal obligation to respect those of us who enjoy doing that type of work for that particular client. I did not want to see him peddling his views to other employees and being a negative influence to others. I also reminded him that I served 24 years in the Reserves and National Guard, and that I am proud of my service. And that's what makes America great. We can coexist with different ideas and hopefully still be able to get some things done.

I cannot imagine something like this happening 32 years ago when I began my career. I cannot imagine summoning up the courage to make such a stand. So hats off to him at least for that.

I agree we shouldn't generalize and there are plenty of young people who work extremely hard and will be very successful in life. Attitude has a lot to do with it and what they get fed today doesn't help those who have a hard time thinking for themselves.

Major, I admire your patience and I would probably would have felt I had to do the same thing you did. This would certainly affect my opinion of this employee however. As you said, 32 years ago WE never would have said such a thing to a boss. But this is exactly the sort of difference between generations and this is the kind of thing Maxum was pointing out. (Not that I want to speak for Maxum.):)

Movin' Up...
 

The former head of the university system in the same state retired with a pension of $10,000 per month! :eek:

To move up to higher income, consider a career in Politics. :look:

Move laws to ban nice things and replace them with annoying things, but make sure The Electorate can "feel good" about you and your various bannings—like the ban on plastic straws.

But be sure to have previously invested in paper straw corporations, and sold "short" on plastic straws.

:rolleye2:

I think you should feel welcome on this forum. If you read many of the posts on this site there is much to be learned and you will also see that people posting here do not always agree on everything. Very often there is a lot of back and forth discussion. Feel free to post your facts and opinions.

I will say that the "everyone gets a trophy, and don't grade my paper with red ink" mentality leads people to shy away from any disagreement or the opportunity to express their thoughts. In my opinion that type of education will lead to much disappointment in life.

Things will not always go your way, and bosses and co workers will not always share the same opinions you have. Knowing when to push back and knowing when to push forward are a very helpful part of growing up.

When I started working, I learned a lot more from bosses who I admired than I ever did in school. I am still trying to figure out when I will use two years of French I.

The difference...
 

Truly rich people (think not just money) v. quasi rich people:
-Don't bother bragging
-Are philanthropic
-Invest their money, and personal time, in the education of future
generations

I believe that everyone has different views on everything. I may not agree, but that doesn’t make them wrong. As a wise man once told me, “That’s why we have chocolate and vanilla!”


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Quite true - however the term "bragging" often times is misconstrued. Telling one's story, especially in overcoming adversity as a means to either mentor, inspire or motivate others is not a bad thing either. Much can be learned from others and I found that though out my own life experience the folks I tended to pay the most attention to are those that actually accomplished goals despite long odds of success. Otherwise what are you being offered other than a theoretical opinion?

It does however require a little humility to look within and recognize that you don't have all the answers. Doesn't mean that somebody else does either, but learning from others success and failures does provide a means to evaluate your own path, pending decisions, and perspective on things. Interestingly enough the more one ages the more one realizes just how little they really know!

My compliments on how you handled this. I couldn’t or wouldn’t have been able to do it when I was working. About 15 years ago one of the younger engineers in a firm I was working for came to me and said he wasn’t interested in doing one of my projects that was assigned to him because it “wasn’t exciting.” After I paused to take a deep breath I informed him that he was hired to do work that was assigned to him not to do just “exciting” and if this was a problem he always had other options. Unfortunately, I wasn’t his direct report.

I guess it was generational, but I always felt that as long as someone was paying me I tried to do what I was asked to do. When I found myself in a situation where I had profound issues I found a new employer whom I could work with/for.


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I don't think you are giving yourself enough credit. As most people in this Forum know, I am pretty much a Neanderthal; however, over the past several years I've had to adapt to the changing times. We are in desperate need of talent, and sometimes you need to at least empathize with opposing views. I guarantee that my reaction 15 years ago would have been much different.