What is the best way to deal with a younger coworker who is above you?

[Watercolors]

Thanks LivingWaterPlease for your well wishes. I just learned via my unemployment application that this employer listed "position dissolved and merged into new position" which turns out to be true.

 

The guy they hired to do their licensing for brokers and agents, also now handles their office's detached office phone calls as the main switchboard. So, no one's at that front desk now where I sat, and they are going to expand their lobby space since they have a front desk lady on the floor above them, who handles their attached boutique agency incoming calls.

 

She'll now book their clients into conference rooms on both floors for the agents and brokers and this licensing guy will take over the switchboard calls and do their detached mailings once a week.

 

This experience showed me, LivingWaterPlease, that I definitely have a chip on my shoulder with being directed by younger supervisors. As a GenXer who failed to find her career niche in her early 20s, and tried several careers, at present, I feel like Tom Hanks in Castaway, in the middle of this giant ocean of unemployment trying to figure out if I should just lay and wait to die, or if I should try to sustain myself gigging as a temp when the opportunities arise, and continue to apply for full time jobs until I see land and can build my life's foundation once and for all. Before I turn 55 at least.

 

I appreciate your encouragement LivingWaterPlease. It means a lot.

[Pastypop]

Her generation has always been told by their grandparents how great they are. So kiss her ass and flatter her. Tell her how smart she is or how well she did this job. Tell her you like her outfit. Thank her for her wonderful and insightful feedback and that you will be applying what she said to your work/life. Tell her she has great ideas and is well respected around the office. Find out what her interests are and learn everything about them so you two can discuss those; pretending that you actually have something in common. Talk about your dating life. Bring candy to work and put it in a bowl by your desk. Find out her favorite food and bring it in or invite her to lunch.

 

What you don’t do is ever offer advice in any situation, make her think you are smarter than her or make her think you are looking down at her. Do not talk about your life experiences, travel or anything that could make her jealous. In fact, let her do most of the talking. Do not gossip or give this girl anything to use against you.

 

Unfortunately, this is the new workforce for the older generations. In order to survive requires a good deal bull****ting younger peers. Just note, they do not respect you, do not want to work with you, may want your job. You have to outsmart them without them figuring out what your doing. You want to be that cool, sweet old lady everybody likes.

[Watercolors]

Thanks again for your great insight and advice, Pastypop. I got fired from that stupid front desk role after 5 weeks though. That little sh*t sabotaged me by creating a file on me, citing that I couldn't handle their detached system of mail properly (which was total baloney). And, I did all the things you advised not to do with workers of the Generation Z; I made her feel stupid by talking about my 26 years of work history and about my international travels etc. and about my 2 masters degrees. Her boss cited on my unemployment application that I was let go b/c they merged the front desk role and that I was basically inept.

 

I'm in another horrible temp job right now, where I've been for 4 weeks where the gal who trained me is 25 (and this time, I said NOTHING like I did with the previous job where i was fired/laid off). She knows nothing about my life. I have kept mum despite it being a temp job.

 

But the problem with this temp job, is that in my initial interview, the human resources lady flat out stated that she would not directly hire me, that she is too cheap to pay the break-contract fee if they want to hire me, and that they don't know the end date yet.

 

Meanwhile, they are advertising for this role on their company website, and on the usual employment websites and I've been routing calls from job seekers who've applied for the front desk role which is super awkward. This role didn't even have a front desk training manual until I created one out of thin air; it's got about 20 tabs and is about 1.5 inches thick.

 

Meanwhile, I'm applying for full-time jobs constantly. I got one phone interview but it didn't progress to an in person interview. I blew it when I told the hiring manager that I thought the question she asked me was redundant, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years." I responded, "Well, I think that is a redundant and useless question. I hope to still be at your company, but whose to say where I'll be in 5 years." So...I kind of nailed my own coffin with that response. But frankly, I was fed up with how stupid her interview questions were because they were so archaic. It was like she was reading them off a script.

 

I wrote about that phone interview in my other thread where I proved a recruiter was lying by applying directly to the employers website and got a phone interview myself despite the recruiter telling me she submitted me for the role but I got rejected.

 

This time, I got rejected by the way I answered a dumb interview question. But I still felt vindicated that i proved this recruiter to be the big fat liar she is. When i told her temp agency what she did, they let me go as a temp.

 

I hate temping but I realize it's better pay than a retail job or barista job. When I can get temp work, that is. I carry a huge chip of bitterness on my shoulder that I can't find a full-time job no matter how many times I reformat my resume or attempt to do informational interviews or attend local public network meetup events. Or call people I know who know someone who works where there are job openings. I'm just fed up with going nowhere.

[Mr. Lucky]

T I got one phone interview but it didn't progress to an in person interview. I blew it when I told the hiring manager that I thought the question she asked me was redundant, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years." I responded, "Well, I think that is a redundant and useless question. I hope to still be at your company, but whose to say where I'll be in 5 years." So...I kind of nailed my own coffin with that response. But frankly, I was fed up with how stupid her interview questions were because they were so archaic. It was like she was reading them off a script.

 

I carry a huge chip of bitterness on my shoulder that I can't find a full-time job no matter how many times I reformat my resume or attempt to do informational interviews or attend local public network meetup events. Or call people I know who know someone who works where there are job openings. I'm just fed up with going nowhere.

 

Watercolors, isn't there some unfortunate overlap between these two posts?

 

Mr. Lucky