When a less-experienced colleague becomes your boss...

First, I've often been a peacemaker, to a fault at times, over my career. I'm not a big boat-rocker. But a couple of things:

1) I'm surprised the issue of gender hasn't been mentioned more on this thread. I can't believe that isn't a factor for some of your colleagues as much as age and less experience. A younger, less-experienced -- woman? That must be bothering some.

2) As I've reached my late 40s and 50s and made a couple of moves, it was inevitable that I had bosses younger than me. I guess I got lucky -- I've not only liked them both, but they were simply great at what they did -- and not afraid to know they could learn more -- and they also recognized the experience I brought to the situation and capitalized on it. All greatly appreciated.

3) But, EMH, the main point of my post: I guess I have no words of wisdom for your colleagues, but I have an overall observation: If she's doing her job, and not being a monster in doing so, any morale problems others are having are their problem, not hers. She can't be expected to control what others think just because of when she was born, and what sex. And you can't control that, either.

 

SF.. that was my first take as well, that it's not so much that she's younger, but a woman. Those complaints are all pretty much text book reserved for females who, you know, move above their station (blue font). I wouldn't worry about her, emh. I would tell your co-workers to cut the shit.

 

Don't we all just tolerate our bosses anyway?

 

had that happen to me a few years ago. A veteran sports editor, whom I greatly respected, resigned suddenly.

As the oldest guy on the staff, I thought about applying for the open position, but since i had only been there less than 6 weeks after coming from another paper, didn't apply.

They ended up bringing in someone from California who was about 5 years younger than me. I tried to respect the guy, But he didn't respect me and went about overhauling the whole darn section. I would make comments here and there, but never headed. Didn't go well. I was out of there less than six months later.

 

Best advice: Do your job. Nowadays, it is a very precious thing to have. If your new boss is a fuck up, it will show. In the meantime, give him/her the respect of being a supervisor. If he/she doesn't show you the same respect, then you may have some problems that need to be rectified.

 

A decade ago I had a dude about 6 years younger than me as the boss, but he was pretty squared away. He moved on and I got a job at a bigger paper, but I was impressed by his organizational skills.

We used to F with him by shuffling the books in his bookshelf, but it was all in good fun. He was anal as all get-out.

 

I'd say what you've already said: Do your job. I also suggest you ask those who are grumbling to do their jobs and give her a chance. If they aren't willing to, they need to suck it up and do their jobs anyway. If she turns out to be a problem, they usually have some kind of recourse outlined in the company manual.

When I started at my old shop, I went from being an entry level grunt to being an editor at a weekly newspaper. Even though one reporter had about nine months experience when I got there, I'm sure I was viewed the same way your colleagues are viewing your new boss, as an interloper who doesn't belong in that position.

The one slightly veteran reporter left for another gig about three months in. The other reporter stayed there until about a month after I got pushed out the door. Most of the people who worked with me would vouch for my performance, even if the publisher thinks I'm a piece of shit.