US small business
Despite our comically outdated habits, more than half of the businesses in the US are owned by people over 50
I still pay for cable TV, print out plane tickets, read the newspaper, and watch Jeopardy. Yes, I like wallpaper in the bathroom and shag carpet in the bedroom. Yes, I use emojis too often. I leave too many voicemails. I know these are the things boomers do, and I know younger people find them hilarious. Please don't make fun of me, one day it will be your turn.
Technically, I'm not a boomer. I was born in 1965, a year after the official deadline. But if he talks like a boomer, texts like a boomer, and puts Thousand Island dressing on his salad, he's a boomer.
The best time for a meeting is no meeting at all – unless you're a meeting whisperer
It's difficult to pinpoint a time in modern industrial society when four generations of workers share the same workplace: Millennials, Generation Z, Boomers and Generation X, all of whom have very different experiences and attitudes to life – and work .
At work, I do the things only baby boomers do, often making those younger than me angry. I write notes in a notebook instead of a note app and keep a manual calendar. I make phone calls instead of sending emails. I leave my office and meet with customers and prospects in person instead of online.
I'm also a big proponent of working in a real office at least three days a week, and I don't believe Mondays and Fridays should automatically be work-from-home days. I get angry when I hear about “quiet quitters” and “coffee badgers” – those who come into the office to show up and then disappear – because I feel like this type of behavior is not just for a business owner like me, but is a mystery to anyone who wants to get ahead in the world and live well.
Like most boomers, I have a hard time distinguishing between legitimate mental health issues and excuses. I need to do a better job of understanding different viewpoints. I have to realize that trying to act younger will only make me look older, and younger people will ridicule me for it too.
And you are. Just go online and you'll find tons of comments like “Old people love talking about when there were only three channels” and Baby Boomers “love giving financial advice” and “think everyone else is oversensitive.” Just.
My generation is constantly ridiculed. A lot of it is deserved. But I want to warn my younger friends: Boomers still rule the world.
The advertising world and the media in general like to believe that small businesses are full of beautiful, diverse people in their 20s and 30s who run sustainable, innovative, groundbreaking and admirable coffee shops, craft bourbon distilleries and vertical farms.
But the reality is – according to the US government – more than half (54%) of businesses in this country are owned by people over 50 – 4% are 70 or older. And the management of most large corporations is still predominantly male and white. They are boomers. And no one likes to admit that.
That's changing, of course, and that's a great thing. There will be more diversity. We will see more black, brown and female faces leading companies. Wealth is transferred. One day in the not-too-distant future, Millennials and Gen-Z generations will take their rightful place and represent the majority of corporate leaders and business owners.
And then, rest assured, the younger generations will mock them too.
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