06 July 2011

Diversity = Productivity Redux

Good to see a few new pieces about workplace diversity:

imageWhy You Should Work With Your Parent's Contemporaries
By Kelly Eggers
While it might seem fun to work at a company where the average age is below thirty and everyone is on Facebook and Twitter, you're better off working with more seasoned colleagues, say experts.

imageMultigenerational staff can benefit business
While a multigenerational staff may sound like a recipe for disaster, many companies are realizing the benefits of a generationally blended team and are coming up with unique ways to manage its challenges.

I’ve been hollering about this for years and years.  Gee, it seems like I was a young punk when I first started hollering:

11 September 2006
Managing Age Diversity in the Advertising Industry

Since then:

Diversity = Productivity

Trust Your Gut

Calcified Advertising Agencies

Rance Crain Makes Perfect Sense Yet Again

Diversity as a Strategic Advantage

I will take issue with one quote from this piece:

The reality, however, is that many older workers don't view the younger generation as having so much to offer.

0976697319.01.Yours Truly is not one of the ‘many’.  From my book © 2005:

I have a business friend who wants to start an advertising agency that would only accept clients whose products are for the 50-plus market, and he wants to hire only people over fifty, from the receptionist on up. It’s hard not to applaud such an idea, but I wouldn’t want to work there. And it wouldn’t be because of the receptionist. I’ve met some gorgeous, very smart ones who’ve mentioned to me that they’re grandmothers. (They’ve got to be lying.) The reason I wouldn’t work there is because I love working with people in their twenties. They sizzle. They’re galvanized. They charge me up.