So this 20 year old tells us his woeful tale. He's been working for five years in the industry, one year at his current job. His IT Manager loves him, but unfortunately, not the IT Director. Apparently, scuttlebutt has it that the IT Director wants to can the kid or exile him to Siberia, because of his age. The Director is over 40 and everyone else is over 30. The kid has a wife and kid and wants to keep his job, what should he do?

Unfortunately, as so often happens at Slashdot and I assume many other such sites, one of the early comments is "You are 19 and currently have 5 years experience? [Prove it.]" These starts a long thread with people saying that they're 20 and have 8 years of experience and old people just don't get it; while the other side takes the position that part-time work or working for your dad's company or internship is not professional experience. Plus attacks on the kid based on the original post.

Now, before I've written that ageism for older people does exist in the computer industry. Here we have a case that it exists for young people too. But I'm going to modify me previous stance and say that I've never encountered ageism or seen it during my admittedly brief and not very worldy working career. People might have initial misconceptions about you because of your age or race or sex or whatever, but over the long haul it's your personality and skill that matters.

In real life you see and read about people who are just scum personally but are so good at their job that people keep them employed and people with work with the scum. Less common, but still heard about, are people who are not quite as good as others but they're so nice and friendly and personable that they're kept on and everybody loves them. Unless you're obviously older or younger (either you look it or you flaunt it), people will notice you for how you behave and what you do.

It's hard to tell age, frankly. And most people don't notice. It's the cultural difference that they notice. If you're an obnoxious 20 year old, it doesn't matter how good you are, people hate you and don't respect you. Conversely, if you're an obnoxious 40 year old that's a wiz, people hate you but at least respect you. I'm being a bit contradictory here but age helps a lot with maturity. Maturity helps in dealing with people.

Hmm, I'm not making much sense here. My advice for the kid is to talk to your IT Director. Explain what you've heard, how this worries you, and that you'd like it clarified. Maybe the IT Director doesn't admit it because of the legal ramifications, maybe it's because those rumors are not true. But, if the rumors are true and he is being candid it's a good time to ask him what you're doing wrong and how can you fix it. Communication is valuable and since the kid is on his way out if he does nothing he might as well try it.

Now, I've never been worried about my job security. What I have worried about, especially at Oracle, is that I'm not keeping up with my work ethics. Probably because I goof off way too much, but even at my best there's no way I can keep up with Simon. And I've talked to him about it and he's fine with that. He explains it that everybody is different, has different strengths and weaknesses and work ethics and whatever. Doesn't necessarily make me better or worse than the next guy. It's up to Simon to utilize his people effectively.

So when I read the Slashdot thread, I could imagine that perhaps the kid brought this on himself somehow. Working is not just about doing your job. There's a lot of people skills and interactions and relationship and office politics. It's inevitable, people come together, they talk and interact. So if the kid isn't liked by the big boss, maybe there's a valid reason.

The other thing is that the kid's manager apparently can't do much about it. This points to the value of a good manager. I don't mean someone who's good at organizing resources and project planning and getting projects done. That's certainly valuable but a team lead can do the same thing. A manager looks out for his people. Let's them concentrate on their job by taking care of the distractions. Protect your people, look out for their welfare, keep them comfortable. That's what I want in a manager, that's what I have in a manager, and apparently the kid doesn't have it.