An Old-School Belief About Money May Be The Real Reason Boomer Bosses Are So Hard To Work For
Vlada Karpovich | Canva There are plenty of differences in opinions between Boomers, Millennials, and Gen-Zers; where do we even begin?
Many of these differences can be chalked up to age or different parenting styles. However, one worker recently theorized exactly why Boomer bosses can be so problematic and frustrating for younger people.
One worker claimed that Boomer bosses are difficult to deal with because of their mentality about money
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One Millennial worker posted on an online forum describing their experience having lunch with an older friend. “I had lunch with a wealthy Boomer yesterday, and he was speaking about a mutual acquaintance named Dustin who was one of the bigger employers in our community,” they said.
According to the worker, Dustin is not exactly a good or well-liked person. “His abusive behavior with his staff was legendary,” they said. “Like horrid verbal abuse every week, getting screamed at in front of co-workers, but nice as pie in public.”
“The people I knew who worked for him told me they were suicidal, had panic attacks on Sunday night, and all of them wanted out,” the worker wrote. But that's not what stood out to their Boomer friend, who "mentioned how successful and rich Dustin was and the great moves he made in business.”
The worker was shocked that their friend would say such a thing. After all, Dustin had a reputation for cruelty. Although he was a successful businessman, everyone knew about the horrendous behavior that happened behind-the-scenes.
That was when the online forum poster realized something startling:
Boomer bosses believe wealth is a virtue and use it to excuse bad behavior
“I learned from my Boomer friend that his generation believes wealth is a virtue,” they said. “Basically, being rich excuses any [bad] behavior or underhanded things you did to get there. It automatically makes you a good person.”
The worker’s friend implied that “money was the reward for hard work and good decisions. Virtually nothing was more important than money.”
To top it all off, the Boomer friend didn’t see why the worker’s opinion of Dustin mattered. “I was not in a position to criticize Dustin because he was insanely wealthy now, and I am not; therefore, any observation or opinion I had was not valid,” they said. “Because if I were smart and worked hard, I would be rich, too.”
It is certainly true that Boomers are one of the wealthiest generations. In fact, Nasdaq reported that “more than half of U.S. wealth belongs to Baby Boomers."
Boomers might be in for a financial reckoning
However, Joe Camberato, the CEO of National Business Capital, stated that younger generations could catch up to Boomers when it comes to wealth. “What’s intriguing is that newer generations might actually have the potential to surpass this,” Camberato said. “Take into account that Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, so they’re currently in the 59 to 77 age bracket. They’ve been amassing this wealth over decades.”
Online commenters certainly seemed to believe that Boomers are in for a rude awakening. “These people should know they can’t survive without the people they think are lesser than them,” one person wrote.
“It’s going to be difficult to get through to a group of people who aren’t used to consequences that the tactics and attitudes they’ve used and possess are toxic and actively hurting communities,” another person commented.
There are clearly some major differences between Boomers and younger generations, which have led to plenty of animosity. Perhaps it’s time for all generations to look beyond these differences and acknowledge each other’s contributions to society instead of only focusing on the negatives.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.
