Basic HTML Version
WhoWants
to Be a
Manager?
Fewer and fewer Gen Xworkers
have any interest in taking the boss’s
job. Boomers call them lazy.
The reality isn’t quite that simple.
BY PAUL KIX
MOST DAYS, DAVID LOOKS AROUND
the office and feels sorry
for his boss. There he is when David walks in, hunched before
the computer, faint pink and orange light coloring the office
windows—and there he remains when David leaves, a er dark.
David, whoworks in technology inMassachuse s and asked that
his last name not be used, is in his early 30s and just had his first
child. When he sees his boss, a badly overworked 50-something
with three kids, he shudders. “If I think about the times I’mhap-
piest,” David says, “it’s never about a customer. It’s always related
to vacations and family and friends.” All of which is a long way
of saying David doesn’t want his boss’s job.
He’s not alone. A recent survey by OfficeTeam, a California
outfit that specializes in job placement, found that 76 percent of
employees had “no interest” in gaining their manager’s position.
Because workers in their 30s and 40s would in theory stand to
gain the most from a promotion—they’ve recently had kids or
bought a home or saddled themselves in some other way with
the full weight of adult responsibility—the poll quickly got the
media’s a ention. Babyboomer commentators tended to interpret
the results as an affirmation of what they had long suspected
ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX NABAUM
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
MARCH 2012
R1_p051-053_HEM0312_BrightIdeas.indd 51
09/0