What I learnt from the retired workforce

After much frustration in trying to get a reglatory 'owners inspection process' underway for my commercial property business, I finally picked up the phone and pulled a retired relative back into the workforce.  This is the first time I have done this, however I went through my checklist and ticked off the credentials:-

1/ Meticulous beyond belief - check
2/ Can use a computer - check
3/ Is avaialbe for small periods of time once a month - check
4/ Understands building / property jargon- check

What I had failed to realise is that being out of the workforce for year, many things can change, mainly technology and peoples work habits, the main ones becoming blaringly obvious which I noted on the first day;-

Then
People used to stop for tea breaks and meet in the staff room- it was a ritual
Now
We have a all you can eat coffee machine- help yourself, take a micro break, but tea breaks, gone!

Then
People used to write small amounts less frequently
Now
We tramsmit and deal with ENORMUS amounts of data

Then
Technology was slow, and a labourious process and now always around
Now
Technology is fast,, simple and common place

The sad thing was, I only discovered these things by falling over them during the said retired family members comments.

When asked to add more detail to a note in our Property System- the response was "Do you want me to write an Essay?"

The second response was when asked to attach the digial photos to the damaged/ broken items was the response "I don;t do digital photos, not here or at home and I'm not about to start"

The tea break thing, I think this goes without saying, observationally it was realised.  Yup, we get our coffee as many as we need and drink it at our desk.  Everything is sped up, even how we get and take our coffee...soon I'm sure it will be fed to us through introvenus drip!

The other interesting observational note is mixing of our Gen-Y staff with our Retired workforce.  I had a 20-something staff member working with a nearly 80 year old for the day on a business problem.  They both needed each other to complete the task, but neither seamed to realise it....or perhaps it is true- ignorance really is bliss!

My learning from this experience have been that its all about reaction.  Understand the situational position you are putting people in- our Gen-Y's usually don;t tell us anything at all if they don;t get something or find something difficult, but its the opposite from our retired workforce- you are going to hear it as they see it.  .....I see definate potential in inter-mingling these two very different workers in the future workforce, but I'm going to have to do a little more thinking around approach!