The worst career advice my father ever gave me was this: Never reveal you know how to type. Turns out, I couldn’t work without typing. Nor could almost anyone today. But my father came from a business world in the ‘50s and ‘60s when executives (usually men) dictated letters and reports to secretaries (usually women), who took down the content in shorthand and typed the executives’ words up on electric typewriters–the technology of the day. In my father’s world, I would be pigeon-holed as a secretary if I typed.
Back in his day, knowledge of technology (typing on an IBM Selectric, for example) was a battleground for sexism. Today, things have flipped: Lack of technology skills can be a career killer. And stereotypes about lack of tech skills can also a career killer–aka ageism.
I do believe digital natives have a technology advantage. When you begin using an iPad at 2, have had a smartphone ever since you can remember, your fourth-grade classroom housed a cart of Chromebooks (or in the Millennial’s education era, Macs), and you learned keyboarding instead of cursive, tech just is. Like air. It’s not something to fear or fight.
However, I don’t believe those of us who are not digital natives have a technology disadvantage. For baby boomers, technology has been thrust upon us later in life. But that doesn’t mean we’re not as skilled. I recently read this on the Twitter profile of a 50ish Stanford computer science professor: “I am a surprisingly good coder for my age.” This just begged to have a “wink” emoji next to it.
The reality is, in most jobs a limited number of software applications are used. And I believe anyone can learn any application. Sure, some may wrestle with it a little more. But rarely have I known a baby boomer unable to master software they use regularly. Just because we express exasperation over software we’re working with or don’t play on a Nintendo Switch after hours, doesn’t mean we aren’t adept at technologies that are required, especially for work.
That said, many of us fear being seen as un-technical and can project that into reality. We have trouble with the camera on a Zoom call and we blame ourselves for setting it up wrong, only to find it actually was the camera’s fail. We secretly chastise ourselves as being tech-deficient when we have to ask our college-age kid how Snapchat works, when we actually have no use for Snapchat.
And it certainly goes the other way. The stereotype of youngers assuming olders are technologically challenged is real. The internet is littered with jokes about this. Memes aside, I’ve heard real, live younger people say that older people don’t understand technology.
What’s important, however, is that we all bring different skills and talents to the table. Boomers shouldn’t expect the lessons of life experience from the younger generations. And younger generations shouldn’t expect boomers to pick up new technologies without a thought. The whole goal of a diverse workplace is to focus on the unique gifts each person brings to the table. It’s lazy thinking and, frankly, unproductive to focus on what each person is not bringing to the table.
Let’s hear it for diversity in the workplace: diversity of race, gender and age—as well as diversity of talent and skills.