For the record, my agreement with #9 isn't related to the person's age or experience...just the many people i've known (not all, obviously) who have law degrees who seem to think "boom, now that's done....let the money come rolling in".

are you kidding? our ALCO folks live for pie charts...and bar graphs...both horizontal and vertical...



in that case, i'll transition to the car. Outrun this!

i know an attorney who is the customer service manager at the local winn dixie. i know another who sells insurance. a 3rd is a high school civics teacher...not always what people think it is cracked up to be

On the flip side...way back in my days in college, a case study was done that showed a sizeable number of upper level management in larger companies were either lawyers or CPAs. The person that can manipulate the law and/or money generally has some sway.

***I want to add that I can't remember any percentages or numbers. Or even if it is still true today. But at the time I thought it was interesting.***

Some of the sharpest people i know are lawyers, no doubt. I know many others that aren't in the top 50% of sharpest people i know. Always have to take people one at a time.

Raising Arizona - Evelle: H.I., you're young and you got your health, what you want with a job?

Young people entering banking and wanting to rise into management have to understand that this is not McDonalds. Your work week is not exactly 40 hours. Sometimes you go to meetings in the evening, like Chamber of Commerce meetings. Sometimes you come in really early or on a weekend to get work done. Sometimes you spend your personal time at community service events. You're a banker 24 hours.

This. I am the youngest person in my office and definitely the most "tech savvy." I'm not sure how it got around that I knew my way around a computer, but I am always the one that people go to, even before calling IT.

My son is an IT guy, and I sometimes email him at his job to ask how to fix something at my job. Any my husband is not tech savvy at all, so when he asks something.....boy, watch out!

We had an ex EVP who LOVED pie charts! He would make one for everything.

We had an IT guy with a sense of humor.
Told one person that he determined their problem was between the keyboard and chair.

One other case, he said it was a "one D ten T error"
(1D10T)

BOD loves the pies charts here, too.

But, just because there's a "pie chart" button doesn't mean it's really that easy. Many a new hire thinking that they can out Excel me has failed in making a pie chart or a graph. I have gotten to the age where I feel like my first boss. He wouldn't let me use the auto-plotting software until I could show him my data on graph paper first. Had to know what I was doing before I could just hit "Pie Chart" and publish something meaningless for the board.

My son has a great sense of humor. There are some of the professors that irritate him, but most of them he is on first name basis with. Last week he said he had to walk across campus to help someone, only to find that it needed to be plugged in. But he laughed when he told me, probably not when he got to the classroom to fix it.

In two weeks he gets to travel to Dover, DE to set up computers at a college. He will be there for two weeks, then the other IT guy goes, then my son for two weeks again, until the end of the year. He is super excited!

He is not a true young person (just turned 28), but he was never the way some of our younger workers are.

Our new IT guy has no sense of humor. Everyone pretty much tries to avoid him because if you ask a question you get the whole back story as well!

That is what my son said about the IT department at the college he is going to in Deleware. Not people friendly.

sorry, but you're complaining about fulfilling a need and making yourself somewhat indispensable because why exactly? We all came in the door with something we were good at and used it to get other assignments that we got good at to get to the jobs and salaries we're making now. That's how this process works. My sharing my knowledge with you and you sharing your knowledge with me is what being on a team is all about.

Now, if someone is asking you to do it FOR them instead of asking you to show them how to did it themselves, that's a different story and an opportunity to learn how to deal with the people in the world who will take advantage of others.

This is one instance when it is nice to be labeled as an old person leaving the workforce....

TR, I've yet to have someone want me to teach them how to do something. Usually I'm met with things that happen quarterly, or otherwise not real often and they say "I'll forget how to do this by next time, but I won't forget how to find you!" Or...you could take notes? Or when they bring in their laptop from home and want you to work on it for them. I've done that a few times, but I had one particular person that kept destroying their machine with viruses and I ended up billing them after the last one that I spent a solid 10 hours on. They haven't come back to me since

I don't mind helping people, but when they walk past the IT team, which has an over-staffed help desk program so they can track issues and respond appropriately, it just seems backward to go to the compliance person (or anyone else) instead.

Totally agree on the points you raised, Matt.
You're a saint for fixing someone's private machine.

As for the 'I won't forget how to find you' commenter, I'd have a good retort at the ready for next time. Something along the lines of 'and I'll be waiting at your desk on pay day for you to reimburse me for doing your job!' You have to say it with a big smile and then turn back to your own work. Unless this person is your superior, they'll get the message.

And yes, for those of you who see my responses and say 'yea, that's easy to say but hard to do' you're right. It is. But, like voting in an election, you don't have the right to complain if you're not willing to take the steps to change the situation.

PEBCAK - Problem exists between chair and keyboard

I think it's a myth that younger people are better at computers than we old folks. Last week I had to show a guy 20 years younger than me how to print a Google map. Printing, in general, seems to be a difficult task around here. Knowing keyboard shortcuts is like knowing some secret black magic. Yes, those keys at the top with the little F's actually do something.

For me, i can navigate computers fine in most areas of my job, but i have problems with things like Word and Excel, simply because until my current job, i never had any use for them (or training in them), so in the formatting areas, etc. i struggle with it. My go-to gal on all things Word and Excel left last year too....

Had someone slightly younger (5 years?) sit with me for an hour and train me on (what I considered to be) advanced excel tactics. Her one hour of volunteered time (the company's time) ended up saving me about 1 to 2 hours per week, and I'm very grateful. I don't, however, run back to her each time with repeat requests to do or say the same thing.

There's definitely a difference between "do it for me" and "teach me." I have people here that ask me to do things for them all the time, both in Excel and Word. I stand behind them and ask them to do make the clicks and type the formulas, and I say, "Okay, write this down..." before I start.

Have very little respect or tolerance for people who flat out refuse to do anything in Excel, or to even try. I think it is a job requisite at this point, and refusing to try to learn is basically a request to retire.

But will asking for help kill you?

not asking could