Yesterday I had to go to a training session for The Target. Target is very good about HR friendly stuff when it comes to personal development. We do leadership statuses during which we discuss our strengths and developmental opportunities. I am rather old school as I prefer to be out on the sales floor filling and helping guests and making sure things look good, but I understand the need to get personally developed. Therefore, even though yesterday was the end of a week that was very busy, and I would have been better served to be in my store helping people, I was scheduled for a training class.
So off I went to learn about generational differences and then learn how to organize my time and resources. I figure it was a big step in the right direction for me that I knew when and where the meeting was. In the past someone would have called me and asked where I was. The meeting is about to start, where are you? So compared to that, I am way more organized. Who needs a meeting?
However, when I arrived in the meeting room, I understood why I was there. The first two hour training session was called Understanding Generational Differences. I looked around the room at all the 20-somethings and realized I was the elder. I would be the representative of someone who had heard of radio.
So we were asked to clarify what era we belonged to. There were the Veterans, the Baby Boomers, the Gen Xers, and the Millennials. I played along and classified myself as a Baby Boomer even though the cut-off date was 1964 and I was born in 1965. There were a couple of Gen Xers in the room and the rest of the group were Millennials. I decided to go older because we had started the exercise with a checklist of names or events and had to group them by era. I could overhear all the questions being raised. Such as:
Who is Benny Goodman?
Who is Harry Belafonte?
What is the big deal about a Luke and Laura?
MTV used to play videos?
Is that related to Friday Night Videos?
Why would someone pay $1000 for a VCR? Was it a collector's item?
Please shoot me. I would say to Dr. Kevorkian me, but no one would know what I meant by that either.
Some of the group was trying to say they weren't really that young, they were born all the way back in 1987. 1987?!!!? I was graduating college in 1987! I have clothes older than you!
So here is what the majority of the class learned about having to communicate with my era:
- Speak loudly so they can hear you
- Do not ask if they were in a flood, they wear their pants that high on purpose
- Keep the aisles clear so they can get their walker through more easily
- Don't stare at that hair growing out of the place hair does not normally grow
- Know where the Depends aisle is in your store
- If they ask where light bulbs are, don't ask if they helped invent them
- Records were like big Cd's
- When explaining the cameras, start with why there is no slot big enough for the picture to come out of
- Don't call the ladies "ma'am", I'm just warning you
- If you are working the drive thru, that motion they are making is rolling the window down
- You too will make a noise someday when you get off the couch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPhvhDYd5zs
OH MY GOODNESS, THAT WAS SCARY!!
It was fascinAAAtion, I know! Oh, I wanted to be Laura so bad. As long as I did not have to go anywhere near old Jeri Curl, there.
ReplyDeleteHow is anyone born in 1987 not a zygote, still?
My son's cronies love to hear stories about the "olden days" which, in their minds, is the 70's and 80's. Dang Whippersnappers!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter once asked me if I had scissors when I was little. I told her yes, I used them to fend off the dinosaurs. Then I wept.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to say I was born in 1986 (barely though, December 26th) and have no idea what you are talking about. However, I did know that MTV used to play videos and not just in the middle of the night, but not from personal experience.
ReplyDeleteI'm mostly just shocked that kids who were born in the middle of the NINETIES have JOBS.
Don't forget to tell them all to write this stuff down so that when THEY are old, they will remember the gigantic black hole between themselves and the generation that will be holding their elbow as they escort them to their cars. Hmmmm....what shall we name THAT generation? Ooooh, the Thumbers, 'cause they'll only be typing with their thumbs on their 'iChips' or whatever.
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