Comments on: “More Women Oriented” (Or: Ignorance creates a talentless environment) http://www.connectedcareer.com/2007/12/more-women-oriented-or-ignorance-creates-a-talentless-environment/ Sat, 08 May 2010 19:51:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Old Fogey http://www.connectedcareer.com/2007/12/more-women-oriented-or-ignorance-creates-a-talentless-environment/comment-page-1/#comment-227 Old Fogey Fri, 28 Dec 2007 12:21:11 +0000 http://episteme.ca/wp/?p=272#comment-227 Although I agree that the "women-oriented" comment was WAY out of line, and said more about the boss^3 than about her, I have to disagree with your generalization. By definition, "sense of entitlement" means that they expect things not because they merit them, but just because they feel entitled to them. As an employer, I'm very happy to recognize talent in whatever form it appears, and to reward it, but "young" does not in and of itself equal "talented." Some Gen-Nexters are very sharp, and you can see in the headlines that it's being recognized by virtue of their successes, but often having a "new idea" just means you haven't had enough experience to recognize it as an old (and bad) idea. Giving bad advice is a perfectly valid reason to get fired from writing a column. We may never know precisely why PT was fired, but let's not cling to the tired canards associated with "challenging the status quo" or "telling people what they didn't want to hear" or "Gen X,Y,Z vs. The Over-35 Set." If we're going to speculate that she was fired for a sexist reason, let's also leave open the possibility that she was fired for her performance, or lack thereof. She deserves the respect of having her work evaluated for what it is, not for the chromosome set or age that it came from. Although I agree that the “women-oriented” comment was WAY out of line, and said more about the boss^3 than about her, I have to disagree with your generalization. By definition, “sense of entitlement” means that they expect things not because they merit them, but just because they feel entitled to them. As an employer, I’m very happy to recognize talent in whatever form it appears, and to reward it, but “young” does not in and of itself equal “talented.” Some Gen-Nexters are very sharp, and you can see in the headlines that it’s being recognized by virtue of their successes, but often having a “new idea” just means you haven’t had enough experience to recognize it as an old (and bad) idea.

Giving bad advice is a perfectly valid reason to get fired from writing a column. We may never know precisely why PT was fired, but let’s not cling to the tired canards associated with “challenging the status quo” or “telling people what they didn’t want to hear” or “Gen X,Y,Z vs. The Over-35 Set.” If we’re going to speculate that she was fired for a sexist reason, let’s also leave open the possibility that she was fired for her performance, or lack thereof. She deserves the respect of having her work evaluated for what it is, not for the chromosome set or age that it came from.

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