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This was an interesting article, but I think the author misses the boat here. "Mentoring" seems to me to be a large part of the problem with the New Kids. My perspective: The New Kids (Kids) need someone to help them along for a year or three - Mentors. The Old Farts that have been there a while. I spent 39 years at my retirement job. I remember when I started learning who to question when I came across a new problem I couldn't quite figure out. Mentors. Nothing formal, Just chase them down if I had questions for a paper or blackboard discussion. They all eventually retired or moved on but I was well-prepped by then. Somewhere between 15 and 20 years on the job it occurs to me one day "The kids are asking ME questions - How the Hell did that happen??" I'm the Mentor. Nothing formal again, although supervision was trying to make a "Formal" program. The Kids would call or chase me down, we would meet and have a paper or blackboard session and maybe chase some signals/data through their system. I enjoyed the interactions and the Kids weren't afraid to call me. The point of all this is Mentoring is a face-to-face operation. Zoom or whatever doesn't cut it - Face-to Face is required. You're passing on you hard-won knowledge to the Kids. Oh Yeah - I Am An Old Fart. My retirement plaque says so .

Re: Mentoring (Post 37)

Mentoring is gone. Korporate Human Resources killed it. No one is going to risk their career trying to help someone who knows they can cry wolf and get promotions or payouts.

The most foolish are those who delude themselves, "My company is different. My boss wouldn't play that game. My coworkers wouldn't do that." ...only to find they're fired because a mentored coworker complained to HR that they were offended about something stupid.

The greybeards have learned their lesson well. If the korporation wants employees to know something, they better hire ones who know it or hire actual trainers because mentoring is all risk and no reward for the mentor.

The Kids would call or chase me down, we would meet and have a paper or blackboard session and maybe chase some signals/data through their system.

Back in the day, I was blessed to grow up in that kind of environment, where TEAMWORK was emphasized, not everyone being paranoid and at each other's throats. MBAs and HR killed that.