In the last 4 weeks I’ve worked with several people over 60 and I don’t like what I saw: slow giving report or describing a problem, fixation on trivialities about a client’s appearance or something funny he did instead of getting directly to the point and doing our jobs, incapable of coping with new forms of communication, feeling they are your supervisor, even though they’re not, criticizing you for ‘wasting’ paper or erasers, telling you how they dislike other coworkers, even though I just met this person 2 hours ago, acting as if only their way of doing things is the right one, then they pretend to be your friend and ask questions about your personal life which I deflect as good as I can.
I don’t like working with people like this, it’s very draining and I don’t want to become this kind of person.
How do I make sure not to become this kind of person?
You are a person who values efficiency, there are companies that will take advantage of that and make you burnout then fire you if you don’t have protections or do not live in a country that have them.
Some of those people that you noticed also someday wanted to make everything better and efficient, but they can’t, because most companies follow a hierarchy that do not accept changes coming from bellow to the top.
You already noticed that you can become like this, the difference will be your values, ethics and which companies will you work for, some companies can and will make you fall into hierarchy and conformism, unfortunately.
If you are young and have that option maybe search for more flexible jobs where they will accept ideas and try things like startup’s but they are often chaotic and unstable also.
I hope some of it help you, be careful to not burnout think about the long-term also.