So I’m getting a promotion soon (yay!), moving up from just a line cook to sous-chef and I’ve only been with this company for a few months. Thing is that I’m still quite young (mid twenties) and will be the direct supervisor of some people a fair bit older than I am. Think 10-20 years older. It might just still be a bit of imposter syndrome, but the idea of having to tell people who have been in the business for far longer than I what to do and such really weirds me out.
I feel I wouldn’t like it if “some young brat” that just got hired almost immediately gets a promotion and becomes my supervisor eventhough I worked at the company for far longer. Though maybe not everyone feels like this.
Do other people who have experience with a situation like this have any advice on how to deal with this? It’s kinda been keeping me up at night…
Go watch the Bear, they got it.
Did the people on the line go out for to Sous slot?
If you beat them out for the role there’ll likely be animosity.
If they didn’t even try, a 30-40 yo line cook may be happy prepping mise and schlepping peas, and doesn’t want any part of the unpaid overtime you just signed up for.
Grown men and women older than you should be able to act like adults. Remind them that them being older than you also means that they should be much more mature than you when it comes to respecting authority and that them displaying that they can’t is probably why they didn’t get the position themselves.
How not to deal with people 101 😂
You’re basically telling OP to be condescending to them, which is a scenario that causes people to say “fuck this” and quit.
Being understanding and above any potential pettiness is the best first option, then be firm but fair if that doesn’t work.
Worked every time I did it but then again the people I work with aren’t easy and also don’t have “feelings” hurt so often. This world has officially been overpopulated by cowards and wimps and that’s the problem. Now is the time of the weak man and its destroying everything.
Sounds like a recipe for a toxic workplace that doesn’t do well in the modern world.
These days people are so cowardly that they don’t take the same sort of BS lying down.
Mid-30s here in a corporate setting so not a direct parallel, but in my early 30s I hired someone who is late 50s and I was really scared about that. She was also coming from a manager position over ~150 people, entering an individual contributor role, and I only had 4 months of management experience at this company, and about a year over 7 years ago at another. I was really scared it would be a problem.
A year later, I can confidently say age has not mattered at all and she regularly talks about how good a leader I am.
Two things to remember: You got this promotion for a reason, and everyone (who isn’t self-employed) will end up with a manager younger than them at some point in their career. As long as you do the job well, people will respect you. And those who don’t are likely problem employees for other reasons.
