I was under the impression that American corporations reward performance over seniority, not sure about now...politics?
potato3732842 · 14h ago
It's not a reward for past performance. They're putting who they think will do best in the role in the role and past performance is one very large, but not the only axis on which that is judged.
And, that being said, in larger and richer organizations (infinite monopoly bucks fueled FAANG workplaces perhaps being the penultimate example) the incentives to simply promote the most fit can get more easily polluted by irrelevant criteria than in smaller, leaner organizations that have less runway to continue existing and less opportunity for individuals to dip out without consequence if decisions are not made in a rigorous manner and the results are bad.
Sohcahtoa82 · 14h ago
> penultimate
Unless I'm misunderstanding your statement, I think this word means nearly the exact opposite of what you think it means.
"Penultimate" does not mean "supremely ultimate". It actually means second from last.
Next to last or almost last as in latest in time, not as in ranked on some other axis. Implying that the series is unfinished because there will ultimately be another booming industry the torch is passed to.
kfarr · 15h ago
It’s always been politics, albeit to varying degrees. Some orgs lean toward facts and performance, others not so much, but yeah it’s always a factor even if not acknowledged.
JCBird1012 · 15h ago
And don't downplay how much of a role politics can play at making those facts/performance metrics harder/easier to achieve - and some companies are excellent deluding themselves into thinking it's not the case.
nickdothutton · 14h ago
GenX has just been quietly banking the cash. Better to be a kingmaker than a king. You can have a longer reign.
dehrmann · 15h ago
My dad recently told me it's broadly like that where he works, but at the IC level. It's mostly boomers and millennials, but the boomers actively retiring.
Jtsummers · 14h ago
That's a bathtub curve. You see it in a lot of industries. The joke for AE at GA Tech circa 2000 was "Aerospace 'Do you want fries with that?' Engineering". Hiring picked up later as Baby Boomers and other older generations started hitting retirement age, but the effect is that a generation gets largely skipped over. Those trained and interested in it will find jobs elsewhere, tangentially related to the field perhaps but not training towards those critical, soon to be vacant positions.
You have a lot of seniors, a lot of juniors (because eventually you realize the coming staffing problem), and few mid-career folks (as a proportion of the whole). A particular downside is that retirement cliff. When the seniors go, you lose decades of experience for each retiree, centuries of experience with every 2-4 retirees.
dehrmann · 6h ago
Or is it a bullwhip effect?
bgwalter · 14h ago
GenX wrote much of the open source software and the foolishly co-opted the culture war initiatives led by boomers (for job security reasons) and millennials (some idealism, some job security, some sticking it to GenX).
They have sold out the open source ecosystem and are now being treated as weak. Ironically, probably millennials will pivot faster to the 2025 realities and the newly required allegiances than GenX.
kridsdale3 · 12h ago
The whole 2010s bull-run was Millenials monetizing non-gpl-3 open source stacks written by idealistic GenX in the 2000s. Most notably Zuckerberg.
metalman · 9h ago
"idealistic gen X", and still so, but very disinclined to just keep on handing out ideas and bieng generaly helpfull, for which AI is not going to be able to replace.
Gen X is a potent creative force, and used to having to work in a world controlled by others, and I believe will do just fine by picking through the carnage caused by rampant idiosy.........it's not our fight
And, that being said, in larger and richer organizations (infinite monopoly bucks fueled FAANG workplaces perhaps being the penultimate example) the incentives to simply promote the most fit can get more easily polluted by irrelevant criteria than in smaller, leaner organizations that have less runway to continue existing and less opportunity for individuals to dip out without consequence if decisions are not made in a rigorous manner and the results are bad.
Unless I'm misunderstanding your statement, I think this word means nearly the exact opposite of what you think it means.
"Penultimate" does not mean "supremely ultimate". It actually means second from last.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/penultimate-vs-ulti...
You have a lot of seniors, a lot of juniors (because eventually you realize the coming staffing problem), and few mid-career folks (as a proportion of the whole). A particular downside is that retirement cliff. When the seniors go, you lose decades of experience for each retiree, centuries of experience with every 2-4 retirees.
They have sold out the open source ecosystem and are now being treated as weak. Ironically, probably millennials will pivot faster to the 2025 realities and the newly required allegiances than GenX.