It s an age thing too

It's an age thing too

If flexibility in work, time and lifestyle all fit together, they get blown apart quickly when it comes to one thing - AGE. Remember the good old, bad old days when you joined a company and the kind lady from the personal department gave you a little booklet and said, ˜Now these are the company guidelines. Read them and if you have any questions let me know.' That was it. Everyone was treated more or less the same way. Well you can't do that anymore.

In recognition of that, some years ago I developed a list of categories of people. While admitting that some of us slop over the edges of these groupings somewhat, depending on circumstances, they still seem to reflect the different age groups we employ :

• twinkies under 20

• point'n'clickers 20-25

• generation X 25-35

• middle-aged and manic 35-45

• growing old frantically 45-55

• grey tops over 55.

What these categories have in common is that they each need a tailored approach, because they all have different needs. If we want to engage them and seek out their commitment we need plans to help them achieve their current goals.