All my life I’ve rolled my eyes at every old crusty fucker at work who loves to go around saying stuff like “You young guys don’t know what it’s like”, or “Back in my day”! Let’s not forget the “You young punks want more money on your check and could care less about retirement”.

After hearing those loud mouths spew their sanctimony, I realized that it’s usually coming from the guy who: Bought the Corvette to go running around on his first, second, and third wife. Cashed his paycheck at the bar on Fridays to buy shots and an 8 ball, and lived perpetually broke with 3 maxed out credit cards.

Now that he is 72, and finally has his shit somewhat together, trying to pay off his debt, he feels entitled to accuse younger guys at work of not having a clue because he fucked up his whole life.
I’m no longer the 25, 30, or even 40 year old guy that they love to spout off to. Now I’m just one of the responsible guys that they resent. It really should be legal to slap these morons.

I've got a 25-year-old on my team.

I do my best -- often -- to offer her "old man moments," lessons I've learned the hard way, in the hopes that she'll learn them quicker than I did.

But I'm not grumpy!

Advice is one thing. Curmudgeons are another.

When I was your age we didn't complain about shit like this.

Show'm how it's done: retire early. As an added bonus, you won't have to listen to old grumpy guys at work anymore.

There was always some younger guys that knew better . They pushed back on the older guys and didn't take them serious .When the old farts retired and that 60 yr old piece of equipment was still in service but nobody left that knew how to maintain it ...

It sounds like you might be a cop, lol. I'll take some work advice from certain old guys, but not life advice. A lot of the "back in my day..." crowd slept around on the clock (often with co-worker's wives), had three or four divorces, and drank themselves to sleep every night. Some of them even brought it to work with them and took their misery out on their co-workers and the public. And a number of them didn't make it to retirement, either due to health reasons or getting fired.

Want to give me advice on how to be that? No thanks, I'm good! Just because I'm younger doesn't make you smarter.

No I’m not a cop. I don’t have that much patience. The idiot who actually inspired me to write about this is someone I worked with almost 20 years ago when I was driving ready mix trucks. After we had settled on a new union contract, we had somewhere around $1.75 per hour we had to vote on where to put the raise (pension, check, other benefits). I was one of less than 20 people who showed up and I made a motion to put all of it towards our pension. The grouch that was directing his sanctimony towards me hadn’t even bothered to show up to the meeting.
He used to tell me how guys would show up drunk and high all the time. When I told him I couldn’t imagine driving a truck like that, he scowled “You gotta understand, it was a different time”! Yep it sure was. A time when you guys were clowning around, and yep, screwing other guys’ wives! He had the nerve to try and tell us young bucks that we didn’t know any better. I think he actually thought he was doing us a favor. Passing along his hard earned wisdom because he was one of them that somehow passed breathalyzers and drug tests. Happy 73rd birthday old man! Go get in your truck. And thank you for doing a thankless job that I don’t have the temperament to do 92fstech. You and all the other LE boys and girls here!

I held factory jobs to pay for college. This is before alcohol and drug testing and OSHA. Guys would fill up their thermos with Vodka and smoke weed on their breaks. I know some of my hearing loss comes from working on a factory floor. There were guys in their 70s doing the same work as me. I kept my mouth shut and learned from the older guys.

Well, ya young whippersnapper, I'll have you ta know I waited until I was 73 to buy my Corvette!

And "sleeping around" for me consists of dozing off in the waiting room at the doctor or dentist's office.

Side note: When I was looking for work after getting laid off, one place I applied to was a HIGHLY successful young man running his own marine fabrication outfit, specializing in aluminum and stainless accessories for lobster boats. He was looking for what amounted to a "prep cook"...someone to cut out pieces and shapes for him to weld up into assemblies.

His response to my enquiry: "I'd never hire an old fart like you, you guys think you know everything."

After I retired , my younger replacement called me several times asking for information , contacts , etc. The same guy that criticized everything I did while I was his Foreman .Not as easy as you thought , eh dumbass ?

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Originally posted by selogic:

After I retired , my younger replacement called me several times asking for information

I experienced something similar. I quoted my consulting fee. Never heard back from them.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:

After I retired , my younger replacement called me several times asking for information

I experienced something similar. I quoted my consulting fee. Never heard back from them.

I should have done something like that myself . Instead , I told him to look on the bookshelf in my old cubicle and find the correct 3 ring binder that I had compiled on that situation . In other words , LOOK IT UP like I had to do .I should have taken the binders with me but I thought the company might choose somebody that was actually qualified instead of that clown . He had a sponsor ...

quote:

After hearing those loud mouths spew their sanctimony, I realized that it’s usually coming from the guy who: {snip}

But if if it comes from one of us crusty old fuckers that didn't do all that shit ... its OK??

As an apprentice I watched the old timers work their asses off too and realized they did not have a choice.
A valuable lesson.

There’s no denying you learn how to perform well by learning from the old guys. But I’m not taking life or financial advice from someone who fucked it up for years, and blindly accuses people of not knowing any better because you happen to be the same age he was when he was fucking it up.

It’s like listening to a recovering alcoholic get on your ass because he sees you with a beer in your hand.

Get off my lawn!

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All my life I’ve rolled my eyes at every old crusty fucker at work who loves to go around saying stuff like “You young guys don’t know what it’s like”, or “Back in my day”! Let’s not forget the “You young punks want more money on your check and could care less about retirement”.

I guess it's judgement day in your world... Seems the old farts can't tolerate the young dudes--you... and you can't tolerate the old farts... Only difference between them and you is a few years... Dad always told me not to judge a person, just consider the source...there is a difference...

60

I learned to ignore the grouchy old bastards . I was there to make money , not friends .