As a manager responsible for some of the people where I work I have
the honor of giving awards to my people. That's the fun part of being
a manager. Where the other part about chewing people out and giving
direction and expectations and all that stuff isn't quite so much fun,
giving the awards is awesome!
One of the main awards that we give where I work is a work
anniversary. Not annually but every five years we give a certificate
and a pin. So when somebody reaches five years of service eventually
HR sends us a certificate and a pin and whoever is that person's
immediate supervisor gets to present it to them. Over the years I
have presented many different pens. Recently I was honored to have an
employee who reached 40 years of service at our agency, which was
amazing! I had the facility manager present that to him and he felt
very good about receiving it. Didn't matter that it was almost a year
late, which is normal and actually pretty quick for our HR department, but we still got it to him.
What's funny is over the years I've noticed differences between the
generations and their attitudes about awards.
The generation before mine was all about the gold watch and the plaque
when they retired. The expectation was for some sort of covered dish
dinner or dessert celebration and they would finally bring their
family and see where they spent all this time doing shift work in the
middle of the night and early hours of the day. But that desire for
the attention and celebration of reaching the point of retirement was
huge for them, especially the managers. The worker people still
wanted something but it wasn't quite as big as what the managers
wanted and expected. And tended to set up for themselves.
My generation is different. Most of my people that have retired or
received awards that are part of my generation didn't want a big deal
made of it. They don't want any attention, they don't want to be seen
or noticed, and at retirement they just want to fade off after their
last shift and be left alone. They tend answer phone calls for a
month or so but after that they don't return phone calls. My guy that
just got his 40 year certificate is one of those where he is preparing
to retire in a couple months. He is adamant that he does not want any
kind of party or celebration for him. I'm planning on sending him
something in the mail so that he can't turn it down but other than
that we're not planning anything.
I have to admit I tend to be that way also. I don't really want to
make a big deal about myself, I don't want people to know that I've
crossed some sort of line so that they don't make fun of me or
something. It's already bad enough being left out and treated like
the old guy, which is on the verge of making me want to file
something. I just don't really want to be noticed. And I just want
when I do choose to leave my agency to fade off into the distance.
The generation after my generation is different. They're all about
getting the award certificate and the pin. It reminds me of everybody
getting a participation trophy when they were younger. These people
are all about the getting of the award but they don't make a big deal
about it. They just want to receive it because it means something to
them. It's good to see, but it's also different and weird in its own
way.
I'm hoping that I can stay long enough to see what the generation
after them does but that's hard to tell. I'm close to retirement and
my wife keeps saying I'm too young to not work anymore. I explained
to her that it's not that I won't work, I just won't have a boss
anymore. I'll get paid to not work!
I look forward to that award...
