Quote:
Originally Posted by Major
Just because we have differences of opinion doesn't mean that you are not welcome. Don't confuse healthy debate with exclusion.
I find the young people at my firm are the same when I was young. They are relatively well educated, ambitious, and hard working. My kids, 26 and 23, fit into this category. For the most part they are fun and enjoyable to work with.
I do have to share an event that happened yesterday though, which illustrates that times are changing. One of our relatively new employees returned a project that was for one of our national defense contracting clients. He stated that he had a moral objection to doing work for that client. My response was that I respected his conviction and would reassign the work to another employee. However, I cautioned him that as much as I and my firm respect his opinion, he had an equal obligation to respect those of us who enjoy doing that type of work for that particular client. I did not want to see him peddling his views to other employees and being a negative influence to others. I also reminded him that I served 24 years in the Reserves and National Guard, and that I am proud of my service. And that's what makes America great. We can coexist with different ideas and hopefully still be able to get some things done.
I cannot imagine something like this happening 32 years ago when I began my career. I cannot imagine summoning up the courage to make such a stand. So hats off to him at least for that.
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My compliments on how you handled this. I couldn’t or wouldn’t have been able to do it when I was working. About 15 years ago one of the younger engineers in a firm I was working for came to me and said he wasn’t interested in doing one of my projects that was assigned to him because it “wasn’t exciting.” After I paused to take a deep breath I informed him that he was hired to do work that was assigned to him not to do just “exciting” and if this was a problem he always had other options. Unfortunately, I wasn’t his direct report.
I guess it was generational, but I always felt that as long as someone was paying me I tried to do what I was asked to do. When I found myself in a situation where I had profound issues I found a new employer whom I could work with/for.
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