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Miley Cyrus was the guest mentor on American Idol this week, which made people raise their eyes a bit. She is popular and successful, but is she qualified to help coach up and coming singers on their craft?
Ryan brought up the point that many people in the workforce are having to deal with something similar. Normally, your boss or direct report is someone older than you that has risen through the ranks and has experience. That is someone you would respect taking orders and learning from.
These days, people who are in managing positions are getting younger and younger, and are starting to be younger than the people that report to them. An extreme example is Mark Zuckerberg. He created and runs Facebook, and is 25 years old.
Are you in a similar situation? Do you or could you work for, and take direction from, someone who is younger than you?
She is a child, how can she be taken seriously?? She herself needs vocal help. Her talent is lacking and most on AI could teach her a thing or two on real talent.
If they are qualified in the position, and don’t let the position go to their head (as some younger ones do) then I don’t have a problem with it. But some younger ones think they are all high and mighty and above everyone else and so they get caulky and bossy. I have worked with some younger ones that I took direction from and didn’t have a problem because we all worked together and knew we were all equals.
I am 34 & the boss of older people & it is difficult sometimes being a young boss so there is a flip to that. You don’t want to insult them.
As a Sergeant First Class, i have been assigned to work with many officers that are much younger than me. It can be difficult for some to look at a “kid” and follow their orders. Someone saw their potential and gave them a shot. Either deal with it or find a different line of work. Give Miley her chance, She may have some knowledge to give those contestants.
I’ve been in this situation before as a younger manager, and it’s incredibly challenging as you don’t have the years of respect to lean upon.
Oh, and comparing musical advice of her to Manilow is like getting football advice from either the local High School quarterback or Peyton Manning. They both may know some of the same things…but there is no way you can compare the two.
ok I have another comment… she was completely useless… I didn’t see her “coach” or “mentor” anyone it was just a publicity stunt and all she said was oh you sound good, good job.. hmm yeah that’s real helpful, NOT.
I thought she did a nice job…I think she probably felt like the others are saying above that she is younger than them and didn’t want to “boss” them as she seems to show respect to the folks older than her. I liked the fact that she did try to tell them ways to tweak their preformances. OH and it isn’t her job to say you sound horrible it was her job to try to encourage them and help them to make their song better. I thought she did a good job to be in a pretty different situation for her.
Most of the contestants she “mentored” were highly criticized by most of the judges. She obviously couldn’t handle the job because she is just not a good singer.
I’ve been in this position before. You would think the older people would learn to suck it up and deal with the fact that sometimes a younger person might just know more than they do and doesn’t mind sharing their knowledge to help them. I’m sorry I decided what I wanted to do with my life at such a young age and I am good at what I do, but seriously they need to get over it.
I do. Both my bosses are younger that me….much young. Difference might be that they are totally knowledgable about the business. think that maybe Miley is not qualified to be a mentor but rather needs a mentor.
My husband owns a body shop and he just turned 25. Everyone who works for him is over 30 and you can tell they have trouble following orders from him.
Rich, I totally agree with you, I myself get irate anytime I hear Miley Cyrus…she’s 17 and she’s terrible, she has no talent, she is made up like all the other girl/boy band. While I am not a Barry Manilow fan, she isn’t even in the same league. People who can give advice are the likes of Bruce Springsteen, U2, Aerosmith and even though I can’t stand her, Celine Dion, but Miley Cyrus, the only thing she can tell anybody is how often people should say the word “like” in a sentence.
Forget that she is younger then the competitors on American Idol, why wouldnt they have someone who can actually sing be their mentor? Maybe someone who isnt riding the wave of her washout father!! She cant really sing that well… at all. Of all the artests out there they could have had some one way more qualified then her be a mentor. It has nothing to do with age. Its talent.
lol the majority of the supervisors where i work are younger than me, some of them significantly so. i have more experience than some of them. as you get older in the workforce, it’s something you have to get used to, reporting to people younger than you. nothing odd about it, it’s life.
Miley rocks, I’ll go out on a limb and say that she”ll have a great music career. Following the footsteps of Madonna, Mariah Carey, and Brit-Brit Spears.
Not to say Miley has no talent, but Miley is nothing like Madonna…now Madonna would have been a great mentor…or Lady Gaga…Pink….there are so many more talented artist then Miley.
Dana, your right Lady Gaga @ Pink would be great, I just wonder if Lady Gaga will be able to add to career and continue.
I was only 26 when I became the “boss” and most of my employees were older than me, we have always gotten along and they respect my decisions.
I once worked in retail under someone who was younger than me. There are some younger bosses that may do well but she was just flat out on a power trip. She made me do all the crap jobs and kicked back to watch. Ultimately it was what ended my career at that store and retail all together. I think there are some people that can be younger bosses and fair but sometimes it just doesn’t work out.
I used to be that person, i was 22 at the time and a supervisor at our local grocrey store, everyone was older than me and it was my job to telle them what to do, and it was hard because older people don’t want to listen to someone that is younger than they are