They Used To Call Me "Chief"

Back in '10, or so, I had to call a locksmith to the house. A young woman drove up in a van, showed me her ID badge, and proceeded to work on my lock. Her first name was Tahel, Yael, or something to that effect. Her last name was nothing ending in 'stein,' or 'berg,' it was absolutely a Hebrew-looking name. So I said to her "Wow, you must be Israeli, you have a beautiful name." Her reply, in a beautiful accent was something like, "Thank you for not thinking I'm Jewish. My name is Hebrew, but I'm not Jewish. Not everybody from Israel is Jewish, you know."  I replied, "Well, my last name is German, but the Germans tell me it's Jewish." I showed her my ID, and she immediately said, "Your name is not German, it's Yiddish." I remarked, "Hmmm, I thought Yiddish was a dialect of Hebrew and not associated with family names." Her reply was along the lines of "No, no, that's where you're wrong. ...

A question was posed in a forum that I subscribe to, as to how many of us spent an entire career with the same company. There were a mixture of answers, but DoD, schools and large companies with government contracts seemed to be the popular ones. Most of us who answered are the retired baby boomer generation, therefore it was possible to start a career in the 1960s and remain with a single company. -------------------- start of my reply ------------------- I spent a 22 year career in the Army, then retired. My 2nd career was 18 years in length at an international telecom giant, and was declared redundant. After that, a short 3-year stint with a large retail chain, and I left on my own accord. I had the opportunity at a 30 year Army career, but I opted to end on a high note and spare my family being further uprooted. I hadn't planned to be in for even the 22 year stretch, but the opportunities and great camaraderie kept me hooked. How I ever lasted the 18 years in the tech industry,...

  Is that term really a slur or a putdown? Hmm! When I've heard the term “OK Boomer” in the workplace, it usually came from the GenYers (millennials). The blurry lines between Ys and Zs are inconsequential to me, but I love them all. After all, we baby boomers produced the Millennial Generation. They’re all young up and coming, and are establishing a foothold, just like we did. I've observed that the biggest critics of the Millennials came from the GenXers, not us. They were relentless in the pursuit of “keeping them in their place,” and I applaud that. Thusly, when I hear that term, I’m far from put down. Instead, I hear the following implications from that work of oratory genius: - I have no creativity - I have no originality - I just go with the whatever (TikTok, etc) trends dictate - I am entitled - Life started with me - I am incapable of forming complete sentences We boomers, according to my research, indicates that we have accumulated the largest amount of wealth (thr...