I was having a conversation with some IT colleagues the other day and it was remarkable to listen to what was being discussed about employers who have not entered the modern age. There was a bit of laughter about these people who are still operating in business as if it were the 1960s. So, I have come up with a few points of advice for those who cannot see what is going on in 21st Century business.

1. People with a clue stopped printing everything they wanted to read – instead they read online, download and/or print to PDF, etc. It is offensive to see the massive stacks of paper and tomes that you want to read (but probably never will), which you have thoughtlessly printed out with no consideration for the environment.

2. Walking around the office to make sure everyone is in their designated seats is not management and you cannot assume that people who sit at their desks are working. I cannot tell you the number of people I have seen on Facebook at work, whose dinosaur bosses assume these staff members are working just because they are at their desks. How embarrassing! Successful modern workers put in long hours, but some of these long hours are in front of the laptop watching TV until midnight, while they slave away at their work. Lazy employers wander around the office looking for bottoms on chairs, but the modern supervisor looks at the quality of work being done and understands the sort of hours that would have to go into the production of such work. Such supervisors understand the nature of work in the modern world.

3. The emphasis in the modern world is on content and not on superficial appearances. In your generation, you sat at a desk in your silly business attire and “looked busy” when your boss walked past. Modern workers dress in a way that you would consider more “casual” (not realising that what you are wearing looks like the stuff from the grandparents’ closet, which was sent to the opportunity shop years ago). One of the things I noticed straight away when I started working in Sydney all those years ago was how relaxed Aussies were in their work attire. It has been good to see this more relaxed trend developing globally. You might have been able to do little work, but convince your boss of otherwise by superficial appearances, but this is not how modern business (by and large) works.

4. Modern bosses understand what they don’t know and trust their staff to do the work they were hired for (including those who are hired for IT related work). The 1960s boss was worried about losing his or her job, so tried to keep all control of projects and other work with him or herself. Only the smallest parts of projects were delegated, with ultimate “power” and decision-making remaining with this incredibly insecure person. Modern projects require that work is delegated to responsible staff and that these staff are able to get on with their work.

5. You learned how to use some simple software, such as MS Excel, decades ago, but you need to know that this is not impressive and not everything is desirable in MS Excel. There are many more desktop applications and server based software and no one is impressed with poorly considered, planned and implemented spreadsheets. Allow your staff to bring your office procedures into the 21st Century!

One can be angry at this insecure supervisor who is stuck in an earlier age, or one can ultimately pity him or her. To tie one’s self-image and worth so much into work that there is no professional progress, no trusting of staff, no ability to let go . . . such a person deserves sympathy, rather than scorn. The dinosaur either needs to get training (and perhaps therapy), or else needs to move over and let the office become the more productive environment that it could be in his or her absence.

Here’s to the future of business and to dinosaurs being where they belong – in museums!

[Disclaimer: Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.]