This is great advice. I’ll add my two cents as someone who sewed on Staff at 22 and Tech at 24.
OP, age doesn’t dictate your ability to help people. It may limit your ability to relate to some issues they may have, but it is incumbent upon you to learn how to the best of your ability. Speak with, learn from, and listen to those with more life experience than yourself so you have a point of reference in times you may not have firsthand experience. If you don’t know the answer, admit it, and find the person who can provide the perspective your troop needs at that time.
You work for your people, they don’t work for you. The second you believe otherwise, it’s time to move on and voluntarily remove yourself from a leadership position. Make sure they have what they need and provide top cover for them. Be the filter for bullshit.
With that in mind, don’t undermine those above you. It sews discontent and is ineffective at moving things forward. You may not agree with what is being pushed down, but it’s your job to ensure your people are motivated to complete the mission regardless. Figure out what motivates them, how they learn, and be able and willing to speak specifically to someone who may learn differently than the rest of the group.
We don’t have nearly as many true leaders as we need in the Air Force. You will be surprised at what you can accomplish by simply giving a fuck about your people. Getting to the next rank doesn’t matter if it’s at the expense of your people. If you do right by them, your reputation and the success of your shop will speak for itself.
You can be friends with those of lower rank, but it is your job to make them better in life and in work. It’s been my goal to make my troops better humans, which translates to work naturally. Have a beer with them, relate to them as people. And again, actually give a fuck about them.
Don’t be a cunt and Take responsibility for your words and actions
Maybe I went off the rails, but fuck it. Be a good human and the rest will fall into line.
I had a guy 10 years older than me. I was 30 he was 40...
Keep an open mind because they might know a thing or 2.
But I never really had an issue because I treat all of my troops like adults until they give me a reason not to.
Respect their time and effort and as another person said be professional and approachable.
A good leader shines through age-ism. Military is an organization of positional authority. (Insert "we salute the rank not the man" gif) respect is earned. Treat people with the respect they deserve and earn the respect you wish to recieve as a leader.
I put on Staff at 22 and Tech this month at 26. I get it. Most of my peers at SSgt were mid-late 20s and most of my peers now are early-mid 30s. It helps though that I’ve never been the real going out/clubbing/party type.
It’s true your rank peers may be in different life stages than you, but you don’t need to let the stripe change your personality. Remember the whole thing about being approachable? It applies just as much here. You may very well get some ribbing for your age from people, but it’s all in good fun.
Also, there’s nothing wrong with all about friends that are older than you. Nothing. You may be able to learn a bit from them as well.
Pretty much, be a good leader, wear your stripes well, and don’t let age get to you. Carry yourself in a way deserving of the stripes you wear and it will all fall into place.
My oldest troop when I was a brand new Staff was maybe 8 years older than me, owned a house, awesome family.
I was straight up with him. “Weird dynamic, but not if we don’t make it weird. You have more life experience than me. I have more AF experience than you. I’ll never insult you, let me know what your goals are and we will get you there and get you caught up rank wise so you don’t feel out of place. I’ll learn from you and you learn from me.”
We agreed that was the way forward and worked from there. We did indeed learn a lot from each other.
We ended up in different squadrons at a point and he became a SrA and we started going fishing. He indeed taught me a lot. I helped him with crosstraining so now he’s in the job he wants. We haven’t talked in a long time but last I heard he was doing great.
1) Keep their hopes up falsely. By saying they just missed awards, etc when you havent submitted anything
2) Degrade their reputation amongst your leadership and peers. When they perform to standard it will seem like a miracle created by the hero, you.
3) Gaslight. 'Remember" your conversations with key points slightly misconstrued in your favor. Keeping them mentally off balance allows firmer supervisor vision and execution.
The best advice I can give, which you should do for everyone anyway, but just be mature and treat everyone like they are human. Use the golden rule, "treat others the way you want them to treat you". It has always worked for me in the past, and I really stick by it.
I put on staff at 22, now 23 and also in Germany if you want to talk or grab a beer. It's been a huge learning curve the past 9mos since I sewed on and I'm happy to offer insight.
Competence always trumps age. You might get a little pushback initially but people will get over your age prety quickly if you can demostrate you have your shit together.
Age shouldn’t even be on your mind imho. It’s good to understand where people come from and where they are in life so you can either mentor them or be mentored yourself but I don’t understand the work bit.
How does your age affect your ability to work with Airmen? The Staff Sergeant and Airmen dynamic/working relationship is pretty straightforward.
As someone who is an E-5 who regularly has to lead officers and E7's on missions.
1) Everyone is human
2) Everyone has a drive to perform (find it)
3) Keep a positive attitude
4) If you feel like you aren't getting through to someone, then drop the military act and just have a heart to heart and ask "What can I do, to improve" (with the mindset that they might have more experience/knowledge).
5) Recognizing your own faults or shortfalls does not mean you're bad, it just means your human.
I find it interesting you base your peers off of age. All the NCOs I have spoken to consider those the same rank and the occasional 1 off Airman who excel at their duties as peers while those bellow them are underlings to be brought up.
25 year old TSgt. It sucks at times b/c most peers have families whereas me and the lady are just by ourselves with a dog. As long as you can keep the whole “be professional at work” thing going you can make it work. Only sucks now because I’m in a GSU and literally all my peers have families but it’s been nice to be around that, and kinda see how it’ll be one day. Lol.
I was also a 22 year old staff in Germany, so can relate. Most of my rank peers were older, married, and never really got out of the house. I was much more if the travel and going out on the weekends type.
My advice, which I'm sure will be labeled as "unprofessional," is just hang out with the people your age that you like regardless of your rank. It's not hard to be professional at work towards the same people you hang out with off duty. And if they're the kind of people worth hanging out with then they'll know to be the same towards you.
If you don't want to go that route, then make some friends outside your work center. Either way, if you paint yourself into a box of only hanging out with other NCOs you'll miss out on a lot. Especially at an overseas assignment.
I typically only hangout with Germans, I have integrated extremely well and this will probably be my last assignment place as I want to stay out here. (Not like I’m one of those dorks who “hates living in the US” like people I see on this sub
I'm a 30 yr old TSgt, been in for 9 years, and will probably make Master in May. All my SSgts have been in longer and are older than me. Biggest advice I have is to always listen to their inputs, bs on the small stuff, and back their decisions. Rank =/= intelligence, and they've taught me quite a bit. Always be open to feedback, but just understand you're in charge for a reason.
31 year old (S)MSgt, just be real. Know where you lack experience, prove you’re willing to gain it. Work hard, harder than most. don’t be an asshole because no one likes a successful asshole. Learn from everyone.
Let go of NCO as your identity. You're playing a part, just as these other Airmen are. You do what you're trained to do. They do what they're trained to do. If there's a problem and you can't address it with a conversation, pull your supervisor into the next conversation.
You've been given authority to lead. They haven't (yet). It's that simple. Help them grow and give them the respect you wish you got as a junior enlisted Airman.
I'm in my early thirties and my peers for years have been 40+. You just go with it, do your work, and ignore the ageism BS.
As you promote, the circle gets smaller no matter what your age. Just do your best and never let someone say you suck because you are young. Get the job done better than anyone else.
I’m in the same boat as you, whenever my subordinates that are older than me bring up age, I kindly remind them that age is irrelevant operationally and that you’ll find plenty of younger superiors everywhere you go, even in the civilian workforce. There is a stereotype/stigma associated with Gen Z NCO’s/leaders but as long as you’re operationally proficient, professional and make sound decisions the best you can, they’ll grow to respect you. You’re doing the damn thing. I have 6 subordinates - 2 of them are older, 2 are same age and the other 2 are only like a year or so behind. I absolutely hate when they bring age into it…. so what? You’re older than your supervisor…. With age, comes experience not wisdom.
I have been a civilian for a long time, but even civilians have that problem. As a skilled tradesman of 20 years (at that time) and 45 years old or so, I had a supervisor, that was just out of college.
Right off the bat, he let us know that his job was to make sure we had everything we needed to do our job. He also was open about how much he needed to learn from us and about the job. He was fair with everyone, he treated us with respect, and we treated him with respect. He did not have a chip on his shoulder.
This has nothing to do with your question, just me remembering.
I was one of the youngest people working for him. We found out that he had been raised by a single mother, in government-subsidized housing and never had a dad to show him how to do things like building things and repairing stuff around the house. We kind of adopted him and taught him how to do those things. We made sure he looked good to upper management and he made sure he shielded us form them, if necessary.
I think he did pretty well. He was a very young black guy telling a bunch of old white guys, some of them fairly racist what to do, and somehow got us to really care about how he developed as a person and as a supervisor.
I'm a younger NCO than my fellow NCOs and especially leadership. I dealt with it by bringing a voice and speaking up on things that need fixing when no one else will. I just showed the same maturity as the older folks. Now this is the opposite of your situation but can be used the same. Just work with them and beside them. Never work against them
Am i really trying to struggle finding common ground outside of work with a 27-28 year old man while I graduated High School 3.5 years ago and all of my age peers here in Germany are in college partying and fucking off? Like really? I get what you’re trying to say but come on
Why are you not partying and fucking off on your free time? Just because you're now an NCO doesn't mean you can't have fun. Also, nobody cares what your rank is when your uniform is off. My best friends in Germany were a Major and an A1C that lived in my village when I was a Staff. Just don't make it weird, you can talk about work if you want but we usually didn't.
I know exactly what you are referring too, but you miss an important fact. A junior airman that is your age is not your peer. They are less you peer than some 30 year E-5. Let me communicate this another way. You both go out drinking, your 23 year old SrA peer (friend) decides to get in a car afterwards and gets a DUI. You are no longer the SSgt that was his friend, but the NCO responsible for the airman. Suddenly you realize that all those shots of tequila the E-4 is drinking is leading to potential trouble for you and you will have to step in and put an end to it. You can't even leave early if you are feeling uncomfortable because you will be seen as even more culpable for leaving the airman in a bad positon. You will not want to ever experience it ever again. I say this as someone that was an E-5 pub crawling outside of Lakenheath with airmen and getting absolutely rocked after a fellow airman got in trouble. You do you, but if you want to hang out with fellow 23 year olds, I recommend you stick to civilians.
Step 1: Be professional Step 2: Be approachable Step 3: Quote funny movies Step 4: Let them leave early
S+ Tier advice. #bearsstillsuck
Yes the bears may suck… …that is it, I have nothing else to say but at least 2 seasons ago we were number 1…at losing.
[удалено]
And don’t date their moms.
I dated your mom. Does that count? 
I know that’s not true. There’s no way you’re classy enough.
She digs the bag.
Just date them instead
Absolutely solid advice. No notes.
Close the thread, this is the only correct answer
This is great advice. I’ll add my two cents as someone who sewed on Staff at 22 and Tech at 24. OP, age doesn’t dictate your ability to help people. It may limit your ability to relate to some issues they may have, but it is incumbent upon you to learn how to the best of your ability. Speak with, learn from, and listen to those with more life experience than yourself so you have a point of reference in times you may not have firsthand experience. If you don’t know the answer, admit it, and find the person who can provide the perspective your troop needs at that time. You work for your people, they don’t work for you. The second you believe otherwise, it’s time to move on and voluntarily remove yourself from a leadership position. Make sure they have what they need and provide top cover for them. Be the filter for bullshit. With that in mind, don’t undermine those above you. It sews discontent and is ineffective at moving things forward. You may not agree with what is being pushed down, but it’s your job to ensure your people are motivated to complete the mission regardless. Figure out what motivates them, how they learn, and be able and willing to speak specifically to someone who may learn differently than the rest of the group. We don’t have nearly as many true leaders as we need in the Air Force. You will be surprised at what you can accomplish by simply giving a fuck about your people. Getting to the next rank doesn’t matter if it’s at the expense of your people. If you do right by them, your reputation and the success of your shop will speak for itself. You can be friends with those of lower rank, but it is your job to make them better in life and in work. It’s been my goal to make my troops better humans, which translates to work naturally. Have a beer with them, relate to them as people. And again, actually give a fuck about them. Don’t be a cunt and Take responsibility for your words and actions Maybe I went off the rails, but fuck it. Be a good human and the rest will fall into line.
This guy fucks!
Woosah
This is pretty much it man
I had a guy 10 years older than me. I was 30 he was 40... Keep an open mind because they might know a thing or 2. But I never really had an issue because I treat all of my troops like adults until they give me a reason not to. Respect their time and effort and as another person said be professional and approachable.
A good leader shines through age-ism. Military is an organization of positional authority. (Insert "we salute the rank not the man" gif) respect is earned. Treat people with the respect they deserve and earn the respect you wish to recieve as a leader.
I put on Staff at 22 and Tech this month at 26. I get it. Most of my peers at SSgt were mid-late 20s and most of my peers now are early-mid 30s. It helps though that I’ve never been the real going out/clubbing/party type. It’s true your rank peers may be in different life stages than you, but you don’t need to let the stripe change your personality. Remember the whole thing about being approachable? It applies just as much here. You may very well get some ribbing for your age from people, but it’s all in good fun. Also, there’s nothing wrong with all about friends that are older than you. Nothing. You may be able to learn a bit from them as well. Pretty much, be a good leader, wear your stripes well, and don’t let age get to you. Carry yourself in a way deserving of the stripes you wear and it will all fall into place.
Just give it time. You'll get old too
Take them to the local strip club.
If at Spang, take em to TicTacs…
Is TicTac’s still around? That was the go-to strip club 20 years ago.
It was there when I left in 07’
That was 17 years ago
This guy supervises.☝️
My oldest troop when I was a brand new Staff was maybe 8 years older than me, owned a house, awesome family. I was straight up with him. “Weird dynamic, but not if we don’t make it weird. You have more life experience than me. I have more AF experience than you. I’ll never insult you, let me know what your goals are and we will get you there and get you caught up rank wise so you don’t feel out of place. I’ll learn from you and you learn from me.” We agreed that was the way forward and worked from there. We did indeed learn a lot from each other. We ended up in different squadrons at a point and he became a SrA and we started going fishing. He indeed taught me a lot. I helped him with crosstraining so now he’s in the job he wants. We haven’t talked in a long time but last I heard he was doing great.
1) Keep their hopes up falsely. By saying they just missed awards, etc when you havent submitted anything 2) Degrade their reputation amongst your leadership and peers. When they perform to standard it will seem like a miracle created by the hero, you. 3) Gaslight. 'Remember" your conversations with key points slightly misconstrued in your favor. Keeping them mentally off balance allows firmer supervisor vision and execution.
Gaslighting isn’t real, it’s just in your head.
Are they really your "peers" or your are they your "troops" is the real question.
Age Peers not troops.
The best advice I can give, which you should do for everyone anyway, but just be mature and treat everyone like they are human. Use the golden rule, "treat others the way you want them to treat you". It has always worked for me in the past, and I really stick by it.
The older you get, the less it matters. However, just be respectful and remember that with age usually comes experience.
I put on staff at 22, now 23 and also in Germany if you want to talk or grab a beer. It's been a huge learning curve the past 9mos since I sewed on and I'm happy to offer insight.
Competence always trumps age. You might get a little pushback initially but people will get over your age prety quickly if you can demostrate you have your shit together.
Age shouldn’t even be on your mind imho. It’s good to understand where people come from and where they are in life so you can either mentor them or be mentored yourself but I don’t understand the work bit. How does your age affect your ability to work with Airmen? The Staff Sergeant and Airmen dynamic/working relationship is pretty straightforward.
When the 30 yr old A1C starts to act like a child, you won’t hesitate to correct him. Until then just do your supervisor stuff
As someone who is an E-5 who regularly has to lead officers and E7's on missions. 1) Everyone is human 2) Everyone has a drive to perform (find it) 3) Keep a positive attitude 4) If you feel like you aren't getting through to someone, then drop the military act and just have a heart to heart and ask "What can I do, to improve" (with the mindset that they might have more experience/knowledge). 5) Recognizing your own faults or shortfalls does not mean you're bad, it just means your human.
I find it interesting you base your peers off of age. All the NCOs I have spoken to consider those the same rank and the occasional 1 off Airman who excel at their duties as peers while those bellow them are underlings to be brought up.
Just include them in the jokes and sports talk. Just be professional and take in the advice they give.
25 year old TSgt. It sucks at times b/c most peers have families whereas me and the lady are just by ourselves with a dog. As long as you can keep the whole “be professional at work” thing going you can make it work. Only sucks now because I’m in a GSU and literally all my peers have families but it’s been nice to be around that, and kinda see how it’ll be one day. Lol.
I was also a 22 year old staff in Germany, so can relate. Most of my rank peers were older, married, and never really got out of the house. I was much more if the travel and going out on the weekends type. My advice, which I'm sure will be labeled as "unprofessional," is just hang out with the people your age that you like regardless of your rank. It's not hard to be professional at work towards the same people you hang out with off duty. And if they're the kind of people worth hanging out with then they'll know to be the same towards you. If you don't want to go that route, then make some friends outside your work center. Either way, if you paint yourself into a box of only hanging out with other NCOs you'll miss out on a lot. Especially at an overseas assignment.
I typically only hangout with Germans, I have integrated extremely well and this will probably be my last assignment place as I want to stay out here. (Not like I’m one of those dorks who “hates living in the US” like people I see on this sub
I'm a 30 yr old TSgt, been in for 9 years, and will probably make Master in May. All my SSgts have been in longer and are older than me. Biggest advice I have is to always listen to their inputs, bs on the small stuff, and back their decisions. Rank =/= intelligence, and they've taught me quite a bit. Always be open to feedback, but just understand you're in charge for a reason.
You're not that young so what career do you work that SSgts are that old?
31 year old (S)MSgt, just be real. Know where you lack experience, prove you’re willing to gain it. Work hard, harder than most. don’t be an asshole because no one likes a successful asshole. Learn from everyone.
Let go of NCO as your identity. You're playing a part, just as these other Airmen are. You do what you're trained to do. They do what they're trained to do. If there's a problem and you can't address it with a conversation, pull your supervisor into the next conversation. You've been given authority to lead. They haven't (yet). It's that simple. Help them grow and give them the respect you wish you got as a junior enlisted Airman.
I'm in my early thirties and my peers for years have been 40+. You just go with it, do your work, and ignore the ageism BS. As you promote, the circle gets smaller no matter what your age. Just do your best and never let someone say you suck because you are young. Get the job done better than anyone else.
I was a staff at 21, I found being humble, and taking some of the 3D jobs (maintenance) kept me in good stead with the joes.
I’m in the same boat as you, whenever my subordinates that are older than me bring up age, I kindly remind them that age is irrelevant operationally and that you’ll find plenty of younger superiors everywhere you go, even in the civilian workforce. There is a stereotype/stigma associated with Gen Z NCO’s/leaders but as long as you’re operationally proficient, professional and make sound decisions the best you can, they’ll grow to respect you. You’re doing the damn thing. I have 6 subordinates - 2 of them are older, 2 are same age and the other 2 are only like a year or so behind. I absolutely hate when they bring age into it…. so what? You’re older than your supervisor…. With age, comes experience not wisdom.
I have been a civilian for a long time, but even civilians have that problem. As a skilled tradesman of 20 years (at that time) and 45 years old or so, I had a supervisor, that was just out of college. Right off the bat, he let us know that his job was to make sure we had everything we needed to do our job. He also was open about how much he needed to learn from us and about the job. He was fair with everyone, he treated us with respect, and we treated him with respect. He did not have a chip on his shoulder. This has nothing to do with your question, just me remembering. I was one of the youngest people working for him. We found out that he had been raised by a single mother, in government-subsidized housing and never had a dad to show him how to do things like building things and repairing stuff around the house. We kind of adopted him and taught him how to do those things. We made sure he looked good to upper management and he made sure he shielded us form them, if necessary. I think he did pretty well. He was a very young black guy telling a bunch of old white guys, some of them fairly racist what to do, and somehow got us to really care about how he developed as a person and as a supervisor.
You rub it in their old people faces
By being mature and honest
I'm a younger NCO than my fellow NCOs and especially leadership. I dealt with it by bringing a voice and speaking up on things that need fixing when no one else will. I just showed the same maturity as the older folks. Now this is the opposite of your situation but can be used the same. Just work with them and beside them. Never work against them
It may help to know that it’s hard to fit in with Air Force personnel in general.
I call them boomers. When they try to hit me I just outrun them. Old knees and back can’t keep up!!
Age is just a number
Dude, you are an adult. Are you really struggling to find common ground with a fellow NCO that is 5-6 years older than you?
Am i really trying to struggle finding common ground outside of work with a 27-28 year old man while I graduated High School 3.5 years ago and all of my age peers here in Germany are in college partying and fucking off? Like really? I get what you’re trying to say but come on
Why are you not partying and fucking off on your free time? Just because you're now an NCO doesn't mean you can't have fun. Also, nobody cares what your rank is when your uniform is off. My best friends in Germany were a Major and an A1C that lived in my village when I was a Staff. Just don't make it weird, you can talk about work if you want but we usually didn't.
If you don't have that level of maturity, methinks you are not ready to be an NCO.
Considering I’m mainly referring to outside of work you dingus but okay
I know exactly what you are referring too, but you miss an important fact. A junior airman that is your age is not your peer. They are less you peer than some 30 year E-5. Let me communicate this another way. You both go out drinking, your 23 year old SrA peer (friend) decides to get in a car afterwards and gets a DUI. You are no longer the SSgt that was his friend, but the NCO responsible for the airman. Suddenly you realize that all those shots of tequila the E-4 is drinking is leading to potential trouble for you and you will have to step in and put an end to it. You can't even leave early if you are feeling uncomfortable because you will be seen as even more culpable for leaving the airman in a bad positon. You will not want to ever experience it ever again. I say this as someone that was an E-5 pub crawling outside of Lakenheath with airmen and getting absolutely rocked after a fellow airman got in trouble. You do you, but if you want to hang out with fellow 23 year olds, I recommend you stick to civilians.