Scared of being topped out too young...

TechJunky

Anyone else having this problem?

I never had to work a blockbuster job, or something of the like before. I went straight from high school into a enterprise computer department. I have pretty much been in it ever since. I have moved up the ranks from intern to System Admin/Manager. I now get asked when I apply for other jobs in my current state, "why are you applying here, it looks like your credentials/experience is way above what your applying for. It seems that all the very top jobs are already taken and or company's dont want to hire for that position anymore.

I am only 24 and feel trapped in a bad way. I am working on part ownership currently, but I just feel like I have been working so hard too quickly and didn't get to experience life. It's not money either. We have the money for me to quit today and I could go back to school full time and decide what I want to do, but I love my boss/owner/company and I dont want to put her in a bad spot since we have a ton of upcoming database upgrades and I am really the only person on staff with the application scripting capability.

I always thought it would be so cool to be young and at the top, now that I am there I feel like I wish I would have worked a blockbuster job or the alike to just chill out. I am under a ton of stress all the time with deadlines etc to meet, managing staff, projects etc.

Just ranting I guess...

Any suggestions/help would be apprecaited.

I would like to just sock a bunch of money away in a IRA and retire early... mid 40's? I have been putting a healthy amount into a couple IRA's already, but I am just tired of the responsibility considering I am not owner/part owner yet.

I would also agree with the latest info on the younger generation not willing to work for their money. Especially my generation. It is hard to come by hard working individuals under 28 that you can count on.

KGhaleon

heh, I was homeschooled for a large part of my life so I missed a lot. I've never been in a relationship or anything... I live alone and spend all my time struggling to find work and pay my enormous college bill.

Wish I were in your footsteps, since I live in a place where IT jobs seem to next to nil, or the people are so cheap they don't want to hire techs. When I clean computers they are so horribly infected that I can't believe the company is able to function.

I can't seem to get past the "PC repair guy" phase, as noone will hire an inexperienced person to touch their network equipment or servers(I'd like to work as an admin one day). I'm turning 23 this month and plan to fly to california after New year to try and find a job.

Of course, I'll need some money before I go...so I'm trying as hard as I can to get some jobs before then.
I'm actually thinking about getting a retail or restaurant job. sigh

macdude

What I see everyday or when I was looking for a job. Is alot of people are afraid to hire the younger guys. After I saw those articles on here I see why.

But you have to understand that you are 24 years old and when you go to a job interview you are more than likely competing against someone in there late 30s or older and the guy giving you the interview that old as well. They are afraid that you will use them as a stepping stone. When I did find a job, the owner asked me not to use him as a stepping stone. When I told my old boss I was leaving he said he knew I wouldn't stay to long because of my age. Everyone is afraid of the next generation. If you want knew job you just have to keep looking.

dynamik

I've heard that working towards a CCIE is a great stress reliever.

I know how you feel. I started college when I was 16, started my own business when I was 18, and got married when I was 19. Talk about too much too soon. I'm going to be 25 in the beginning of January, and I feel like the last five years have been a blur. I also feel like I've missed out on a lot of things as well.

Do you ever feel like you excel under stress? I work full-time, and this semester, I took a full-time course load, accepted several large free-lance web design jobs, and got my 294 (and may still get my 291 as well). This website has been pretty much been the extent of my social interaction the last few months

I'd say you definitely need a change of pace. It's good that you don't want to leave that company in a bad position; you don't want to burn any bridges. However, don't make their needs a higher priority than yours. If you decide to go to school or do something else, offer to come back and help just for that upgrade or find another way to ease that strain on them.

It sounds like going back to school and getting an MBA would help you the most with your current goals. Also, if you just want a change of pace, check this out Nerds on Site. I'm not too familiar with it, but the impression I get is that they manage all the administrative overhead of running a business while you essentially work for yourself. Or, you could just go all the way and start your own business. It's a hassle though. I found I spent much more time on administration that I would have liked. I dumped it a couple years later and just do a little freelance work here and there.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

jarjar

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

empc4000xl

take a vacation. I was running a a tomahawk missile shop on a destroyer when I was younger (26 now)and was responsible for about 60 missiles of various types and all the people that come with them. It can burn you out when you are that young and you have people that are in there 30's that you are accountable for and a bunch of guys that are younger than you that act crazy when unsupervised. You say you are the only person who can handle the jobs that are comming up maybe its time for you to pull your staffers aside and get them motovated to do better, train them, and coach them to put you out of a job. That way you can free up some time for yourself to work on future projects and give yourself some buffer time for all those projects. But 1st thing 1st take a week off work if possible and get on last min travel from yahoo and pick a place and fly away.

sprkymrk

jarjar wrote:

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

That's why we have an "evaluation" period of 90-180 days before the person becomes a permanent employee. During that time we can let him/her go for any reason (or no reason) without notice and likewise the candidate can leave for any/no reason w/o notice. We have had to use that option in the past and it saves us from the whole HR mess of making a paper trail to avoid a lawsuit.

Darthn3ss

jarjar wrote:

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

that is a horribly retarded policy. i hope your company fails horribly at whatever it does.

jarjar

Darthn3ss wrote:

jarjar wrote:

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

that is a horribly retarded policy. i hope your company fails horribly at whatever it does.

Actually, being lazy and lying on your resume is a retarded policy (for prospective employees). I can already tell you're a failure. Most people in there 20s act as if the world owes them everything and they don't have to work for it. The ones who get offended by this statement are the ones who are the biggest offenders. This kid would be gone if we weren't in the middle of the merger. The good news is that his new boss likes to watch him all day long and stops him from texting his cool friends and stops him from updating his myspace page.

jarjar

sprkymrk wrote:

jarjar wrote:

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

That's why we have an "evaluation" period of 90-180 days before the person becomes a permanent employee. During that time we can let him/her go for any reason (or no reason) without notice and likewise the candidate can leave for any/no reason w/o notice. We have had to use that option in the past and it saves us from the whole HR mess of making a paper trail to avoid a lawsuit.

The evaluation period went out the window with the merger we are in the middle of.

silentc1015

jarjar wrote:

Darthn3ss wrote:

jarjar wrote:

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

that is a horribly retarded policy. i hope your company fails horribly at whatever it does.

Actually, being lazy and lying on your resume is a retarded policy (for prospective employees). I can already tell you're a failure. Most people in there 20s act as if the world owes them everything and they don't have to work for it. The ones who get offended by this statement are the ones who are the biggest offenders. This kid would be gone if we weren't in the middle of the merger. The good news is that his new boss likes to watch him all day long and stops him from texting his cool friends and stops him from updating his myspace page.

That's pathetic, and I hope you know your policy of discriminating against young people is completely illegal. If I were to find this out while applying for a job there I would sue you for everything your worth regardless of what it cost me!

I've worked and studied harder than you can probably imagine since I was 15, and to have some jerk like you trivialize it all by basically saying all young people are worthless is more offensive than you can imagine.

You're just a troll, and that is not very mature.

sthomas

jarjar wrote:

Most people in there 20s act as if the world owes them everything and they don't have to work for it.

sprkymrk

It's not that young people are any more or less lazy than older ones from what I have seen. TechJunky's point was that employers worry that young people will learn what they can and move onto bigger and better things which is absolutley true. It was for me and it is for anyone looking to advance. That's why a company needs to have good retention policies for the good employees, especially the young ones. The older guys are usually less on the lookout for the "moving up" opportuinities and more concerned about stability. When you are settled, have a home, wife, kids in school, etc. and you like your job you are willing to stay. Young people who can be flexible with where they live can be on the lookout for better opportunities elsewhere, especially when they feel they have to wait 10 years for us old guys to retire before they can move up within the company.

And just for the record - the last time we had to let a guy go during the eval period was a guy in his 50's that we suspected had a drinking problem. We didn't want to have him around when it got worse and he needed lots of time off, or time off with pay for rehab, or having customers notice that he smelled like liquor in the middle of the day.

TechJunky

Well the younger generations should be looking for stepping stones, why hold them back because they dont want to work helpdesk their whole life? I understand you need people to do helpdesk/pc repair, but you also have to understand that with that position there is a high turn around due to its mind numbing job duties. The reason why older people are content with the job is because they get lazy in their old age and just want to do a job and then go home. Again, this is not true for everyone older, but it defiantly is pretty pertenant where I work and the staff that I manage. Try and teach a 60 year old person data structure and database customizations. He just plain can not be taught. He is content with his salary and lowly job duties and has no need to move up.

The problem we come across is lazy uneducated people. I will admit that my generation is the worst. However, if you met me in person you would probobly not hold my age against me. I manage to sell large database systems to customers, manage a store of technicians, shipping/receiving and admin staff all while doing the most technical duties as well. I am a very motivated person and professional. Most people older than me are scared to hire me due to me possibly taking their job. I manage and have people report to me that are anywhere from 30 - 60 years old. The first year was hard because they looked at me as a young punk.

However, now they look to me for answers rather than trying to find my flaws.

I would love to stay with my current company, maybe even just work 6 hour days instead of 8 to help relieve some stress and allow me to take on another obstical outside work.

Currently I am on call pretty much my whole life, so going to school is not an option. I have to deal with the politics of cases that are sent to us via our dealer.

IE: Microsoft calls and needs us to install 3 sites with 10 computers and it needs to be done on a certian date.

Since we are a reseller of their software and the only dealer in our location we cannot say no or we can possibly lose our status with the dealer and then have to look into another software solution. I then have to deal with the political BS of why things have to happen this way in this time frame etc from our vendor. I then have to explain to my staff why this is happening. Listen to them bicker etc. This all happens while I am trying to manage the million other projects at hand.

BTW, I was using microsoft as an example.

sprkymrk

The reason why older people are content with the job is because they get lazy in their old age and just want to do a job and then go home.

Most people in there 20s act as if the world owes them everything and they don't have to work for it. The ones who get offended by this statement are the ones who are the biggest offenders.

Both of these statements are way too generalizing. There are good and bad from every generation. I know younger people that are lazy and I know older people that think the world owes them something. Age has little to do with work ethics.

TechJunky

Agreed sparkymonkey.

I agree making a generalizations are normally bad, but for the purposes here it is pretty correct.

When I hit 60 I will probobly want to look into something a little less stressful and more stable due to retirement and wanting to live a long life. At a younger age you can deal with stress better physically/emotionally.

Being married to someone who has her masters in sociology and ba in psychology I feel comfortable with these statements.

silentc1015

TechJunky wrote:

Agreed sparkymonkey.

I agree making a generalizations are normally bad, but for the purposes here it is pretty correct.

When I hit 60 I will probobly want to look into something a little less stressful and more stable due to retirement and wanting to live a long life. At a younger age you can deal with stress better physically/emotionally.

Being married to someone who has her masters in sociology and ba in psychology I feel comfortable with these statements.

I've thought about pursuing a less stressful line of work when I'm older as well, TechJunky. I'm still young like yourself (25), so I love the responsibility and high-stress situations. But I've considered becoming a teacher or instructor as I get older. Of course, it's impossible to say what I'll feel like doing 25 years from now.

sprkymrk

TechJunky wrote:

Agreed sparkymonkey.

Okay techmonkey.

dynamik

TechJunky wrote:

Being married to someone who has her masters in sociology and ba in psychology I feel comfortable with these statements.

I wouldn't put too much weight on a BA in psychology... that might imply my advice has some merit

For the people taking offense, I think some people are referring to the articles in my post here: http://techexams.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29095

I'm in my mid-20s, and I see behavior like that all around me. My wife's siblings are 3-7 years younger than us, and them and their friends seem significantly worse than the people my age. It's an upcoming problem that people are concerned about; I don't think anyone's just being prejudiced.

Sie

My 2P's worth:

People of all ages and classes can be lazy / hard working etc.

It really depends upon the person and what they do with their life, but even then its their life and its up to them.

As for the OP, take some time out. Re-assess whats important to you now and what you want from your future. Return to work and go get what you want

paintb4707

sthomas wrote:

jarjar wrote:

Most people in there 20s act as if the world owes them everything and they don't have to work for it.

x2

I'm a 19 year old Admin. Not a single person has an impression of me like that, nor would they have any reason to.

If anything, I think the younger generation deserves more respect than you'd like to give credit for. Shows an abundance of determination for a better future. I know people my age still working at Target for 7.25/hr.

Your stereotypical close-minded statement makes you seem more childish than the kids that you interview. It's a scary thought that you're in charge of the interviews, I can only imagine what kind of dimwit boss would give you the responsibility.

boyles23

Wow, this post has gotten a little ridicolous with the finger pointing! I think that there is laziness in all ages, you can't classify it by age. There has been alot of discussion in relation to the younger generation being lazy but it is being used as a broad sword in this discussion. Obviously, many of the techs on this site have put in lots of effort to accomplish there goals regardless of age. That was my $.02!

I think that everyone on this forum that insulted another member should apologize and act like the grown up, mature techs we just talked about.

shednik

jarjar wrote:

Darthn3ss wrote:

jarjar wrote:

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

that is a horribly retarded policy. i hope your company fails horribly at whatever it does.

Actually, being lazy and lying on your resume is a retarded policy (for prospective employees). I can already tell you're a failure. Most people in there 20s act as if the world owes them everything and they don't have to work for it. The ones who get offended by this statement are the ones who are the biggest offenders. This kid would be gone if we weren't in the middle of the merger. The good news is that his new boss likes to watch him all day long and stops him from texting his cool friends and stops him from updating his myspace page.

First of all I don't see why you have to go around calling people pathetic or a failure...

Yes there are a lot of 'lazy' people in their 20's but to stereotype is just wrong....I'm 22 I have a wife and a son and a step son...I work full time and goto school full time(am just now finishing my degree in a week) I take offense to that statement and I know you made a lot of members on this forum made a face similar to this , because many of us are in our 20's. So if I were you I would rethink these stereotypes/generalizations that you are making...remember you are bitter about this guy working for you...yet you hired him...you say he lied on his resume??? Well maybe you needed to be more technical in your interview...thats how you can weed out ppl you are talking about. Sorry for going off about this but I am reallly irritated at comments like this yes I may be young, but I work harder then most people. I'm the youngest member of my team and I can say without hesitation that I'm more knowledgeable and harder working the the rest of them. Just my 2 cents

nel

some of the views here towards younger folk are pathetic.

You're generalising a generation (i.e. fro those articles) which were probably wrote by men who are alot older and have a dislike towards them (most probably because we all own ipods and didnt grow up playing pong!).

i find that companies wont give most young ppl a chance due to poor views like this regardless whether that young person can do the job or not - which is why most will actually decide to move on. whether we like it or not there is alot of age discriminiation out there. i admit that not all younger people are hard workers, but then again ive come across my fair share of "experianced workers" who would rather sit about on there arse all day, but we are not seeing that highlighted here are we? and why you ask? because everyone is different and stereotyping ppl doesnt help.

ive found older people than me are basically threatened because i can work at the same level and higher than those (not all the time but most) which is why ive encounted most of my problems advancing in the work place.

Inc

jarjar wrote:

Darthn3ss wrote:

jarjar wrote:

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

that is a horribly retarded policy. i hope your company fails horribly at whatever it does.

Actually, being lazy and lying on your resume is a retarded policy (for prospective employees). I can already tell you're a failure. Most people in there 20s act as if the world owes them everything and they don't have to work for it. The ones who get offended by this statement are the ones who are the biggest offenders. This kid would be gone if we weren't in the middle of the merger. The good news is that his new boss likes to watch him all day long and stops him from texting his cool friends and stops him from updating his myspace page.

I wouldn't care what he does in his idle time if the job is done.

"Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin." - please, be a bit more specific here. (I had experience where employer wanted me to clean mouse for every worker as a weekly task)

"Thinks the world owes him everything." - are you quoting or just being subjectively judgemental?

"The good news is that his new boss likes to watch him all day long and stops him from texting his cool friends and stops him from updating his myspace page." - very good, I just hope he keeps giving him various challenging tasks and not just shouting: "Hey, whadda'ya have open there?!?! Close it, sit down, hands on the table where I can see them!"

Smart companies hire a few young people now and then train them to be exactly the way their business needs. There are no bad students, per se, only unfit teachers.

I too had a similar experience while undergoing a "little" IRC addiction (since internet was available only at work), being "a star" and having enormous ego. Nevertheless, I was given an opportunity and it helped a lot. Learning by doing, learning from own and others mistakes, have shaped me into well balanced multi-tasking individual.

Bottom line: Give them a chance, treat as grownups, with respect and demand the same in return.

networker050184

It all comes down to the person, not the age. I started out young (joined the military at 17) and by the time I was 19 or 20 everyone I was responsible for was older than me. I got the oppourtunity to rise quickley in my line of work because I showed I was the best, regardless of age. Most of the older guys were content being a follower and didn't strive to be the best. I wanted to strive for the top and did everything I had to do to get there. Most people like to stereo type people and it is not right. I am 23 now and have always had a great work ethic and so do a lot of people my age. If you go passing on all the young people you have a great chance of missing out on the best person for the job. I think it would be wise to take every person on a case by case basis.

TechJunky

In general is always bad to stereo type. I apologize for any hurts feelings. Depending on geographic location etc may depend one certian stereo types... I didn't mean for this to get into a heated battle. I agree it depends on the person. However, atleast where I live the children have the attitude that is being posted here... "want everything and dont want to work for it". This unfortunantly is not the kids fault, rather their parents who did not raise them correctly.

Unfortunantly its the parents fault of these 20 year old kids with bad work ethics. Plan and simple.

This is a whole different debate, but I see it day in and day out. The parents of these kids would rather talk on their cell phone then spend quality time or even listen to their kids problems. My wife deals with this all the time with her line of work. It's really sad. I am glad my parents were very strict with me and made me work for everything.

The whole, it doesn't matter if you win or lose attitude is complete BS. What do you think happens in the real world? We dont just say everyone is a winner. You either work hard and get promoted etc in life or you are on wellfare and costing all the hard working poeple of this country their money.

This really irritates me because my sister was on wellfare, she had 2 brand new trucks, 3 snow mobiles, a 300k house and instead of wanting to sell her fun things and work she decided to leech off of the system and keep all of her expensive toys and $300k house.

IMO, she is a embarresing and irritates me.

TechJunky

I appreciate the information geared towards the original post.

I will take some time off and decide what I am going to do from there.

Unfortunantly, I had scheduled time off from Dec 26th - Jan 7th. Now my boss wants me to install 3 different databases for some big clients during my off time. The state museum, some big door company and some other place.

This alone makes me upset. I told her that she could have someone else do it. Guess what, no one else can do it because they dont know how. Imagine that?

Grr!

I am asking for another raise to stay onboard or she is hiring someone else.

Darthn3ss

jarjar wrote:

Darthn3ss wrote:

jarjar wrote:

I was tasked at hiring a desktop support/help desk individual over 3 months ago. The job started at $38k/year. I had a series of interviewees come in that were absolutely pathetic. We needed a person bad, so we hired a young guy who seemed to have what we were looking for. He's 23-25 years old. What a mistake! Wants to be a network admin but won't do all of the things one does before one becomes a network admin. Thinks the world owes him everything. I wish we could get rid of him. Now I know why companies avoid hiring young people. I'm sorry to say, this is now my policy too.

that is a horribly retarded policy. i hope your company fails horribly at whatever it does.

Actually, being lazy and lying on your resume is a retarded policy (for prospective employees). I can already tell you're a failure. Most people in there 20s act as if the world owes them everything and they don't have to work for it. The ones who get offended by this statement are the ones who are the biggest offenders. This kid would be gone if we weren't in the middle of the merger. The good news is that his new boss likes to watch him all day long and stops him from texting his cool friends and stops him from updating his myspace page.

You must be talking to someone else when it comes to:
-Lying on a resume
-Beign lazy
-Expecting the world owes me everything
-texting/calling people on the job
-my space.

I expect nothing of anyone - I don't have a problem working help desk and i'd love to do pc repair for a while. Its not preferred, mainly because of pay (but don't get me wrong - i'm not saying i'm planning on being able to go right into a high paying job)... But i do sort of need enough money breach the poverty line (that would be nice) and get a place of my own, as well as afford my car payment.

I'm slighty offended by what you're saying because its such a horrible generalization (probably true for a lot of younger people), but i'm offended because i'm trying to get in IT and now i know there are cunts like you that discriminate - but fortunately, theres federal and state law that prevents you from discriminating based on age. I seriously hope you don't work with people of other races or religion, or gender, because i'm going to have to assume that you hate them too.

KGhaleon

Since everyone is pretty annoyed with Jarjar's comments, can we inflict harm now?

dtlokee

TechJunky wrote:

I am asking for another raise to stay onboard or she is hiring someone else.

Most companies don't like being in a position where they have thin coverage in an area of their operations, they may just be trying to "protect" themselves in case you were to leave. I have heard the argument you're making many times. I have had many employees tell me they should be paid more because someone quit and now they're filling both roles. I will replace the person who quit, then what? take a pay cut? In my experience 1 person can not do the job of 2 people, no matter how hard they try.

If you look at it from an employer's perspective, you've given them a demand to give you a raise "to stay onboard". This would tell me you're unhappy with the work conditions and are only here for the money. In 6 months, I will have to give you more money to keep you happy or you will threaten to leave again. This will continue to occur. If I were put in this position, I would be looking to hire someone to back you up also.

You also stated that the job is stressful and you don't like the politics. Will more money make the job less stressful somehow? Or only mask the problem for a couple months when the money isn't worth it anymore?

[quote-"TechJunky"]This alone makes me upset. I told her that she could have someone else do it. Guess what, no one else can do it because they dont know how. Imagine that?
[/quote]

Someone somewhere can do it. Maybe not in your company but there is someone somewhere they can hire.

On the issue of age, I have had really good and really bad employees at all age levels, you cannot make the generalizations that have been made here. I am 31 and the owner of a company, I would say I've had more issues with people older than me. One of the worst employees I have ever had was a secretary (older) who thought she was my mother and tried to manage the company via proxy. She attempted to run the company often using statements inferring this was something I wanted. This resulted in 2 people leaving the company. (well 3 when I fired her)

That's my $0.02 worth