In today’s world, Senior and junior: a great combination: The need for a mentor for Millennials. The experience and vision offered by the senior (veteran worker) to the junior (young inexperienced) are a value in extinction in an increasingly hostile and competitive work environment.
Not all the knowledge is in the books or it happens for having gone to the university. Isaac Newton, father of modern physics, said that if he had managed to see further it was because he had climbed on the shoulders of giants. With this maxim, he popularized an old topic of scholastic rhetoric according to which each generation achieves progress that is based on those previously achieved. There is also the importance of the mentors who cross our path and serve as a beacon. In the best of cases, they even channel the course of our lives. Qualities such as admiration, respect, empathy and humility play a fundamental role between mentor and mentee.
The veteran’s teachings contribute to the personal growth of the novice. But in recent years the framework for the transmission of knowledge has been transformed from top to bottom. The new digital environment leads us, increasingly, to a self-sufficient, collaborative, transversal and distance education. The tutelary figures are diffuse. As experts in educational matters emphasize, there is no electronic device capable of generating the inspiration that emerges in the contact between people, because intuition, enthusiasm and sensitivity are keys that are often activated when we interact personally. Although the role of the mentor is on the rise in some work environments, it is not the general tone. The market is competitive and precarious. There is a permanent struggle to gain a foothold. With this scenario, it is very difficult for relations between juniors and seniors to arise naturally. On the other hand, the increasing robotization of production processes and digital platforms have put some traditional jobs in check.
We also witness the increase of an increasingly insurmountable gap between generations, which adds to the crisis of authority, and the disparity of rights between veteran workers (even with good working conditions) versus those who get their first job.
Another obstacle is mini jobs or temporary employment In Spain, with an average duration in contracts that does not reach two months, a high unemployment rate, c among those under 25 years old and a fairly high percentage of overqualification, there is little time left and little will for the slow work that requires mentoring.
Not enough is invested in the professional development of the newly incorporated. Instead of training and guiding inexperienced candidates, they tend to exploit their vocation knowing that another can replace it at any time. Thus it is difficult to maintain the illusion and optimism in any company or organization. If the advice and vision of the veteran is not transmitted, all this added value will fall into oblivion. The apprentice will be orphaned as a guide. In mountaineering, a climber of recognized experience opens a path in the mountain, facilitating the path to the next explorer who wants to reach the top. The mentor is one who loves his subject and is willing to share it with someone who undertakes a similar career. It does not impose its vision, but prefers to form a creative duo: the first encourages the next to interpret the challenges from another perspective and not to stick to the established.
The true teacher does not seek to be imitated: he provides the student with security, confidence and keys for his improvement. For all this, it is preferable that mentoring arise spontaneously. It should be a lasting link capable of building strategic long-term skills. If the relay takes place without passing the baton, we are condemned, as in the myth of Sisyphus, to repeat the same process indefinitely from the beginning, with the danger as well as falling back into the usual mistakes.
The figure of the tutor is a tool capable of building bridges between generations and strengthening team spirit. Although now there is a great facility to access mountains of information and we have the best technology, the essence of any job is still the ability to identify what is relevant, interpret it and know how to communicate it. What better help than someone who has gone through this situation before?
tor está en auge en algunos entornos de trabajo, no es la tónica general. El mercado es competitivo y precario. Hay una lucha permanente por hacerse un hueco. Con este panorama, es muy difícil que surjan de manera natural relaciones entre juniorsy seniors. Por otro lado, la creciente robotización de los procesos de producción y las plataformas digitales han puesto en jaque algunos empleos tradicionales.