So I’m getting a promotion soon (yay!), moving up from just a line cook to sous-chef and I’ve only been with this company for a few months. Thing is that I’m still quite young (mid twenties) and will be the direct supervisor of some people a fair bit older than I am. Think 10-20 years older. It might just still be a bit of imposter syndrome, but the idea of having to tell people who have been in the business for far longer than I what to do and such really weirds me out.
I feel I wouldn’t like it if “some young brat” that just got hired almost immediately gets a promotion and becomes my supervisor eventhough I worked at the company for far longer. Though maybe not everyone feels like this.
Do other people who have experience with a situation like this have any advice on how to deal with this? It’s kinda been keeping me up at night…
A good manager doesn’t tell people how to do their jobs. If a person doesn’t know how to do their job, they shouldn’t be doing that job, regardless of their age. The manager makes expectations known, tries to facilitate communication, and makes a reasonable effort to provide an environment for a person to succeed. Your job is to coordinate the effort of a team, so be understanding but do not allow yourself to be disrespected.