Is it professionalism or old school?

One of my favorite binge-watch shows is Mad Men. It’s a well-written and produced television show. I’m also intrigued by the business standards of the day.

In that day – the 1960s – men wore suits and were in charge. Women usually played a subservient role. It was considered standard etiquette for a professional to have a well-stocked bar in his office to offer drinks to clients and colleagues.

And it was considered proper manners to smoke and carry a lighter to light another person’s cigarette. It seemed like everyone smoked. I sometimes look at those times (which were before my time) and think about how crazy that was.

If you were to bring the fictional Don Draper back and provide advice to a new college grad, it would be an interesting sight. While the entry-level worker would marvel at him smoking indoors, he or she also wouldn’t know how to respond to an offer for a whiskey or bourbon.

Draper would be just as flummoxed with the new employee’s attire. “What do you think this is Saturday?” Never mind if the newby was a woman expecting to serve in a “man’s role.”

The times they are a changin’

Times and customs change. We may not have racial and gender equality yet, but we have come a long way. Thanks to technology and rethinking of traditions, we do so many things differently from how we did things as recently as twenty years ago.

If someone from the sixties or seventies came back and gave advice, he would sound like the proverbial grumpy old man. He would wonder where the secretary was to take notes in the meeting. He would expect people to dress in suits and ties.

We can pontificate about these hypotheticals of people coming out of the past and comparing their standards to ours today. But it happens every day when a baby boomer finds himself working with a Generation Y worker with his own way of doing things.

I often question myself before giving advice to younger employees to determine whether I’m giving good advice on professional behavior or am I being an old fuddy-duddy that is out of touch with the times.

Some of the times when I...