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<p>Or how will any category of boss learn about the needs of employees in different life situations?</p>
<p>In my last job, most of the managers were childless, and they couldn’t understand the needs of the parents on their staff – including such basic things as their inability to reschedule their kids’ graduations to meet the company’s needs. Now, in my current job, the young management people don’t understand the needs of the older employees.</p>
<p>But the problem is that managers who don’t share employees’ life situations may not think that the employees’ needs are legitimate. (Why would anyone want to attend their kid’s graduation?) In my case, I’m concerned that the managers may be thinking, “Anybody who has to go to the doctor that often is too sickly to be working,” even though I am actually reasonably healthy and have not missed a day for an illness in four years.</p>