>>One of our newer programmers is 20 years older than me. It took some time for me to beat into him that he had better listen to me as I was mentoring him in his transition from PHP to ASP.NET.
>>
>>So did you eventually "break him in"?
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>>That is always a problem. I'm sure none of us would be too keen if someone 10-20 years younger was in a postion of authority - but I'd certainly try to earn that person's respect, as opposed to being a pain in the ass.
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>>This may be a shocker, but when this happens with me (someone is a good bit older and has a problem with it), I'm actually very diplomatic and really try to ease the person into the situation - because I know that being 10 years older, "going back to school", and probably unemployed, means a great deal of stress to begin with. I've actually taken a great deal of "stuff" from a few older people because I know in many cases it's the stress talking. But once in a blue moon, someone crosses the line, and I'll have an off-line "come to Jesus" conversation with the person.
>>
>>Oh, and I think you meant to say, "one of our newer programmers is 20 years older than I".....since I'm older than you, I'm allowed to correct grammar. :)
>
>I agree. It is actually a short form of: "older than I am old" isn't it? Object pronoun or subject pronoun? You are correct of course, but in day-to-day speech, sometimes it only really matters in certain sentence structures and then you have to be able to complete the sentence to know for certain:
>
>Mary likes John more than me. (Mary likes John more than Mary likes me.)
>Mary likes John more than I. (May likes John more than I like John.)
>
>These days it is sometimes difficult to get it right (after hearing daily speech for so many years) :o)
>:o)

This reminds me of a joke in an English sitcom. A disappointed girl says to her grandfather: "I wish I was dead!" And the grandmother answers, as she is in shock: "Never say that, never! I am a teacher in English, and I tell you the correct phrase is 'I wish I were dead!' "