REBECCA KUZINS

Staff Reporter

Saverio D’Agostino, a senior engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Kari Lewis, his supervisor on the Deep Space 2 Mission to Mars, share an ongoing joke.

It began when JPL colleagues spotted them together and asked D’Agostino if Lewis was his daughter. It was a logical question: D’Agostino is 52, Lewis is 25.

Until then, D’Agostino said, the fact that his boss is less than half his age never crossed his mind. “It was never an issue, except for the fact that now I occasionally remind her that I’m her father,” he laughed.

D’Agostino said working for a younger supervisor has not been a problem because he respects her ability and experience. “She didn’t start out as chief engineer,” he said. “She was assistant to the chief, and became chief when he left to form his own company. People knew of her competence. She had already been working on the project.”

Not every situation involving older workers and younger managers is as accommodating.

Denise Brouillette, a San Francisco-based management consultant, said conflicts often arise because of the way young Gen-Xers manage and older baby boomers expect to be treated.

In a worst-case scenario, older workers can resent being supervised by a younger person they perceive as less knowledgeable and experienced. Meanwhile, younger bosses can grow frustrated with older workers who they sometimes see as technologically challenged and slow to complete tasks.

In addition, Gen-Xers often like to manage the workplace as a community. Baby boomers, however, can have problems with that approach. “Boomers don’t quite get the team concept,” Brouillette said. “They don’t see themselves as part of a team.”

At JPL, however, managers and workers are used to the team approach. “JPL is a unique environment,” said D’Agostino. “The No. 1 thing that matters is a person’s competence here. If you’re good, you’re good. Some older people get virtually no respect, while some younger people deserve the respect they get.”

D’Agostino and Lewis have worked together for three years on Deep Space 2, a mission that will explore the surface of Mars. Their team of JPL engineers designed two grapefruit-sized instruments called microprobes that are scheduled to land on Mars in December to analyze soil samples that could help determine if life has ever existed on the planet.

D’Agostino has been an aerospace engineer for almost 30 years, working for the U.S. Navy and the private sector before joining JPL about 10 years ago.

That’s a marked contrast from Lewis. She began her aerospace career just three years ago, when she came to work at JPL right after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in aerospace engineering. Her only prior experience in the industry came as a summer intern at JPL.

In fact, Lewis is younger than all but a handful of the 30 engineers who report to her. At times, she acknowledged, she has felt anxious about the set-up.

“It was odd,” she said. “It wasn’t necessarily the age difference, but more the fact that they had so much more experience than I did. You never know if they’re going to treat you with respect and take your opinion into account. But I never met anybody who didn’t give me the time of day, or who discounted my opinion altogether.”

Lewis took pains to not appear dictatorial or impose her ideas on D’Agostino.

“Saverio was in charge of packaging. His opinion about it was worth much more than mine,” she said. “I let him do what he wanted, unless there was a conflict or a problem about integrating his ideas with someone else on the team. Then I would step in.”

Lewis’ collegial style impressed D’Agostino. “She had to make sure the whole (mission) works together,” he said. “She had to have the kind of knowledge that allowed her to ask the proper questions about it.”

Working with Lewis was not the first time D’Agostino has been managed by a younger person. His annual performance reviews are prepared by a supervisor who’s about 20 years his junior.

“My preference is to stay in the technical track,” he said. “Undoubtedly, there will be younger people supervising me.”