Our industry is quite literally dying, the average age is probably somewhere around 55-70 in most shops. The mainframe industry has nearly no mid tenure employees to keep things running and to assist in training, once those between 50 and 70 retire or die.

I have personally written numerous articles on how we train and recruit younger people and many others have offered solutions too, but honestly speaking that is probably the least of our worries as an industry at this point. If we can't retain those people we recruit, then it doesn't matter how many people we bring onto the platform, it'll just be a waste of resources.

What kind of work environment are we offering our young colleagues? Do we let them try out new technologies? Do we teach them that there is always only one way to solve things even when it isn't harmful to do it a different way? There's probably many more questions mainframe teams should be asking themselves.

There's things one HAS to learn when they come onto the mainframe platform, technologies that are quite old, that is completely fine. The issue on this platform is that there's often an unwarranted hostility towards newer tools, if we tell younger colleagues "no you can only work with this tool that we have been using for 20+ years" when there's alternatives they are more comfortable with and work perfectly fine then we will create an environment that's unattractive for younger employees. We'll also never get any better because we never try anything new. Why should a younger person join this platform where they aren't allowed to try anything, when they can go to different platform where they are allowed to try new things?

Just recently I mentioned VS Code in a LinkedIn post, a tool I use for my work on a daily basis and really enjoy, I was told that tools that aren't made for 3270 have no place in the mainframe industry and that I shouldn't try to change things. I haven't burned down my company or our system by introducing VS Code and it's allowed me to work much faster than if I had to adjust to the editor in ISPF (which I can still use to an extent but personally don't like using). It often feels like certain people in the mainframe space feel personally attacked when I say I prefer something different from them or think that I want to take it away from them, which I don't.

This ultra conservative mentality around new technology some mainframers have is incredibly hypocritical as well, if we hadn't embraced change we'd still be using teletypes and punch cards. Today we'd probably laugh at those who were resistant to switching away from punch cards or other technologies that are now completely dead, yet people with that same mentality are still pervasive and are often defended as reasonable in the name of "stability". We're in an age where it's standard for companies to have sandboxes and vendors to provide trials, it's relatively risk free to try things if it's done appropriately. You could be missing out on great tools if you aren't willing to give them a try.

I have personally heard extremely bollocks statements about newer tools that were completely unfounded, claims such as z/OSMF completely tanking mainframes or "it's just abstraction so there's no value in it". I find the claim about abstraction particularly interesting because you could easily argue ISPF is just abstraction in some ways as well. There's definitely a value in creating user friendly tools, tools that are "just abstraction" can help people understand what's underneath better and are less likely to scare away newcomers.

No one wants to work on a platform where their ideas are shut down and they're told to just get in line because touching the system might break it (it shouldn't, it's IBM Z). If we want the mainframe platform to survive into the future we need a cultural shift, we need an environment that's a bit more open to trying things (in a controlled fashion) and people need to be a bit more open minded. If YOU want the platform to survive it's up to you to create a welcoming environment, young people won't "get in line" they'll simply go elsewhere if they feel like the mainframe space is impossible to leave a mark on.