I’m sitting in the Gen Why offices on a sunny afternoon as I type this, drafting a document on providing feedback to teenagers, but right now I need a break. So, rather than continuing to think about the Teenage Feedback Report Card we’re working on, I wanted to write about something else: music.

I’m a huge music fan. When I work at the office, I listen to mp3s on my laptop. When I drive, I listen to mixed CDs that  I have slaved over. When I workout, I listen to my iPod. When I read in bed at night, I put on the stereo. Silence bothers me. And while I may be an extreme case, I know that music is an important part of life for most people found in my age bracket.

So, today, I wanted to take a quick look at a couple songs, and the lessons that those songs taught me about my bosses.

The song: “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” by Guns ‘N Roses.

(I know that this is originally a Bob Dylan song, by the way, but we were listening to Axl sing it.)

The experience: My boss came into the back of the house while I was washing dishes, shut the stereo off, and took it away because he was so sick of Axl “murdering a Dylan classic.” About ten minutes later, he came in, plugged the stereo back in, and apologized for being childish.

The lesson: I was initially pretty upset. After all, I was the one in the back of the house slaving over the sanitizer, so the way I saw it, I should be the one choosing the tunes. At first, I thought I was going to learn that my boss was  a jerk. When he came in to apologize, though, I learned that he was willing to do the right thing, even if it took him a few minutes. I ended learning a bit more about him because I saw him react to something that I’m also passionate about. He doesn’t get any points for style, but I commend him for being willing to share something about himself with his employees.

The song: “Ninja Rap” by Vanilla Ice

The experience: At my retail loss prevention job, we straight-up love the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. How much so? Well, in our office, we’ve got a white board with pictures of each of us drawn up as a ninja turtle and our statistics listed next to our turtle drawings. (I’m Michelangelo, if you’re wondering.) In spite of this light-hearted take on our jobs - or perhaps because of it - we’ve been excelling this year. We’ve held the traveling trophy for being the best store in the district for two months straight. So it seemed only natural one day when our boss downloaded “Ninja Rap” and we began dancing in the office to celebrate our performance.

The lesson: Two distinct lessons here: First, I find the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles highly motivational. They were a major part of the pop culture landscape of my childhood, and so it just makes sense to want to be more like one. Might not hold for my entire generation, but most guys my age are likely more into the Ninja Turtles than you’d think. Second, our relationship with our manager is excellent; he knows what would motivate and reward us. Think about this: with a $0.99 download from the iTunes store, he was able to provide an extremely cool reward to the entire office.