Fritz Henderson was made CEO...

...of GM this week and we should all wish him the best. I know he has a lot on his plate (like trying to save what was once the world's largest auto maker), but his first order of business should really be to shave off that mustache. There's nothing more pathetic than a balding, fifty-something relic from the '80s clinging desperately to a mustache in the vain hope that somewhere, somehow, some near-sighted chick is going to think he remotely resembles Tom Selleck--on a good day. You might as well wear a sign around your neck that says, "I went to college in the '70s and had a studio apartment in the '80s." Sure enough, I checked and he's 50 years old. What a surprise. When I was in the recruiting business, I can't tell you how many times I'd call on controllers or CFOs around my age that had mustaches. It was almost like a secret handshake. And sure enough, the conversation would quickly turn to whether or not Ron Santo would at long last finally be admitted into the Hall of Fame. Younger people in the room would look at each other quizzically as though we were speaking some foreign language. Pretty soon someone would lament the passing of St. Ronald of Reagan and there wouldn't be a dry eye in the house. Except the youngsters, of course, who would again be looking around the room at each other as if to say, "What on earth are these two geezers talking about?"

So take it from someone who grew a mustache in the '80s to look older and shaved it off a few years ago to look younger. What was once a badge of honor has become a target. I can just hear the HR people at companies feeling the pinch, "First thing we do is can all those guys with mustaches." (And don't even get me started on goatees.) So let the '80s go. They were great years, but let's face it: Hill Street Blues is off the air, O. J. is in jail, and Huey Lewis and the News are playing at state and county fairs. It's a new millennium; get with the program.