Helping new and old employees find common ground
Ah, what to do with the younger generation coming into the workforce today?
Little to no respect for authority; not motivated by money; work to live rather than live to work; free agent careerists; disloyal ― the list goes on and on.
The worst mercenaries going, it seems.
Nonsense, says Jennifer Deal, author of Retiring the Generation Gap: How Employees Young and Old Can Find Common Ground. They just want a little respect.
However, how people want to be respected can be very different based on their age. Established employees often complain about younger hires not respecting their opinions even though some see respect as “doing what I say.”
Younger employees, on the other hand, feel respected when they are listened to ― when their ideas are valued, says Deal.
In fact, Gen Y workers can actually teach entrenched employees a few things about making it in the modern workforce, says Penelope Trunk, who heads up the Brazen Careerist, a professional social network for younger people.
The areas where Gen Y can run circles around you? There are several, she says. For instance ...
Productivity. Young people can find information faster and sort information faster than older people. They collaborate on wiki-type tools with ease. They crowdsource. They benefit from the plasticity of the brain, which has adapted, over their Internet-based lives to process information faster.
Communication. It’s often said that Gen Y-ers can’t write and talk face-to-face, but it actually turns out that young people are better communicators than everyone else. A large study at Stanford, for instance, shows that the process of writing online, for a large audience, throughout childhood, is a terrific way to learn to write effectively.
And while most generations wrote only for school assignments, your most recent colleagues have been writing constantly ever since they could type, building communication skills that are sharper and more effective than preceding generations., she maintains.
So there.
How is the generational mix where you work? A harmonious workplace or a daily repeat of 'World's Worst Sunday Dinners'?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
Posted by: Dianna T. | Nov 18, 2021 9:11:42 AM
I am the youngest female employee at my workplace and there are only 3 females in total. It employs mostly men over the age of 50. I am 23. I find it very difficult to have conversations with them as they are old enough to be my parents and we really don't have much in common.
Posted by: carl | Nov 18, 2021 9:26:24 AM
Well now, if the world revolved around cell phones and text messaging I have no quibbles about the article BUT this is not the case, you can't build a bridge with a cell phone or pave a street. Hard to build a car with one hand whilst texting with the other. And communication would be easier in Latin for all the writing abilities shortening words, using smiley faces and acronyms. Yes I can see the benefits of this type of experience in certain segments of business but overall- Phooey-- its just not happening. The attitudes are generally abysmal or just down right disrespectful. They forget that the generation before them are the ones who built these contraptions in the first place. Most of them should be listening instead of talking
Posted by: Pat | Nov 18, 2021 10:25:30 AM
I am an older employee who recently has been exposed to Gen Y in the workplace. They can't spell, they can't write and they can't do math. However they run circles around me with technology & mostly they are pleasant to work with. I get frustrated because I have a 'standard' of writing for the company and the people we are trying to buy into our product and company are of my generation so I find myself wasting time proofreading and fixing when I should be doing my own work. And oh yes, they are there to learn from the boomers because they are on to the next job and bigger pay as soon as it comes along. Promotion and raises are important to this crew because they are the generation that we created - and they want it, they want it all and they want it all right now. Stupid boomers who thought we should pay for what we buy with real money. As one of my daughters said "Mom you'll never have anything" but what I have is payed for.
Posted by: Bob | Nov 18, 2021 11:28:16 AM
I am 55 and work in IT. However with my grey hair I find many young staffers presume, it is almost like a prejudice, that I am slow and out of it. Which is far from the truth. When it comes to technology and productivity I run circles around most of the young staff in my office. Unfortunately our culture, thanks to the media (like this article), treats those with grey hair, as out of touch morons, with little to offer. That is far from reality, old timers like me have served the company for years and have built a wealth of experience which can be tapped. Yes, the young staff should be listened to, but, respect and being listened to needs to flow both ways.
Posted by: Kale | Nov 18, 2021 1:23:08 PM
It all comes down to the individual. I say it is unfair to paint all Generation Y's with this brush. I am the youngest at my place of employment and I am the one proof reading the work of employees older than myself. Maybe I am an exception but I highly doubt I am the only one.
As for the work to live attitude, I believe that the main reason for this is that we do not have the opportunities our parents did. I am not expecting to ever own a house or to have children because the cost is just too high. So what reason do we have to live to work?
Posted by: education | Nov 18, 2021 1:38:54 PM
In terms of age, I'm at the edge between gen X and gen Y and, because of my job, I am exposed to gen Y all the time. It seems like many of them have been brought up in a different environment where they feel entitled to certain things. Everything has always been about them and it's strange for them to not be valued. They don't seem to understand the concept of starting at the bottom of the food chain. From my point of view, anyone coming into a new job is worth nothing and needs to prove to the world that they are worth something. It is only at that point that their opinion will (maybe) matter.
On the other hand, however, the older generation who base their worth solely on "years on the job" are also silly. These people think that, because they've been on the job for 20 years, automatically means that they know everything. There have been numerous cases where the older worker who has been doing the job for 20 years has been doing it wrong for 20 years. If your 20 years of experience can be acquired in a week by someone smarter and more motivated, maybe you don't deserve respect from the younger generation (from a work-related point of view).
Posted by: Innadiated | Nov 18, 2021 3:17:59 PM
How can "Gen-Y" respect a generation who figured that offshoring work, fractional reserve banking, and credit card ponzi schemes would be a good idea? Most Gen-Y "work to live", because all they can get is crappy service jobs that barely pay for their huge tutition fees. Gen-Y feels entitled to everything? Well they do watch the baby boomer operated TV stations, that promise them careers in hollywood if they will only audition for "so you think you can dance?".
Sorry baby boomers, but who owns the McMansions again? Who over-borrowed themselves to the point of a systematic global baning collapse? Which generation was it again that decided building quality products should be traded in for throw away plastic crap made in China?
As another commentor here said: " They forget that the generation before them are the ones who built these contraptions in the first place." -- We haven't forgotten, in fct we're quite aware what the baby boomers have and have not done. You HAVE worried about your pensions, supporting company stocks that were trading the future generations jobs, you HAVEN'T bothered to think further than your own interests and now will shortly be facing a pension crisis because you couldn't understand the simple concept of working on borrowed time.
I suggest you all listen to what Gen-Y has to say, we don't respect what you've built for a reason.
Posted by: Sandy | Nov 18, 2021 3:56:00 PM
This is the first time I am powerless NOT to answer. Assuming that anyone 50 ish cannot related to younger and older generations is ridiculous and employers are missing out on interviewing valuable assets due to age discrimination. I can communicate with all, enjoy the music and past times of the young and old (rock music , UFC am exteremely well educated) and most importantly creative, willing to teach and willing to learn. When I send my CV no one calls due to my age. Their loss and clear indication of how much most managers are missing out by not pairing my experience with the eagerness of youth.
Posted by: vernon king | Nov 18, 2021 4:49:43 PM
Well most of these companies will pay for it in the near future because their children will be after them and how they will raise them is yet to be seen but the ones that are having kids allready are having the childrens aid take their kids away from them so in the future they will have to pay for their mistakes and those big corperations will have to deal with the outcome and they should call them generation V for videos,ps3 etc .If they were watching their kids instead of playing games then they would still have their kids and this is a big problem today just that the media is not covering it.
Posted by: Mike | Nov 20, 2021 6:55:58 AM
I think your comments on productivity and communication are very simplistic. As far as productivity goes in the workforce schooling is only the beginning, once you land in corporate America you essentialy start over and productivity has a lot to do with experience...and experience with time performing your particular function. On the communication front I think that the real change is format, and the new format is less formal. In corporate America I found that representing your company particularly with external communications is something that almost had to be earned (I had some very strict mentors) but they did help me keep my foot out of my mouth. That being said, in my experiences the younger people that I have worked with have been excellent, I believe that this transition will present no more difficulties than all of the transitions that have come before, there are very bright people out there and it has very little to do with the generation in which they reside. Cheers
Posted by: Patrick | Nov 20, 2021 7:56:53 PM
I guess my perspective is why make the effort to include the x-ers in the workplace anymore than anyone else? Do you include other cultures, other sexual orientation or a balanced gender workplace? It is that very expectation of needing to accommodate this generation that is the root of the problem. As parents we have entitled an entire generation to the point that now we think corporate America should bend for them. Baloney. When I started working at 16 (30 years ago) there was no expectation that any corporate culture would bend to me or make allowances. I was expected to fit in with the existing culture at the company. If I didn’t represent that I was fired. If companies believe that they are getting better employees by allowing cellphones or internet access to younger employees while at work or other gen-x crap they are only putting their company on a slow road downhill. Work is work. Get used to it and stop expecting it to be a “lifestyle”.
Posted by: jim | Nov 20, 2021 9:45:25 PM
I deal with young people on a daily basis and by young I'd go into the mid thirties now. I am going to generalize and say there are many good young people out there by any standard you care to measure them by.
However, there is a large and ever growing number out there who can't read, write or do simple arithmetic and they don't care.
But just to be fair, if I ever needed someone who could text, work a cell phone, play a video game or twitter or face-book, I'd hire them in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Nicolias Ilchuk | Nov 22, 2021 6:05:03 AM
It is apparent that in both cases young and old,and I mean still participating in the workforce regardless of occupation. There is a huge number of younger people who feel entitled to what was created by the toils of a past generation,however savvy with new technology as a means to share Idea's, nothing replaces common sense and courtesy with a touch of respect. one can learn a lot by not repeating the mistakes of other's by listening. We learn from each other by sharing. Us older dude's may be analogue as opposed to digital but we learned the same way as generations before us by listening and adding a new perspective to an old problem. The challenges are endless and I can say personally that I miss my mentor's very much. Had they lived long enough to continue developing their dreams,I would have been far more enlightened to the challenges that lay ahead. I will carry their spirit and pioneering attitude well into the future for many years to come. Most newbies will never experience hopefully the hardships that created the passions that they have inherited, should they never take them for granted. One comment caught my attention, My generation will never have the opportunities of the past one to own a house ,raise a family etc. First you have to put other's above yourself. Raising a child is usually the manner at which this is acheived for mos't people. When you have achieved overcoming one's self centered attitude a very wonderful thing happens. You grow. Good luck to you all.
Posted by: Gina | Nov 22, 2021 8:59:38 AM
The problem with lack of respect seems to cross age groups. We live in an age of disrespect. Thanks again go, in large part, to the media. Literacy skills among Gen Y are my big worry. Most of a generation (including those who go to university) have horrible, horrible writing. They have been shortchanged by a school system which has not taught them. There is no way anyone should graduate from high school with this kind of writing. I don't think Gen Y is any different from previous generations. Every group of young people has always seemed self-absorbed to older people, ever since the beginning of time. But seriously, in our culture, agism is a bigger problem. The slurs against older people are so common that you hear them even coming out of the mouths of older people themselves. Among younger people, such anti-age attitudes are commonplace.
Most of the over-forties I know are very handy with computers. We've been using them now for twenty years or more too! Hello. Even my eighty-year old father and aunts are on-line every day. Using wiki tools is hardly a highly skilled activity.