Connections
Irritation by Generation
Tamara J. Erickson, 07-12-2009
In the coming months, I hope to share insights I’ve gained from my research, as well as specific ideas to strengthen your organizations’ employee experience in important ways. And I hope you’ll join the discussion; please share your perspectives, approaches and questions.
Let’s look at some common sources of irritation in today’s workplace. As we welcome four generations, each with very different habits and assumptions, I see a growing number of stress points popping up, driven by generational diversity.
Here are the widest gaps across the generations:
• The meaning of work and its implications for how members of each generation view time and place: Members of older generations began their careers when work was the time one spent visibly on the job. This view is a logical carryover from a manufacturing-based economy: Employees had to be at the assembly line.
In contrast, tech-immersed younger workers tend to view work as something you do anywhere, anytime and find the rigidity of set work hours a throwback to another era. It’s easy for individuals from different generations to misinterpret each other’s behaviors regarding time and place. Is someone who starts work at 9:30 a.m. working less hard than other team members who start at 8:30? Does it matter whether people are working in the office, at home or somewhere else?
• How generations communicate and form relationships: Preferred communication approaches can cause misunderstandings. Younger generations are not only more comfortable using brief electronic communication than members of older generations may be, but may be annoyed if messages are not answered quickly. On the other hand, team members from older generations may feel offended by a lack of face-to-face interaction.
• How generations sync up: Figuring out how to get together can be a challenge among generations. Older generations are planners and schedulers; Gen Yers are coordinators. Boomers and Xers are frequently very annoyed by younger team members’ seemingly seat-of-the-pants approach. Yers often find their colleagues’ reliance on prescheduled meetings and schedules inefficient and frustratingly slow.
• How generations find information and learn new things: How certain generations approach new tasks and obtain necessary information is likely different. Boomers and traditionalists are linear learners. Most are inclined to attend training classes, read manuals and absorb the requisite information from expert sources before beginning the task at hand.
Xers rely heavily on the Internet. Gen Yers are largely on-demand learners. They figure things out as they go, reaching out to the people who can provide the answers.
• Job assignments: The generations have different expectations for when and how frequently individuals will get plum new job assignments. Boomer and Xer managers who fall back on arguments about the need to “pay your dues like I did” run the risk of turning energetic young employees off.
• The meaning of feedback: Feedback has two meanings in today’s workplace. Boomers expect that a “feedback discussion” with the boss will be an assessment of performance in which the boss renders a judgment. It’s not something that occurs on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis — once or twice a year is plenty.
But because Yers learn through personal interactions, a Yer who says, “I’d like more feedback,” is almost always expressing a desire to learn more. Yers are looking for ideas, input, suggestions or coaching.
In general, a straightforward, effective way to help multigenerational groups work together is to establish ground rules or norms for issues that lead to easy misunderstandings. The key is not to declare any point of view right or wrong, but to surface and discuss openly any differences in expectations and ensure that everyone is comfortable with — or at least clearly understands — the agreed-upon norms. Discussing the differences and agreeing on a workable approach will help head off potential conflicts that can result from generational diversity. «
Tamara J. Erickson is a McKinsey Award-winning author and expert on organizations, innovation and talent. She is the author of Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work. She can be reached at editor@diversity-executive.com.
