Catherine Johns, a communications consultant at Rogen Inc., remembers an encounter that highlighted the generation gap at work.
In a training exercise, she had paired up with a younger woman and instructed her to maintain eye contact while listing five items in a category that Johns would choose. So, Johns asked her to name five Beatles songs.
A long pause followed. “Well,” her partner ventured, “I know there was one called `Help Me.'”
“I was floored,” says Johns.
While Johns experienced only a brief glitch in the exercise, differing generational attitudes and values can lead to “angst in the workplace,” says Robert Wendover, director of the Center for Generational Studies in Aurora, Colo.
Might “angst” be an overstatement? Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman, authors of “When Generations Collide” (HarperBusiness, $25.95), agree that “there’s pain and hurt feelings out there.” Witness, they say, the bandying about of negative labels like “slacker” or the not uncommon assumption that 50-somethings are clueless about technology.
Such stereotyping hinders communication and hurts business, say the authors.
One major source of potential conflict, according to Wendover, is varying interpretations of a work ethic. “Older people live to work,” he contends, “while younger people work to live.”
Or, as Peter Fleischer, partner in charge of the workplace communications practice at Ketchum Public Relations, says: “Younger workers see work as an enabler of play at an earlier age than other generations.”
Another variation in views comes in pacing careers. Wendover says an old joke among Boomers was if you have a bad boss, wait a few years until he gets promoted. But because younger workers rarely expect to spend their entire careers with one company, they aren’t willing to wait around if they feel frustrated on the job.
Their need for quick results as well as a tendency to be less formal than previous generations prompts them to challenge the status quo. Says Wendover: “Gen Xers are very good problem solvers and will have no problem saying [to an older supervisor], `You may be in charge, but what you’re saying doesn’t make sense.’ But a Baby Boomer expects more diplomacy and will take offense to that.”
At the same time, younger workers may set themselves up for disappointment by expecting too much too soon. Stillman relates the story of a Gen Xer who complained that he’d given his all at work but had “no idea what they think of my performance.”
The worker had been in the job for two weeks.
Marie Swain, assistant director of the admissions department at the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, manages to bridge generational divides. Swain, 31, oversees a staff of eight, ranging in age from 21 to 52. She says younger workers offer energy and innovation, but may run the risk of appearing too casual to co-workers as well as to prospective students.
For example, she says, describing the school as “really cool” or “awesome” conveys the wrong message. “It’s very important to reflect that it is serious training in the culinary arts,” she says.
Swain says when she’s trying to motivate people, it helps to be aware of different staffers’ mindsets. Older workers often “see the benefit in what already works,” she says, which can sometimes make them more resistant to change. In that case, she lets them vent their concerns about new methods. When explaining what she wants from younger workers, she tries to use examples they can relate to on a personal level.
Fleischer echoes this point: “Young workers have a lot less tolerance for being lectured to; they need tangible examples of `how this affects me.'”
Another area of possible discord is professional presence. “Things like dress, grooming, how you carry yourself, chewing gum, or interjecting slang into conversations do matter,” says Pamela Holland, co-author of “Help! Was That a Career Limiting Move?” (Career Skills Press, $10.95).
Roseann Sullivan, president of Sullivan Communications in San Francisco, sees pitfalls in terms of presentation according to gender as well as generation. “Older women may not speak up because they have a tendency to wait to be called on. A younger woman may speak up but because she doesn’t speak as authoritatively as she could, nobody pays attention. [They] tend to speak quickly, which sends the message that `I’m not that valuable.'”
Other concerns for young women: a questioning inflection, being too soft-spoken, too deferential or sounding cute.
Experts say mutual respect, flexibility and creating open dialogue will help workers get on the same page in terms of communication styles.
Some businesses do get the best of both worlds. Susan Diamond, 45, and her partner Johanna White, 27, run the White Diamond Consulting Group in Northbrook. “It’s been great for us,” says Diamond. “[Johanna] has a master’s degree, whereas I didn’t finish college, but I have 25 years of experience. I’m kind of a know-it-all by nature and I never expected to learn so much from her.”
