Headhunter FAQ’s & Musings

Yes Virginia, according to the Mayo Clinic, workplace generation gaps do exist. This finding was published on the MayoClinic website on July 6, 2005. I will be referring to this article freguently.

As a 30 year veteran of the workplace with 16 years of that time spent (or misspent) in management, I have long believed that generation gaps exist in business, just as they do in all areas of life. One of the biggest mistakes I have seen companies make over the past few years is to totally disregard the generation gap issue when companies hire. I have seen companies hire 45 year olds to manage a groups of 25 year old workers, believing the older, and presumably wiser managers, will impart his or her wisdom on the group he or she is managing. I have also seen a company hire a 30 year old to manage a group of 50 plus year old workers believing he will “energize” the older workers. Both approaches are often receipes for disaster beause the consequences of hiring managers or supervisors to lead across large generation gaps in the workplace are not understood or they are ignored.

I learned about the generation gap the hard way when I became the Engineering Manager of the EZ PAINTR group of Newell Corporation. In my career, most of the individuals who reported to me were actually older than me and in retrospect, the “Traditionalist” (Born 1900 to 1945) as the MayoClinic.com article calls them were relatively easy to manage because of their loyalty and work ethic. Managing fellow “Baby Boomers” was also fairly easy because I could relate to them. Unfortunately, when I went to work for EZ PAINTR I was unprepared to manage Generation Xers (Born 1965 to 1980) even though I had a son who was born in 1967.

The MayoClinc.com article Workplace generation gap: Understand difference among colleagues defines Generation Xers as

“technologically savvy, having ushered in the era of vido games and personal computers during their formative years. But witnessing skyroceting divorce rates, their partents being laid off after years of dedicated service and challenges to the presidency, organized religion and big corporations instilled a sense of skepticism and distrust of institutions. Because they don’t expect employer loyalty, they see no problem changing jobs to advance professionally.”

I only wished some of the Generation Xers reporting to me would have had no problem changing jobs instead of using their positions only as a perceived springboard to further their career and run their personal lives. I read a magazine article during my management stint at EZ PAINTR that had a line that stuck with me, “Generation Xers are the biggest bunch of whiners in the history of mankind.” I really agreed with that statement back then since nothing I did seemed to positively motivated the Generation Xers. They were usually motivated to get as much time away from work as possible to work on their advanced degrees, go to the tanning booth, or work on their personal lives.

Mercifully, after two years with Newell my boss fired me. He said that I was not Newell material and that I did not relate well to my subordinates. I had met all of my management by objective goals and he even said that if he gave me my review it would have to be at least satisfactory. After getting over my initial shock of being fired after receiving outstanding reviews throughout my 20 year career, I felt very relieved. I also had to admit that I had not related well to my Generation Xer subordinates. To this day I am not totally sure why I had so much trouble relating to them and I did try. Suprisingly I have decided I was not firm enough with them. I should have fired some of them sooner than I did and forced them to meet me half way instead of responding to their demands most of the time. Now lets see how the Mayo Clinic Staff says I should have handled my Generation Xer staff.

“Be aware of the differences. Acknoledge that everyone is different your colleagues’ unique experiences influence their attitudes toward work.”

“Appreciate the strengths. Instead of harbouring frustration over differences, focus on the positive ttributes your co-workers possess.”

“Manage the differences effectively. Once you’ve acknowledged the differences and taken time to consider the strengths of your co-workers, find ways to interact with them that will be mutually beneficial.”

Obviously, the staff at the Mayo Clinic jotted down some warm an fuzzy strategies for dealing with the baby boomer/generation Xer conflicts but obviously they have never been in a management role. I was never able to “find ways to interact with them that will be mutually beneficial”. I’d welcome any emails that can shed some light on how baby boomers should manage generation Xers.

I personally believe generation Xers will have an easier time managing baby boomers than vice versa because baby boomers will put up with more from their managers that generation Xers will. Actually, the workplace strategies for generation Xers to use with baby boomers listed in the Mayo Clinic article, Workplace generation gap: Understand differences among colleagues, is quite good:

“Show respect. Acknowledge that you have less experience and can learn from them. You may be quite bright, but you can always learn something new.”

“Choose face-to-face conversations. Many baby boomers find e-mail or voice mail too impersonal and prefer speaking with someone face to face.”

“Give them your full attention. Multitasking may help you accomplish a lot during the day. However, if you’re typing away at an e-mail while your baby boomer colleague is talking to you about a project, chances are you’ll wind up at odds with that colleague. Giving you full attention at the times it’s needed actually may be more efficient in the long run.”

“Play the game.” Workplace plitics are a fact of life. As a generation Xer, you may be completely turned off by politics, but sometimes, you’ve just got to play the game. Gaby boomers are diplomatic and particularly adept at navigating politically charged environments.”

“Learn the corporate history. Unless you’ve been with a company since its inception, know that plenty of things transpired at the organization long vefore you set foot in the door. Find out what’s gone right and what’s gone wrong in the past – especially the lessons learned over the years. Nothing rankles a boby boomer more than a new employee who breezes in and wants to change things, with seemingly no thought given to what’s gone on before.”

The MayoClinic.com article goes on to talk about what they Millennials (Generation Yers?) Born between 1981 and 1999 and says:

“Millennials are eager to learn and enjoy questioning things. They’re confident and have high self-esteem. They’re collaborators and favor teamwork, having functioned in groups in school, organized sports and extracurricular activities from a very young age. They reject the notion that they have to stay within the rigid confines of a job description. Expect them to keep their career options open. As opposed to generation Xers who change jobs, millennials are more likely to make entire career changes or to build parallel career.”

I am not going to talk much about millennials because many in this generation are still in school. Some millennials have entered the workforce but the numbers are still to small to have had much of an impact yet. If you want to see some millenials in action, I recommend that you watch THE APPRENTICE where you can see them debase themselves while fighting over a bone that Donald Trump throws out. So much for the high self-esteem that the Mayo Clinic Staffers believe millenials have.

I have written this blog article more to raise questions than to answer them. I just want to point out that if a company is not careful when hiring, they can set managers up for failure. Just take care when hiring to insure that the new hire will fit not only the company culture but also mesh well with the generation they will be working with or managing.