Battle of the Ages

A baby boomer refuses to learn the basics of Outlook, so he has his assistant print out all of his e-mails.

A Generation-X manager is astounded that when her youngest employees call in sick, they actually admit that they have hangovers.

And many millennials, the latest parlance for Generation Y, complain that their good ideas go ignored.

You don’t have to read these complaints from local offices to know that values and work styles differ by generation. From interns to CEOs, recruiters to demographers, everybody’s talking about the challenges of multigenerational offices.

For the first time in American history, four generations are working side-by-side, each with their own ideas of how things should work, and when their ideas collide, office life can get unpleasant.

At least, that’s what we’ve heard from some readers. Here’s what seasoned workplace consultants have to say about four such intergenerational dilemmas.

I manage two employees in their upper 60s. They’re great workers, but it’s a challenge to get them to understand—dare I say tolerate?—Generation-Y employees. The older workers complain that the younger workers don’t answer their phones, spend too much time talking, bring too much of their personal life into the office, and blame other people, including the older workers, for their mistakes. I love the excuse: "No one told me not to do it that way."

Because of the leadership classes I’ve taken, I know to explain to each group why another generation acts the way they do. They still have a hard time working together. God help the Ys when the Zs take over. —"Stuck in the middle," Fort Myers

The underlying root of the older workers’ frustration—and the tension between them and millennials in general—may be a fear of competition taking place between the younger and older workers, says Bradley Huff, an intergenerational consultant and owner of Personnel & Recruiting Solutions in Naples. Baby boomers are often afraid the millennials can do the same jobs for less money, and millennials are afraid the boomers will expose them for how little they actually know.

"It makes perfect sense that it would manifest this way," Huff says. "People tend to feel [that] directing attention to someone else means they get a free pass."

Although this tends to be more pronounced among different generations, age doesn’t always play a role. In fact, Huff says, many workplace issues are passed off as intergenerational when they are not. For example, personality clashes can be as simple as extroverts conducting business differently than introverts, regardless of age.

The Gen-Xer should have no problem managing discord if he takes the time to figure out how each of his employees is wired, Huff says. "If you know your people and their needs, you can provide leadership that is resonant when it needs to be and directive when it needs to be—and then the generational differences are rendered moot."

To help prevent tensions from developing in the first place, Huff recommends creating an environment where employees understand the different skills each brings. Shining a light on how everyone is wired will make a better-connected workplace, he says.

Roaring twenties: This 61-year-old’s boss was half his age—as was everyone else in the office.

I had come to a real estate job, basically flipping properties, from a corporate sales background. Before, when I went to work, I was there to work. This job was more what Microsoft might envision: super-casual; there’s a foosball table in the middle of the room. There was yelling and screaming and a lot of swearing.

Also, my hearing isn’t as good as it used to be. I would tell my co-workers that, and they’d make an effort [to keep it down] but then go back to yelling. I had to take my phone outside in order to hear people. When I took calls inside and my co-workers were swearing in a loud voice, sometimes clients heard them and would ask, "What’s going on over there?" I left. Now I work in an office that’s much quieter. —"Mr. Conservative," Cape Coral

Here we have an individual coming from years of working in a time-and-effort economy, and he has to assimilate into an entrepreneurial economy. "Regardless of a person’s age, this can be a difficult adjustment, as the requirements and rewards are significantly different," says Huff.

"On the subject of the entrepreneurial nature of this firm, we can accurately generalize that the owner had very little risk aversion. It would be appropriate to surmise that the environment would be, at the very least, unconventional," Huff says.

That’s the sort of thing that should be recognized before a job is offered or accepted. The cultural realities and expectations of the job should be defined during the hiring process.

The swearing and loud environment, however, aren’t exclusive to the territory of millennial-driven offices. Such behavior is just a lack of professionalism and decorum, Huff says, and is not only prevalent among all age groups, "It’s usually indicative of other personal dysfunctions that also transcend age."

Arrested Development: This baby boomer is shocked by millennials’ background checks.

It amazes me that our younger applicants don’t realize that arrests or drugs will play into their hiring process. Recently we had somebody who said they hadn’t done drugs in six months, but drugs showed up in the screenings. Another prospective hire failed to mention that he had been arrested for discharging a firearm from an automobile a few months prior. Both candidates knew they’d have drug and background checks done.

The thing I get mad about is that I’ve wasted my time. Their references will be great, their resume great, and after all that work I get mad because they’ve disappointed me. —"Bummed-out boomer," Naples

there may be a generational issue here, and it’s not that millennials don’t care who finds out about their drug use. "Rather, it’s that this boomer has forgotten what it was like when members of her generation were in their teens and early 20s. If boomers would take time to think back, they would recall that their generation made a name for itself in pushing the envelope as far as they could with their free love slogans, experimentation with drugs and anti-establishment attitude. It was not until later that they developed a more conservative respect for rules," says Gerry Hoeffner, president of Personnel Dynamics Consulting Group, a Fort Pierce company that specializes in change management, corporate culture enhancement and employee development.

Further, he adds, boomers faced high unemployment rates when they were in their 20s, but millennials have their pick of jobs—and that affects their attitude about getting hired. The boomer in question is understandably bummed out but shouldn’t be so surprised at the job seekers’ nonchalance.

Hoeffner applauds stringent drug and background testing, however, and offers a few suggestions to weed out questionable candidates before that stage. "Be open, blunt and explicit with candidates: Tell them they will not be offered a job if they cannot pass these tests," he says. "There should also be signs stating this policy in the lobby, at the front desk, on the application. The more prevalent you make these notices, the better the chance you have to scare the illegal drug users and criminals away from applying."

Emerging Voice: This millennial thinks her boss is out of touch.

His ideas are old. Everyone knows we should be doing more on the Web, and he wastes a ton of paper on mailers. I see all these ways we could be getting more customers, and he shoots down all of my ideas. He tells me he knows they won’t work because he’s tried them before, and they didn’t work then—like, what, 20 years ago? I’m sick of being "put in my place." —"Smart and frustrated," Fort Myers Beach

"Nobody’s right and nobody’s wrong here," says Libby Anderson, president of EDA Human Resource Services in Naples. "The fact is that the younger generation is so completely different in the way they approach their work that it’s really hard for someone older to understand."

As a general rule, baby boomers and those older think success comes after you pay your dues. Meanwhile, millennials are used to a lifetime of being told "yes" and being included in decision-making.

The youngest generation to enter the workforce is often picked on, she says. What sets the newest crop of young people apart from their predecessors, however, is that millennials weren’t exposed to authoritarian rule. "They never heard, ‘Because I said so,’" Anderson says. "When I was growing up, the rule was: Homework first, then go outside later. With my own kids, I’m not home, so I can only hope they’re getting their work done in that order. This kind of wiring happens long before they get to the workplace."

Still, there can be peace at the office based on the adage: It’s not what you say but how you say it. Anderson’s suggested script? "A millennial should say, ‘That’s great; I know you’ve put a lot of effort into your plan. Would you be willing to allow me the opportunity to do something new?’ That way, you avoid the boss thinking, ‘This kid is questioning my judgment,’ and you avoid the kid thinking, ‘My boss isn’t interested in anything new.’"