Battle of the Ages

A boss in his 70s scolds his employees for laughing, because the noise breaks his concentration.

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.

Mind the Gap: This Gen-X boss can’t get the old-timers and newcomers to mix.

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