Navigating the Multi-Generational Workplace
Our workplace is full of different generations: Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials, and Gen Zers. How can we successfully navigate all of their needs? Learn how each generation values slightly different things and how each group might be just as impacted by their age as their generational differences.
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Rob:
It sure feels to me right now that you can't have a conversation about your company, and your culture, and your workforce without getting into a lot of talk about the different generations and the clashes and the differences that we see among them.
I remember coming up as kind of gap person who straddles between the end of Gen X and the beginning of the millennials. In my coming up in the workforce, my first job, I very much wanted to wait my turn. That was part of what I grew up with, and there was people who were still part of the silent generation and definitely boomers in that group.
But one of the things that I definitely feel now, as I feel this is coming up and being an elder millennial, or a very late Gen X, is the generations after mine, they aren't so keen on waiting their turn. And at least that's how it feels.
But I know that there's a lot of differences between those different generations, and we have to be careful to assign sometimes what is a difference in people or difference in circumstance or difference in a million other things to the broad paintbrush we paint with the different generational stereotypes, if you will.
So today, let's talk a little bit about those different generations and what we're seeing and what the data says.
Announcer:
Welcome to the Overly Human Podcast where we discuss all things human in the workplace. Because it's not just business—it's personal too.
Rob:
Good morning, Traci. How are you?
Traci:
Good morning, great. This is a fun, fun conversation, but a necessary one too because I think, now more than ever, we've got a lot of boomers at the top end and Gen Xers that are leading and running companies, and then millennials that have just crossed over, the older millennials have just crossed over 40 and now are kind of experiencing what mid-life feels like and looking towards the back end of their career, and then of course, Gen Z coming up into the workforce. And so we have a lot of different generations who've had different experiences and have different worldviews working together.
Rob:
Yeah, and anytime there is those differences, there is the potential for conflict or misunderstanding in the workforce. And things have changed so much over the last couple of years—especially the last couple of years—but even over the last 10, 15, 20 years with the information age, the internet, communication, all of these things so different than it used to be that all of those things increase the surface area for conflict. And you add those things up and what we grew up with and what is normal to those different generations, you're going to end up with some spots where people are rubbing against each other and creating some friction.
Traci:
Yeah. And I think probably the big difference—because obviously there's always been different generations in the workforce—but I think technology has greatly altered each generation's work experience. And then of course we have the pandemic, which has completely altered Gen Z's experience coming into the workforce. So it's interesting because when we look at our parents' generation, or even when I first started out when there was no internet and we were all communicating in the same modems, it's interesting, there was a traditional sense of business, so there was a traditional way of how we communicated and we did work. The struggles were a little bit different, they were more probably around, and I know this for Gen Xers, there's a lot of emphasis on diversity and gender equality and work-life balance and culture. And so what we were fighting against is trying to break the glass ceiling and try to get in there and all those things. So it was a little bit of a different feeling.
And now, we're communicating so differently, there's technology, work isn't traditional in any sense anymore. And what we're finding is you have to go down a couple of layers to even figure out how... I mean, we, because I'm part of a consulting firm, we work with so many different businesses and we have to ask them right off the bat, "How do you work? Are you hybrid? Are you fully remote? Are you in the office? Okay, what's your preferred method of communication? How do you guys meet annually?" There's no traditional one size fits all way of how people are working, and then you layer on top of that generational preferences and opinions and comfort levels, and you have a very interesting workforce right now.
Rob:
Yeah. So I think there's an added layer here that needs to be talked about as well, which is the speed is which these new way to work trends are influencing what, I'll say it, especially the younger generations. And some of those things are, we went from quiet quitting a couple years ago and how that became something from TikTok that all of a sudden entered the workforce lexicon very quickly. And I think just last week I saw that it was “Bare Minimum Mondays” showed up, and we don't need to talk about “Bare Minimum Mondays” but essentially it's the idea that, let's take our Sundays back by not preparing to be productive on Mondays because we want to protect the weekend.
I have a younger sister who's much younger than I am, who always talks about, and this is a term that was new to me recently, which was the “Sunday Scaries” which is the anticipation to get ready for Monday, and how that took over her Sunday afternoons and evenings. And I was like, "Oh."
Traci:
But you know what's interesting about that, is it really makes me wonder if we're just more aware because of social media, because one of my favorite episodes of Seinfeld was when Elaine was stuck in, she had told the guys how she has to have her Sundays, she has to have her Sunday afternoons, and how she has this whole routine on Sunday night where she watches 60 Minutes and she unwinds and she really gets herself all revved up for the work week, and if she doesn't have her time on Sunday night, she can't properly enter in. And it's hilarious because she gets stuck in a cab and she's screaming at the cab driver, "I need to watch my 60 Minutes." She needs to have her wind down. And so, you think about Seinfeld was years ago, and that same mentality is still there.
So it kind of makes you wonder, that was something we all talked about around the "water cooler" back when we had water coolers and we were in the office and having conversations about what we watched on television. And now it's not the water cooler, it's social media. So it's what you hear on social media.
And so there's always this interesting phenomenon about, how widespread is it? What's the real cause? Is it something that's been around forever, but it just has a different name to it? And one of the things that's really fascinating for me is when I'm studying this and reading this, is it really a generational thing or is it an age thing? Did we all feel this way in our 20s or is it really just how the millennial generation feels? And I think sometimes I have to remind some of the leaders that I coach, I'll just ask the question, what were you like when you were in your mid-20s? What did you care about? What did you value? It may look different, but the underlying causes or desires might still be there.
And so yes, can it be a generational thing? Of course, because of how we're influenced and how we're brought up and the different types of hurdles and things that we've had to wrestle through. But is it an age thing? Maybe. Maybe that's it too. And we have to have patience for people just starting out in their career and they're trying to get their sea legs and they're trying to figure out what they like and they don't like, and they want to feel like there's a reason for it all because they're still so young and optimistic. And so we have to really think about that.
I spoke at a conference last week and I talked about the concept of mid-life and how mid-life was a term that came about from a psychologist in 1965. And his philosophy was that from birth to mid-life, your default was optimistic. You were just more optimistic, the way you looked at life, the things you wanted out of work, the things you wanted out of the world. And then mid-life to death, your default's a little more pessimistic because your mortality is that it's more tangible. You can kind of see it on the horizon. And so your mentality kind of shifts and so therefore your desires, what you want out of life, and what you want out of work tends to shift.
And so we have age on top of generations. So it's a very interesting. Of course, I geek out on this stuff, psychology is my jam. And so it's really kind of interesting to think about it as leaders and as business owners, how do you navigate all these different facets? And again, it's just one of those reminders that we need to meet people where they are. We have to take a breath and sort of figure out, “Okay, why does this person need what they need? What am I feeling here? Is it just a moment or is it a movement?”
Rob:
There's obviously a lot of stuff in the cake mix. I think there is some generational things and generations are shaped by their common experiences and what they've gone through. And age obviously has a bunch to do to it because you're right, when I was in my 20s I was a different human than when I was in my 30s than I am now in my 40s. And I think that all of those things together influence how I respond to things, who I am, my outlook on the world. I don't know if I was ever optimistic really, I think I was more of just kind of constant realistic is the way I would describe myself.
But I think that one of the things that I've had to learn over the years with this is just, people are people, understanding their preferences and not using the broad paintbrush to classify them or make assumptions about people and what they want when we can just ask.
Rob:
Well, it's that time again where we thank our sponsor, the Bureau of Digital, a community of digital makers that all get together and share and support each other. And today we have a special treat. Carl, the head of the bureau is here with us. Hey, Carl.
Carl:
Hey everybody. Thank you for having me be on the show. We don't sponsor any other podcasts, and when I listened to what y'all were doing, I was like, "We need to support them. We need to find a way that we can help." So I was like, "Ah, we'll be a sponsor."
Rob:
Yeah, and we really do appreciate it. And if you have any questions, check out bureauofdigital.com. The 2023 event schedule is up and live. And a big change for this year is if you join and become a member, all of the online events are included, and there's some really good ones, you don't want to miss out so don't wait. Visit bureauofdigital.com.
Traci:
I think too, the clever things about looking at generations is really having a little bit of an understanding on what each generation might value, and there's been a lot of research about that. Now, the research I've looked at, the percentages are pretty close. So all generations are valuing flexibility and recognition and security and growth. But it is interesting to know who ranks highest for what category.
And so, okay, I'm going to ask you.
Rob:
We're going to play a game.
Traci:
Yeah, we're going to play a game.
Okay, so flexibility, so that having flexibility in your work, which generation do you think ranks number one for wanting flexibility? Do we think it's going to be, and I'm just going to go with... Well, we'll do all four: boomers, Gen Xers, millennials, Gen Zs, who do you think?
Rob:
It's got to be Gen X or millennials, and I'll go with millennials.
Traci:
It is millennials, ding, ding, ding.
Rob:
Hey, I'm the big winner. Let's see how many of these I can get right.
Traci:
Yeah, Gen Xers are a close second. But yes, millennials definitely. And I think just speaking from my own Gen X experience being smack dab in the middle here, or I guess towards the middle top of Gen Xers, is that the ability to have flexibility was just not an option. So asking, I know for myself as a working mom and having working moms working for me, in at least a corporate America environment, it was super hard to get any time off to get a day from home or whatever.
And so I think now we're coming to really appreciate flexibility, but also I do think there's, and I've heard this a lot from owners that I coach or leaders, where people miss being in an office, they just miss it. And it's because they know exactly what it felt like to have the water cooler, to have the break room, to laugh, to have unexpected things happen, to grab lunch with each other, to go for a walk around the block, to clear your head with a friend. And when those things go away, you really miss it.
And so I think there's this mixed, you kind of loving the flexibility but missing the office. And that's why I feel like hybrid work is kind of here to stay. I think it's going to be hard to ever let go of flexibility, but I do think we're going to see a bit of a swing back to people wanting more face-to-face time with each other and forming those sort of looking in each other's eyeballs in real-life relationships.
Rob:
Yeah, and it's also somewhat, I'm going to guess, it's somewhat to do with that age thing you were talking about earlier, that generation of millennials has young kids in it and that flexibility has never been more valuable to me when I had small humans living in my house.
Traci:
Yeah. And also, I will say, there's a flip side to that of just freaking needing to get out of the house. Sometimes when you're a working mom, you just need a human adult. It's like, can I have a conversation with you that is not about Cheerios? So there's that too.
Okay, so the next one is recognition. Who do you think ranks the highest in wanting that work recognition, job prestige?
Rob:
Is this Gen Z?
Traci:
No.
Rob:
Is it Gen X then?
Traci:
It's Gen X.
Rob:
Okay.
Traci:
Yeah.
Rob:
That was my second.
Traci:
Yeah, Gen Xers really value that feeling like they're valued, feeling like they're recognized. And I think that was obviously a big thing for working your way up the corporate ladder, that was a pretty big repeated phrase when it came to work for the Gen X generation.
Rob:
Yeah, well that was a big deal for the previous generation, the boomers was, pay your dues. How many times when I started my career did you hear the, "This takes time, pay your dues."
Traci:
Yeah. And I think I've told the story before where when I first started having a slew of millennials working for me and six months into the job, people would come in and ask for a promotion. And I'd think, "What? What are you talking about?" And it was that mentality of, you haven't paid your dues yet. And it was a different type of generational... It was like, "I've been here for six months, that's an eternity. Why aren't you promoting me?" So you do see that different mentality when that wasn't even on my mind when I was first starting out. It was more, this mentality of face time and I didn't leave till the boss left and making sure I was going above and beyond.
So the next one is security, value, pay.
Rob:
That's got to be the boomers, right?
Traci:
Well, on this one, it didn't have the boomers showing up. The highest was Gen Xers.
Rob:
Really?
Traci:
Followed by millennials, and then of course Gen Z. Yeah. Maybe it's because when they did the survey, the boomers were already making more money than all of us, so it didn't matter.
Rob:
Yeah, maybe.
Traci:
Yeah. But I think one of the things that we see is that, again, and I was reading an article that the boomers and the Gen Xers made more money at 40 than millennials make now.
Rob:
Really?
Traci:
Yeah. So it's the millennial generation, and now some of this has to do with the Great Recession and just startup mentality and a lot of different things, but Gen Xers made more money at 40 than millennials are making now in their 40s. And yeah, it's just a different economical environment and just a different way people are working.
And so millennials, and it's predicted Gen Zs, just have less money and so we can see that sort of in how they're living out. So we know younger millennials go back home and live with their parents and have taken longer to get out of the nest. And that was not even an option, my dad was like, "Get the frick out of here and go get a job, and I don't care what kind of job it is, but you got to pay your own bills."
And so we see sort of a different mentality happening with those younger millennials and then Gen Zers who are just... And of course a lot of this has to do with, yes, rents are higher, it's more expensive to live on your own, it's a little bit harder, but then again, of course the economic environment and whatnot. So that pays a little bit different.
The last one is growth, so growth and purpose in the workforce.
Rob:
Is that Gen Z?
Traci:
Gen Z's highest, followed right behind by millennials.
Rob:
Right, that's what I was going to say. That probably worked its way up the ladder there.
Traci:
Yeah. And a lot has to do with that millennials and Gen Zers just value growth and purpose above all else. They really want to feel like it means something and that they can make sense of their work. And so I think that's really important for leaders and business owners as this is becoming their biggest pool of workers is, are you clear on your purpose? Are you clear on growth path and development for your team? Because if you're not and you think, "Well, I pay them well and I give them a ton of flexibility and they can work wherever they want," that's not the whole formula and it's not really what people value the most, and I think that we have to take it seriously. So that's a big thing.
Rob:
Yeah, I mean absolutely. I mean, that's been... I don't know, my anecdotal experience with that is they want that feedback, they want to know how they make that next step and they ruthlessly pursue it, which is a double-edged sword a little bit because they are so focused on it that they believe they can achieve it in those short timelines that that's possible.
And it's a weird mix because sometimes experience does matter, having seen enough problems, just to be exposed to enough things. There was somebody very early in my career that told me, "Hey, you are going to have to do something multiple times with efficiency and proficiency before I pay you consistently to do it.” And it was this moment like, "Oh, reps, I need to do this and demonstrate this capability multiple times." And that doesn't seem to be the prevailing trend anymore. It's, "I did a thing, obviously I'm capable of doing it, pay me for it."
Traci:
Yeah. I think we're still kind of working off that phase of parenting. And there was a time, and I don't know if it still exists, maybe I should ask some of my younger parents or parents of younger kids, of this everybody gets a blue ribbon, everybody's a winner, nobody's a loser. And there was a phase of that going on, that did not happen when I was growing up. There were definitely, you're a loser, you're going to get picked last for the kickball team or whatever. That still happened.
And so I think in the workforce, we knew that you kind of had to work up and that multiple people were going to go for a promotion, not everybody was going to get it and all those things. And so I think we're still working off some of that over-parenting, the pendulum swung so far the other way from the latchkey kids really wanting to be present and make sure that the kids are okay and all of those things.
And also I think, again, this kind of goes back to generational experiences. And so we know the boomers, they went through wars and civil rights activism and all those things, and the Gen Xers went through Cold War and hiding under our desk because we thought the Russians were coming and the fall of the Berlin Wall and all of that, the Iron Curtain. And I think it's a little bit of a different mentality.
And then also you brought it up when you brought up quiet quitting and all of this, the power of social media to shape our psyche and our expectations, even if it's just one or two people saying it, it feels like the whole world saying it.
And right now our world is run by a lot of extreme opinions when we know the vast majority of people fall in the middle, but those voices are so loud, we think, "Oh, we're supposed to feel this way." Or, "We're supposed to act this way." Or, "We're supposed to be angry about these things." And then I hear some of my clients that I coach are like, "I'm being told I should be angry, but I don't really feel angry." And I'm like, "Then don't be angry."
Rob:
Are you getting angry about not being angry? That's what it sounds like a little bit.
Traci:
Exactly. People just need to zip it. No.
Rob:
Well, okay, so we've talked for 20 some minutes here and your advice is just to zip it?
Traci:
Yeah, you're seeing my generation coming out, right?
Traci:
Hi, Overly Human friends, it's Traci. And if you haven't heard, I wrote a book. It's called, “What If There's More?: Finding Significance Beyond Success”, and it's out right now. If you're thinking about a career pivot, wanting to follow your dream, or just want to fall back in love with what you do, then I think this book is for you. And if you like what you read, please feel free to head on over and leave me a review. You can learn more at tracischubertbarrett.com and you can find “What if There's More?” wherever you buy books. Thanks.
Traci:
One of the things it that’s so funny to me about the repeated theme when it comes to generational differences is communication, and that we just communicate differently by generations. And we feel that, whether it's some people prefer emails, some people just want to do it on Slack and some people text.
Rob:
Yeah. Those communicational preferences are so important. And I think that one of the things that we can do as leaders is ask, ask what our team, how they want to be communicated with, how they want to receive feedback and encourage them to ask their teams and take it all the way down, up and down.
And I think that's been an unlock I know for Sparkbox is asking people what their preferences and then trying your best to honor that. And I think that comes back to the individual. Yes, there are trends that we see in the different generations, but so much of this comes down to, I don't know, maybe I'm oversimplifying it. If I ask you what your preferences are, then I can either choose to meet them and get one response or choose to not meet them and probably not get as good a response from you.
Traci:
Yeah. And I really think that leaders and business owners, they have to use all forms of communication. If you have a multi-generational team, then you really need to be using everything, Slack and email, and you need to be picking up the phone and calling people and trying to hear voices and meeting with people and having lunches and all of those things, you should be doing all forms of communication.
Rob:
Yeah, and this gets back to the other thing that we've said, I don't know, a couple dozen times over this podcast is, the average human from whatever generation they're in has to hear something seven times before they will understand. So if you take those different communication preferences times the number of times people have to hear things, you are going to sound like a broken record in all of the different mediums.
Traci:
Yep. Exactly.
Rob:
All right. So any parting thoughts here, Traci?
Traci:
Well, I think this being Overly Human is to remember we're dealing with humans, and this is multifaceted. And it is important for us as leaders to understand these generational influences, to be educated about them, but then of course to weigh out that this is just one factor of each person we're dealing with, and so this is why it's so important to really get to know each other, really get to know each other.
Rob:
Yeah. Trust takes time, and there is nothing that can replace trust on teams. It is the foundation for everything that we do, and every action we take can either be a trust-building action or a trust-tearing-down action. And you want to bank it, you might need it later.
Traci:
Absolutely, yep.
Rob:
All right. Thanks, Traci.
Traci:
Thank you.
Announcer:
The Overly Human Podcast is brought to you by Navigate the Journey and Sparkbox. For more information on this podcast, or to get in touch with Traci or Rob, go to overlyhuman.com. If you like what you've heard, subscribe and tell your friends to listen. Thanks.
