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. 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. 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. And what we're finding is you have to go down a couple of layers to even figure out how. So it was a little bit of a different feeling.Īnd now, we're communicating so differently, there's technology, work isn't traditional in any sense anymore. And so what we were fighting against is trying to break the glass ceiling and try to get in there and all those things. 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. 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. And then of course we have the pandemic, which has completely altered Gen Z's experience coming into the workforce. 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 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. 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. Yeah, and anytime there is those differences, there is the potential for conflict or misunderstanding in the workforce. And so we have a lot of different generations who've had different experiences and have different worldviews working together. 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. So today, let's talk a little bit about those different generations and what we're seeing and what the data says. And at least that's how it feels.īut 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. ![]() 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.īut 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. In my coming up in the workforce, my first job, I very much wanted to wait my turn. I remember coming up as kind of gap person who straddles between the end of Gen X and the beginning of the millennials. 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.
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