Today’s workplace is multigenerational. Generational diversity can be a huge advantage, with people from different generations benefitting from eachother’s ideas and experiences. These new perspectives gained can spark new ideas and prompt new ways of working. However, there is potential for conflict and misunderstanding as well – and intergenerational conflict within the workplace is a growing concern. A 2011 study found that “intergenerational cohesion” is one of the top three workplace risks. Different generations have different values, assumptions and perspectives of life, living and work. They often struggle to understand and appreciate the differences. Working together and sharing power can be problematic. With delay in retirement, younger generations can feel that their opportunities for career advancement are being restricted. Also, advancement of technology and the adoption of technology during the pandemic has further created rifts between generations, as rate of adoption of technology has generally been staggered across different generations.
Modern multi-generational workplaces can host as many as five generations, and – on average – three generations.
In that sense, intergenerational work is implicit bias work. Based on our experiences, we become implicitly biased. We have to bring these biases to our conscious realm for us to work on them and make conscious decisions that serve our individual and organizational goals. We must also keep in mind that there is a natural negative mindset towards every new generation. That’s the way we are all wired!
In the current workplace, millennials will soon become the majority. 30% of the work force consist of millennials, and millennials will continue to dominate for the next 10-15 years as Gen Y is a large generation. For the majority of organizations, they are led by Baby Boomers or Gen X professionals in leadership positions, while the bulk of the workforce is from another generation – and this can create conflict. While the leaders are from a survival culture, most of those who lead and manage are collaborators and community oriented, which can lead to conflicting work place scenarios.
In the next 10/15 years that will change as millennials move into leadership positions, but the organizations they lead will be made up primarily of Gen Z and perhaps Gen Alpha professionals. So, from a behavioural change perspective, what are some of the key things you can do to adapt and thrive when working intergenerationally?
Generational differences tend to emerge, particularly around the use of technology, communication, feedback, time management, work/life balance and organizational structure. Managers need to start conversations at those points so they can better understand the situation. Some obstacles to intergenerational collaboration include:
Stereotyping is a symptom of discrimination. It’s important to treat people equally but not necessarily the same. Self-awareness is the key to effectively managing any implicit bias including biases related to generational differences. Leaders of teams must be in touch with their own beliefs, values and work attitudes and understand that these may be different from the people they manage. Biases can stifle enthusiasm and innovation from individuals – especially if these biases are a direct challenge to core or fundamental belief systems.
Irrespective of the labels of different generations, all generations consist of multi-faceted individuals with varying lived experiences and differing outlooks on life and work. No generation is inherently bad and rarely would anyone set out to undermine the values of others – particularly on the grounds of age – but circumstances and lived experiences may have shaped a few survival mechanisms that may have served the collective conscious and unconscious of that time. Of course – these generational definitions are ‘labels’ in and of themselves – and the complexity of the human condition extends far beyond statistical definitions and boxes. Once we become conscious of that we can start to notice the similarities, and arguably that’s the starting point of successful inter-generational understanding and collaboration, and the foundation of building an engaged, diverse and inclusive team.