Marketing Times - March/April 2008 - (Page 16) Minding the gap: garriSon Wynn How to get older and younger people to work better together Face it: The generation gap these days is more like a canyon. People under 30 and people over 40 do not see eye to eye! The over-40 crowd wonders why the 25-year-old wants to be promoted to manager during his first week of employment (and leave at 4:55 p.m. daily). Meanwhile, the under-30 group believes a more seasoned coworker’s computer crashed simply because he is old. What happened to make these generations so misunderstood? We know historically that each generation is at odds with the next, but the situation described above is an extreme version of that concept. Terms here like “millennials” (which sounds like 1,000-year-old infants) or Generations X and Y (seemingly indicating that algebra was somehow involved) or “baby boomers” (being the group that bombs babies?) are silly names. These labels encompass ages whose limits are tough to define. For instance, if you’re 47, despite being considered a baby boomer by many, you still belong to Generation X by some interpretations. At what point did we decide that a baby is not qualified to be part of a boom? Research shows the real issues exist between the over-40 and under-30 groups, with the people in the middle having combined issues, traits, and opinions. It seems that each camp makes some very strong points if we listen objectively; it’s just very difficult to be objective when you are confused about the other camp. Let’s take a look at what we know and can do something about; and let’s get honest about what we don’t know, what we did, and what we can’t change. What makes people under 30 the way they are? The elementary school system changed how teachers taught and rewarded for accomplishment. Teachers praised students along the way to the goal, not just when a task was completed. They stopped to celebrate along the way 6 marketingtimes
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.