SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 40) HOW Do Women Engineers BY CHARLOTTE THOMAS, SWE CONTRIBUTOR Bridge the Though the differences between boomers and millennials T “The Millennials Are Coming … Stand back all bosses! A new breed of American worker is about to attack everything you hold sacred,” gasped Morley Safer, writing about the “New Generation of American Workers” on the “60 Minutes” TV show Web site. Reading that headline and other articles about the generation gap, it would seem that a war rages in the gamut between recently hired employees (millennials) and those nearing retirement (boomers). Some of the coverage is hyped, tending toward the extreme, and may not even be relevant to the engineering work force. Yes, there are the recent hires who wonder what is the problem if they don’t stick around their cubicles once a job is done, and older workers stuck in the mindset that, “We have always done things this way.” However, looking at the workplace through the lens of the engineers, the differences that arise because some boomers prefer telephone conversations or some millennials prefer text messaging are relatively minor. When four generations work together, people will inevitably rub one another the wrong way, yet the expertise of each age group is necessary to stay competitive in a global economy. Companies that want to compete in a highly technical and global marketplace fully realize this and are working to tone down the differences. A 2006 IEEE Inter-Generational Workforce White Paper noted, “Companies will find a need to retain older workers, entice younger workers, and provide meaningful career options for mid-career workers. These groups exhibit distinctly different morés, attitudes toward work, and outlook, resulting in significant challenges to both companies and their workers.” No doubt, the workplace for engineers is changing in significant ways. Elizabeth Lions, president of Solid Staffing and a resource member on the Career Issues Subcommittee of the IEEE-USA Career and Workforce Policy Committee, helped develop the InterGenerational Workforce White Paper. From her experience working with management in different corporations, she observed, “When you have a huge transition of old energy and young people moving in with new energy, the younger generation has its own norms and rules and becomes its own culture.” As several women engineers confirm, some of those differences add value to the workplace for all the generations. Millennial women engineers have more confidence in themselves and their abilities Peggy Koch, a boomer who is presently an information technology engineer in HewlettPackard’s Inkjet Supplies Business Unit, has worked with all generations. She recalled running into traditionalists while working for a prior employer who said there were things women could not do — and more pointedly that she couldn’t do — when she said she wanted to move into software engineering. Koch entered the workplace in 1986 with a degree in business and a minor in computer science. It was difficult to convince the traditionalists she had the will and mind to do so, but she persevered. One of the differences she finds between the older and younger generations today is the confidence Gen Xers and millennials have. She values the self-assurance in the young engineers she recruits, noting they are not afraid to be themselves. She finds millennials asking, “Why not?” rather than accepting the “can’t do” A Quick Guide Certain sets of attitudes are associated with those born in the following years, though individual behaviors are determined by a variety of factors, age being only one of many. Differences are not as hard and fast as they might initially appear. Silents and Traditionalists 1900-1945 Baby Boomers 1946-1964 Gen X 1965-1980 Gen Y and Millennials 1981-1999 40 SWE SPRING 2008
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