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The typical U.S. workplace now includes four separate generations of employees, each with its own unique mindset. Teaching managers and workers about their differences has become an important new priority for corporate trainers.
THE QUESTION that always gets their attention is, How old were you when you first used a computer? Members of the Baby Boom generation think back and reply, "Um, about 40." The newly hired college grad in the back row looks warily around and says, "I was three."
Welcome to a class on generational differences in the workplace, a kind of sensitivity training course that has suddenly become relevant at virtually every workplace in the United States. For the first time in history, four separate generations are represented in the workforce, each with its own distinct set of values and priorities.
It's no longer news that within the next five years, roughly 50 percent of the population will be eligible for retirement, causing a brain drain of daunting proportions. But, as organizations are also discovering, there's considerably more to the story.
All in perspective
It's a tale starkly drawn in the radically differing perspectives of Boomers and the generation now entering the workplace, known variously as the Echo Boomers, Generation Y, and Generation Next. While Baby Boomers think working 80-hour weeks demonstrates commitment to the job, Echo Boomers take a distinctly "me first" attitude to the issue of work-life balance. "And if the job isn't interesting to them, they're outta here," quips one HR executive.
Various other perspectives are typified by members of Generation X, those 30-somethings now moving into management ranks, and the workplace's oldest citizens, the Forgotten Generation, who preceded the Boomers.
The scenario at Georgia Power Company is typical. "The demographics of our workforce are changing dramatically," says Donna Ellis, the utility company's diversity project manager. "We have a very tenured group of employees and a large group eligible for retirement," she says. "As a result, recruitment and retention of Generation X and Generation Y is critical for us. We need time for knowledge transfer."
Ellis says the sudden arrival of the Echo Boom generation has dramatized the need for training about generational issues that have been bubbling more or less quietly for the last few years. "Men...