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The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on May 20, 2002. Workplace Generational Differences NoteworthyBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to The Post and Courier Business Major In my last column I noted that over the next 20 years the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history, more than $4.8 trillion, will occur. Business owners and others relinquishing their assets and power will find some noteworthy generational differences. The wealth is mainly in the hands of an older generation - the Veterans - which is made up of two groups of people. One consists of some 35 million Matures, meaning the retired or those retirements are just around the corner. Born before 1945, the defining events of their lives were the Great Depression and the World War II (or the family stories passed down), the Korean Conflict, and the media golden ages of radio and the silver screen. Matures experienced the rise of a more activist government with New Deal programs such as Social Security which provides a measure of protection from events beyond one's control. Through their lives, Matures have mostly hewed to traditional values such as dedication, sacrifice, hard work, conformity, a law and order society, patience, respect, honor and duty. Their numbers are increasing more than twice as fast as the labor force and they are still active. Eighty-one percent of the Matures still at work are interested in trying new things, says the 2001 Randstad North American Employee Review, and 44 percent are interested in additional training or education. The second group of Veterans consists of the Baby Boomers; some 76 million people age 36 to 54. Born in an America atop a mountain of power, the defining events of their lives have been prosperity, the Cold War, the civil rights movement and Vietnam, the distinction between a suburban lifestyle focusing on children and life in the inner city, and the TV led media saturation. Claiming much of the world by right of inheritance, they found themselves pitched about by increasingly rapid economic and social changes. The shift in private life from the traditional family norm (male at work, mom at home with children) to dual career couples or single parenting was mirrored with an equally stressful shift in work life from life-long employment to job and career changes that demand self management. Boomer values include optimism, teamwork, personal growth, health and wellness. Readying themselves to take over are two arriving generations. The members of Generation X, the 60 million born between 1960 and 1980 and reared during anxious days, have defining memories of events such as Watergate. Often facing a world with opportunities more narrowed than they had expected, and growing up more media saturated than their predecessors, many acquired a built-in cynicism about work, business, and careers. Success, say more than three-fourths of the Generation Xers, is finding a company where you want to work for a long time. Right behind are the Generation Yers. Raised like "Hot House Flowers," to quote the Randstad Review, their mostly conservative core values include confidence, civic duty, achievement, sociability, morality, and street smarts. The bottom line in their work life is that employment that isn't a learning experience leading to something better is a dead end. Both Xers and Yers grew up with fast food, computers, and pushbuttons. Expecting corporate layoffs, more limited opportunities, and diminishing job prospects, they have a tendency to seek instant gratification. Independent and technologically literate as a group, they like honesty, feedback, visuals, and fun. They value training and immediate access and dislike inflexibility, hearing about the past, and being over managed. At the tail end of the X-Y Generation are the Millennials, graduates of the classes of 1998 to 2008. Because they will be entering the job market in great numbers, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they can expect to encounter tough employment prospects. Millennial college graduates will fare better than those who do not go on to higher education, but every year, more than 90,000 will end up taking positions that do not require bachelor's degree program skills. What can X-Yers and Millennials do to best position themselves, and what can the Veterans do to help them? Two things. The first is for everyone to see clearly that the TV dominated entertainment fog in which the Xers and Yers grew up and everybody now lives is not reality, but people can think it is. A realistic outlook requires knowing that the entertainment media not only portrays unrealistic expectations but also distorts the definition of normalcy. Nexters may have grown up with the TV sitcom view of corporate America and small business ownership, an amalgam of team building and all one big family, companies that have pool tables and beer in the fridge and take any day off you want. The youth-oriented images can give Nexters extremely high levels of self-confidence and feelings of competency, but the image does not mirror life. The reality check can be a shock. For business executives and owners among the Veteran generation, the task is how to reach the arriving generations. Recognizing cultural gaps but also common values is a start. At work, the need for programs that recognize quality of life issues and job requirements that reward innovative thinking, along with provision of a high quality education and training opportunities for the enhancement of skills are all recommended. Good luck as you take on the multiple challenges of passing the torch. For Questions/Comments about this site, contact dot.moore@comcast.net. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |