Clash of cultures in our multi-aged workforce

The looming generation gap is a big challenge that will face all companies, including printers. In recent years, there has been a lot of focus on managing ‘Generation Y’, generally classified as people born from 1980 to the late ’90s, with their unique attitudes to work and career expectations. But looking further out, we realise that was just the opening act for what it is
to come. Within the next 10 years, the kids who were born in 1997 will start entering the workforce. For the first time in recorded history, there will be five generations in one workplace.

First, will be the ‘Traditionals’ born during the Second World War. With an ageing population and a skills shortage, fewer of them will be retiring. Then come the ‘Boomers’, born between 1946 and 1964. Again, more of this group will keep working past the age of 65. They are followed by ‘Gen X’ born between 1965 and 1981 and then ‘Gen Y’.

Some have pointed out that this will create massive ructions and issues in workplaces that will have a people with a range of formative experiences, from WWII to the Cold War to the War on Terror to World of Warcraft.

The five-generation workplace will have four potential flash points for conflict. These are: work ethic, organisational hierarchies, dealing with change and managing technology.

We have already seen some of these issues surface. Gen X, for example, are regarded as having more an entrepreneurial spirit, a do-it-yourself attitude. In contrast to the generations that came before, they embrace change in the workplace. While career-oriented, they place a strong emphasis on good work-life balance. While Boomers prefer face time, Gen Y have gone for email and text messages. Gen Y have also focused more on entitlements, rewards and development, which has led to a lot of “Gen Y bashing”. We can expect these tensions to accelerate with the next generation.

This new generation – some call them ‘Gen Z’, others refer to them as the ‘Net Generation’ – will be different. They will be smarter and more educated. Because they grew up with the internet, Face-book and text messaging, they will be able to process information a lot faster.

This generation will have come of age in a world that is grappling with some difficult, inconvenient truths, from tanking economies to climate crises. They will have a mental map of a world with finite limits, one where there are no easy answers. They are likely to be a generation of pragmatists, raised by down-to-earth Gen X parents, which means they are more likely to consider trade-offs and long-term balance. They might well be more conservative than the upbeat generations of the past.

Company loyalty will be well and truly a thing of the past. Employers of the future will be under more pressure to provide interesting and challenging work for their employees, just to keep them from walking out the door. They will also have to find creative ways of getting the different generations working together with, for example, Boomers and Traditionalists doing the mentoring, special entrepreneurial type assignments for Gen X and assigning Gen Y and Gen Z to the pointy end of technology. It will be a completely different workplace.

Leon Gettler is a senior business journalist who writes for a range of leading newspapers and journals

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