Maybe start off with “Imagine this:” or something like that. You’re a supervisor at a major business firm.  You are given a task to accomplish by your superiors, and three people with whom to complete it.  You walk into a room where your employees have gathered and you stand in the door in shock looking at a long lost member of Nirvana, and a guy wearing a Nintendo shirt playing a Sony PSP. ß There’s no third person. I know that’s “nit-picky” but I just noticed it. How do you adequately instruct them on the task, and motivate each of them to do it? 

 

Have you ever heard sayings like "young people have it so easy these days" or "don't trust anyone over thirty."  If you have you probably are asking yourself, "Why would people denounce each other like that?"  The answer is the gaps between generations of people or "generational gaps."  What are generational gaps you ask? Wikipedia defines   generational gaps as big differences between people of a younger generation and their elders (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_gap ). Many things change from one generation to the next such as values, beliefs, and ideas from one particular period of time to another.  Have you ever tried to send your grandfather an email or a text message?  Probably not because he {most likely} doesn't even know how to turn on his computer.  ß This is a fragment, not a sentence. This technological gap is much more serious than most give it credit for, particularly in a professional sense.  In order for social interaction to take place and to better communicate with those whom are not your peers, one must not only understand the obvious technical limitations or advances involved with those from different generations, but with the preferences and inclinations of these different generations.

            A recent survey posted on the NORC website (http://cloud9.norc.uchicago.edu/dlib/sc-43.htm ) of supervisors and employees asked the following questions and asked the person being surveyed to list them with the first being the most favorite, second being their next choice and so on.  "How do you keep up with current events?" was the first question posed.  Supervisors mostly made up of older generations, preferred newspapers, then radio and television, and finally the internet.  Their employees, who are more often of younger generations, interestingly answered the complete opposite with the internet being first, then radio and TV, and finally newspapers.  Additionally they were asked, "In your workplace, what is you most preferred method of communicating?"  Supervisors answered face to face, then telephone, and lastly email.   Employee's answered email, then telephone, and finally face to face.  So what does this tell us besides the obvious?  Most sociologists assert that this is a prime example that the newer generations, probably due to the technological advances surrounding their birth, want to obtain and give information as fast as possible.   Questions like, "Why walk out the front door to get the newspaper when I can click a button on my mouse and I instantly find information on anything I want?", and "Why would I walk all the way to someone's office when I can just type out what I need to say and press send?" are the most prevalent retorts to questions regarding their answers.  Technology has increased productivity in almost every way.  Even those few seconds an employee must take to dial a number on a phone start to add up in a big way after months and years of having to make service calls.

The advances in technology are creating a huge void in the way supervisors and lower level employees communicate.  So what is the solution?  There is not one broad, all encompassing solution to place a band-aid over this generational void.  ß Solutions aren’t band-aids, they are cures. However, if one takes this problem down to the microscopic level, or on a specific instance basis, then answers can be found.  So supervisors like talking face to face and employees prefer email, what is the solution to that?  Video conferencing is one way companies have tried to fill generational gaps.  By placing digital video capabilities on each employee’s computers, employees can have easy, face to face access on without having to set up times to meet and waiting for e-mail responses.   Supervisors can still have a "face to face" and employees never have to leave the comfort of their own desk.ß Interesting solution!

            Arguably, one of the workplaces with the most pronounced gaps in generations is the Department of Veteran's Affairs or "V.A." The V.A. hires predominantly from two pools of people, people fresh out of college, and people who recently retired from military service.  Those acquired from the military usually range in age from early forties to the middle of their fifties, and those recruited from college are usually in their early twenties.  This broad range of ages provides a wide scope for supervisors, usually of the baby boomer generation, to attempt to communicate, motivate and instruct future supervisors on how to deal with people from other generations. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs website ( http://www.va.gov/about_va/ ) states that around 70 million people are eligible for benefits so employees must learn to communicate and interact with people of all ages.  In order to address this situation we must first define these generations.

            Approximately fifty percent of all supervisors and managers in Fortune 500 companies are those of the baby boomer era.  They did not grow up with computers and the technology associated with them.  However, most of these same companies utilize computers and the internet in almost all aspects of their field.  With technology savvy Generation Y slowly making its way into the work force in the past few years, how can these supervisors cross the vast gap in technical understanding to fluently and efficiently communicate in the workplace? 

            The next generation to emerge onto the scene was Generation X.  Generation X was the first generation to become impacted with technology.  Primitive computers started to make there way into school systems.  When we say "primitive" we mean before the advent of Microsoft Windows which made computers more user friendly.  The black and green screen Macintosh computers were the most prominent in schools during the time of Generation X.  To run a program on these computers, the user had to have a basic knowledge of actual programming to run the program they desired.  In a work force sense, Generation X has been known to be rather fickle.  The average stay for an employee hailing from the Generation X era is roughly three to four years.  They did not have the same sense of loyalty as previous generations.  Much of this is due to the economic downsizing in the early 90’s.  As CandaOne.com puts it "Why work longer than nine to five, if, when the going gets tough, the boss sends me packing" (http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/sept99/corporate_learning2.html).  Understanding the attitudes of different generations is extremely important to help make a more cohesive work place.  This table, also from the CanadaOne website, compares the thoughts on employment between Gen-X’ers and the Baby Boomers.

 

The newest generation, Generation Y or Millennials, were born into this post Windows world where computers were found in virtually every home in America and their use in schools had migrated out of mere computer labs and into day to day functions including students having their own school e-mail addresses and even school newspapers being posted online.  It should also be noted that this generation has been found to have many of the same beliefs as the pre-baby boomers or traditionalists; especially in the work force. Knoxnews.com states that the Millennials which are currently in the workforce have shown to be loyal and have much more respect for their fields of occupation which was a trait that most people had thought would be all but gone from the work place with the rebellious attitudes of the Baby Boomers and Gen X'ers ß The chart though shows that Baby Boomers are not in fact rebellious. (http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/apr/24/bridging-generational-gaps-in-the-work-force/).  You might say that the loyalty that was lacking in previous generations is a way of rebelling for people born of the Y generation.  The other most notable characteristic about the Millennials, or Generation Y in the workforce is their tendency to work or want to work for a company, or corporation who has an output that benefits people, as opposed to working strictly to make themselves and the corporation financially better off.  This is best seen by the creation and growth of Nonprofit Management Degrees in Colleges and Universities across the country. Interesting, I didn’t know such degrees existed.

The Baby Boomer higher-ups in companies need to recognize this loyal trait in the new generation if they have not already done so, and as such need to start restructuring the work environment to meet their needs.  By doing so they are ensuring the future of their companies as they are cultivating employees whom will be employees for decades.  The major restructuring needed is technological so the up and coming Millennials can lead new companies to the forefront of the digital age. ß Good paragraph, strong solutions.

Generational gaps have been present for a long time.  They will continue to showcase themselves as time goes on.  Technology is always growing and businesses are always the first to jump on digital bandwagons so they can grow.  It’s important for each generation to understand those that have come before and those that are coming so they can prepare themselves and their jobs for changes.  Evolving is a natural part of human history and business is the same thing. ß I don’t understand this sentence. So the next time your grandparent tells you that you have it so easy, explain to them that they probably just don’t understand the time you’re growing up in.