Understanding and Relating to Older Managers and Coworkers

Public and Private Life in the Workplace

Generational Mindset

• Each generation has its particular set of expectations, and every generation seems, if not disappointed, at least perplexed when things don’t turn out the way they thought they would.

• Each generation can be recognized by their life experiences – those things that had always or had never been part of their lives.

• Source: The Mindset Lists of American History

We’re not just older, we’re different.

• More tolerant, innovative, collaborative.

• Beginning of worklife.

• Grew up immersed in technology and media.

• Different ethnicities, skin colors, genders, and lifestyles are routine.

• More inward, risk averse, competitive.

• Second half of worklife.

• Adapted (often reluctantly) to technology and media.

• Grew up in comparative isolation and battled censorship, sexism, and racism.

Class of 2012 Class of 1980

Why we’re technosaurs.

• Media

• Telephones

• Computing

We have strengths and commonalities.

Class of 2012

• Good at assigning tasks, listening to peers, and blending diverse outcomes.

• Discontinuity seems normal.

• Have always expected to work long hours and change jobs – maybe even careers.

• Frustrated with economy.

Class of 1980

• Good at advocacy, accepting direction, and firm principles.

• Discontinuity was learned.

• Have always worked long hours and learned to change jobs – maybe even careers.

• Frustrated with economy.

The Big Three

• Dress/Appearance

– Ink

– Arms

– Legs

– Feet & Shoes

• Time

– Work hours

– Assignment deadlines

– Promptness

• Personal vs Private

– E-mail and computer usage

– Office demeanor and social relationships

– After-hours socializing

– Cyber persona

Today vs Back in the Day

• Dress/Appearance

– Ink

– Arms

– Legs

– Feet & Shoes

8-4-8

• Time Values

– Work hours

– Assignment deadlines

– Promptness

Boundaries

• Personal vs Private– E-mail and computer usage– Office demeanor and social

relationships– After-hours socializing– Cyber persona

• Sharing online, as social media enthusiasts are learning, can have all sorts of unintended consequences offline.

• Didn’t mean for your boss to see a picture of you on the beach that day you called in sick? Maybe you hadn’t meant for the police to know you were mobilizing your friends to join a public protest? Had you bargained on your high school principal seeing Facebook photographs that they considered so risqué they kicked you off the cheerleading squad?

Somini Sengupta, NYT

Problems – Real and Perceived

• You are responsible for your own communication and for making your message understood.

• Learn to recognize when you’re talking past each other.

• Look for areas of commonality and agreement.

• Ask more questions to clarify understanding than to challenge.

Sun Tzu and The Art of War

• If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

• History creates culture. Your older coworkers know the organizational history.

• New solutions to old problems.

Thank youKathy Volz, Leonard Wood Institute

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