Today, the workforce is made up of many different generations, which is affecting and effectively changing the workplace culture as a whole. The major generational differences between millennials and baby boomers can be either positive or negative depending on whom you ask. Boomers may categorize millennials as lazy and entitled, while millennials may call themselves innovative. No matter what they call themselves or each other, they all have to work together now as simply as that. This topic has sparked a lot of discussion as to how it’s best for each generation to act and deal with their other generational coworkers.
Workplace culture is the way your company operates and the personality it possesses. A Forbes article stated three ways to
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Currently, Baby Boomers make up most of the workforce today although they are beginning to reach retirement age. (Tappero, 2010) The difficulties of retiring today and the amount of money needed to live comfortably are forcing many boomers to continue working past retirement. Simply because there are so many boomers, they are a huge presence in the workforce. Having older people in the workforce could increase costs of health care and other benefits. With more boomers staying in the workforce there are less jobs available for younger millennials. Since there are many boomers around, there is a good chance that your supervisor will be a boomer. A study showed that about 50% of boomers see themselves working till about age 70. (Tappero, 2010) Millennials are eager to climb the corporate ladder and with boomers staying in their positions that can cause some harsh feelings. Our culture today is all about getting things done faster and more efficiently. Millennials try and find technological advances to make things more digital. If a millennial brings these theories and ideas to a company that isn’t open to them, the employee may not stay or may be resentful. Companies need to keep up with the changing times in order to stay in …show more content…
Companies need new strategies to utilize the strengths of each employee. Once boomers do retire there will be a large void in the workforce since there is so many of them. This will create another change in business culture because younger people will be needed to fill those spots.
All of these situations are becoming more and more common in the new workforce. In order for a business to run smoothly all of the workers, managers and subordinates need to be able to find common ground to accomplish the set tasks. There is no avoiding your coworkers so this is inevitable.
I don’t see the change of culture to stop anytime soon. I believe that people will continue to develop new ideas to make things easier and faster. There are also more generations entering the workforce, and while one may think that they are similar because they know technology they are all vastly different. The old saying of “turning into your mother/father” may come true for the millennials as they become older in the workforce. I can see there always being disagreements among different generations because each thinks that their way is better. Still, people will obviously need to learn to work together and adjust to different generational
The Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, and they fall between the ages of 53-71. This generation was subject to the civil rights movements, the Vietnam War and the Cold War, and space travel. Their parents had the highest divorce rate and second marriages in history. “The American Dream” was promised to them as children and they spent their lives pursuing it. As a result some generations see them as being greedy, materialistic and ambitious. This generation believes in working long hours to establish self-worth and identity, they tend to be workaholics and are used to working up to 60 hour work weeks. Working this much caused an imbalance between most work/home life because the workers of this generation were afraid of losing their position at work if they took more time to spend with their families. The preferred work environment for a Baby Boomer is going to be democratic, believe in equal opportunity and be a warm friendly environment. Some pros of the Baby Boomer in the workplace include that they are anxious to please and tend to challenge the status quo. They are mission oriented individuals who will go the extra mile. Some cons of this generation are that they expect everyone to be workaholics like themselves and they don’t like change either after being raised by traditionalists. Some keys to working with these Baby Boomers is understanding how
Baby Boomers constructed America in the 1960s, and soon the Millennials will get their chance. Baby boomers are currently the largest generation of active workers. Research has shown that boomers identify their strengths as organizational memory, optimism, and their willingness to work long hours. Many earned, many still earn high incomes. The millennial generation, born between 1980 and 2000, are starting to enter businesses in large numbers. However, they do not have the same views and values when working compared to the Boomers. This Boomers grew up in organizations with large corporate hierarchies, and Millennials grew up with management structures and teamwork based job roles. By 2025, millennials will make up the 75% of the workforce replacing the Boomer generation. But, are they ready for the workforce and is the workforce ready for them? I think they would be ready if businesses are able to change and adapt towards them.
Their values were shaped primarily by a rise in civil rights activism Vietnam and inflation. Baby Boomers were cherished by parents that had sacrificed and fought a war for the right to bear them raise them, indulge them. Baby boomers tend to be more optimistic and open to change and are also responsible for the “Me Generation” with its pursuit for personal gratification. Baby Boomers value face time in the office and my not welcome workplace flexibility or work/life balance trends. High levels of responsibility, perks, praise and challenges will motivate this Generation. Furthermore, when understanding Boomers, there’s the issue and added complexity of older Boomers and younger Boomers also known as the First half/Second Half. First halfers are those born in the 1940s. They are more idealistic, more likely to be workaholics and more likely to have put career first, family second. The first halfers’ world view was more affected by the 1950s. The late Bloomers or second halfers tend to feel different about work. They graduated from college and went to work during the Reagan era. They got the first taste of downsizing, large scale layoffs. This makes them more cynical and less gung ho about management than early Boomers. They feel that good work habits and positive mental attitude are not always rewarded and often are not enough to save a job regardless of how well it has been
“After a century of trying to control people, processes and information, we have come to a point in organizational history where we need to recognize that what worked before just simply isn’t enough anymore.” This goes to prove that over time just like everything else evolves our behaviors towards our colleagues has to evolve as well. And management has to learn the new behaviors of his/her employees. The Millennials and generation Z needs to know that they are appreciated and need to be challenged before they get bored, hence the reason why managers need to learn
Every generation is influenced by its period 's economic, political and social events. From the Great Depression to the civil rights and women 's movements to the advent of television and advanced computer technologies. Thus generational background/situation may also affect the way they work. The key is to be able to effectively address and take advantage of the differences in values and expectations of each generation in the workplace. The current work place consists of four different generations; The Baby Boomers (1946-1964) who are slowly retiring and existing the workforce, The Generation X (1965-1976), The Generation Y or millennia (1977-1997), and the Generation Z who are about to or are just entering the work force. Although these different generations tend to want similar things in a workplace their environment/background has shaped their character, values, and expectations (Hahn 2011).
They deplore the fact that a post-secondary education is no longer an automatic ticket to the perks of a middle class lifestyle. They also demonstrate distaste for institutions and labels, and feel that freedom of expression and liberation of self is fundamental for positive change. On that token, one of the most controversial topics of comparison between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials is that of work ethic. Boomers are often thought of as being hard-working and industrious. They often tie much of their self-worth directly to their professional achievements. They are often competitive which drives them to take on a host of professional responsibilities. This keeps them motivated and self-assured. Millennials have a tendency to want to start at the top, side-stepping the entry level positions and the upper rings of corporate ladder that Boomers dedicated decades of their time to
Many employers are challenged with handling the millennial due to the lack of proper understanding of this generation since there is plenty of myths, propagated through anecdotes and assumptions. However the separation of the myths and the facts is important for an organization so as
In a work environment everybody wants to climb the totem pole. For Millennials, they want to rise to leadership without working too hard for it. They are trying to reach the leadership positions as fast as they can and at times they are unprepared for the position they enter because they have not experienced enough along the way. Where Millennials are too fast to rise to leadership, people considered to be Generation X, who are known for their hard work ethic and experience are often complacent in the workplace. Though they gained their experience (unlike Millennials) by working their way up the chain of command and gradually paying their dues and though they also do not expect to be handed a higher position, like Millennials who feel entitled to higher positions in the workplace, they are also not as motivated as Millennials. (Bresman)
Millennials and the older generations do have distant relationships in the workplace that needs a resolution to provide a productive and excited work environment that produces results. These critcism about Millennials Steve Gavatorta witness at his own work environment, he states, “One of the common issues I experience when working with clients, who are primarily Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers, involves Generation Y entering the workplace,” Gavatorta describes how he personally experience these objections daily about Generation Y in the workplace, and how the older generations protests about Generation Y and the communication barrier with technology, their sense of entitlement, and their work ethic. Generation Y’s differences compared to the
“The number of employees over the age of 55 has increased by 30 percent; however, the number of 25- to 54-year-olds has only increased by 1 percent” (Claire, 2009). In 2008 the eldest of the 77 million baby-boomers turned 62. Estimates are that by the end of the decade about 40 percent of the work force will be eligible to retire. As people begin to reach the age of retirement there may be not be enough new employees to fill the gap (Clare, 2009). Companies need to find ways to attract Boomers and Millennials. Companies that want to attract Boomers and Millennials need to be creative in their culture, HR policies and work environments.
in order to impress the boss; rather, they will leave the office so they can pursue their personal interests. In the work place Millennials prefer digital interaction to face-to-face engagement. Why waste time on the telephone or with a meeting when you can just as easily text, email or Skype? These differences in communication styles often lead to miscommunication (Pacific Coast Times).
Millennial joined the workforce between 1980 and 2000. Millennial prefer to work in a team for projects rather than working individually. This generation of worker prefers to make friends at work and work well with diverse co-workers. Millennial have a can-do attitude but often require frequent feedback some as often as daily. This generation of workers also prefers step-by-step instructions or direction on how to complete an assigned task. They desire leadership and structure from their older co-workers.
In the present diversified work force in terms of age ,gender,culture ,work style, the employee demographics consist of the four generations which are Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millenials
Many changes are happening in the workforce today. Our labor environment consists of multiple generations, which creates fundamentally differing approaches to everything from work ethics, business management, and co-worker cooperation. The most recent generation, commonly known as “Generation Y” or the “Millennial” generation, is slowly taking over the workforce. Because they bring with them a radically new mindset and opinion of labor, the global business infrastructure should be modified to not only accommodate “Millennials,” but also to remain sympathetic to the business practices characteristic of previous generations. Doing so will provide more harmony and productivity among co-workers of different generational backgrounds.
Workplace culture is often hard to describe, because it means something different in every organisation and many times employees feel it’s ‘just the way things are’. But so often it can define a company and when it’s not working well, everyone knows about it.