By Grace Boyle
My co-worker and close friend, Tara is Gen X. She pokes fun because I’m Gen Y. I laugh it off. It’s funny. We don’t have any other riffs besides our generational jokes.
At the startup I work for, we’re about 30% Gen Y, 60% Gen X and 10% Boomers. I’m one of the youngest but I appreciate working with and learning from each generation. Although I may hear jokes, “Oh when I was in high school…don’t worry Grace, you were still drinking out of a bottle,” there’s an innate difference that makes each generation worthy and interesting.
Generation Y moves forward with trust and devoid of fear. We (GenY) are relatively new to the workplace, so we’re ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ in comparison to Gen X but I think our idealism is a driving force and spirit that is contagious. Gen X operates with realism, pragmatism and effectiveness over Gen Y’s idealism.
The optimism is relevant from Yahoo! HotJobs & Robert Half International, 2007: “Compared to previous generations, Gen Y expects to have, more frequent job/career changes (15%), greater focus on personal/family life (12%), more knowledge of advanced technology (10%) and more education (9%).”
Gen X: The Leaders of Our Future?
Tamara J. Erickson, author of What’s Next, Gen X? Keeping Up, Moving Ahead and Getting the Career You Want,” argues that Gen X “will be the leaders we need.”
A weakness of Generation Y is our lack of realism. Erickson argues that Gen X’s, “skepticism and ability to isolate practical truths have resulted in rich humor and incisive perspective.” As leaders she believes Gen X will help “redefine issues and question reality.”
Gen Y: Selfish and Impatient-Still Visionaries.
Gen Y is not afraid of change, taking risk and tackling new situations. Even if we’re dubbed impatient and selfish, the impatience turns to a sense of urgency to complete and our selfishness is wanting access to opportunity and hard work.
Working Together
I’m looking through our differences but realize that each generation has a bad rap, and important innate strengths. I’m tired of hearing about each generation and our characteristics. It is pretty well known that generations are often criticized by the ones which preceded them.
What about how we work together? Just like Tara and I, we have very little differences, and enjoy working together. Finding common ground between our differences then creating a community could pose a force to be reckoned with.
This is the first time in American history that we have had four different generations working together. Roles are interspersed, reversed and bridges are gapped.
Ilene Wasserman, Ph.D. and “Office Culture” columnist at Entrepreneur.com has nailed it:
“A conversation about differences, whether generational, cultural, gender or otherwise, often includes the problems and challenges they create. Different perspectives always have the potential to foster creative problem solving and ignite energy.”
That sure is the way I want to work and interact with generations above and below me. Different isn’t bad, it’s just different.
Do you get along better with the generation above or below you? What challenges or success do you find when interacting with other generations in the workplace?
Grace Boyle is a 23 year-old adventurist. She lives in Boulder, CO and does Business Development for startup called Lijit. She blogs at Small Hands, Big Ideas and loves to interact by meeting new people (regardless of their generation).
