The Gap - why the Gen X and Gen Y stand-off is affecting your business

Boomers vs Millennials

If you’ve worked in any business or company that has multi-generational employees then you’ve probably rubbed up against the misunderstandings that happen between different generations.

I’ve seen this mostly in entry level jobs - when I was an account assistant at a PR agency in London I was on the receiving ends of a ‘prove yourself then we’ll reward you’ attitude, which didn’t sit well with my degree in Performing Arts (very flat and non-hierachical) and the fact that I’d been told by society that the world was my oyster and to ‘Reward me and then I’ll prove myself’.

The amazing Simon Sinek talks more about why this is in the video below…

He says he can break this down into 4 areas:

• parenting

• technology

• impatience

• environment

And the result? Low self esteem, being ruled by the dopamine hits of social media, the instant gratification of having a world at our fingertips so not having the patience for the ‘slow, meandering’ parts of life - like relationships, job satisfaction, a skillset, and, being shoe-horned into corporate environments that care more about the numbers than our long term satisfaction. And we think it’s us…

It’s the companies society that have to pick up the slack to build confidence and skillsets and to form real relationships that aren’t screen-based. Trust is the reward from slow, steady consistent interactions.

What do you think?