Employers must manage workers with divergent attitudes, habits

On her computer screen at work, Ruth Garren has a calendar counting down the days until her 65th birthday in June - the day she will retire after 28 years with McKee Foods.

In a cubicle 30 feet away, 23-year-old Erin North is settling into her new job as a communications specialist for the company.

They are bookends in a trend that is redefining the American workplace where, for the first time, four distinct and very different generations are laboring side by side.

One generation, whose members are staying on the job longer - some into their 70s and beyond - was shaped by the Great Depression and the events of World War II. Members of the youngest generation, born in the 1980s, only vaguely remember Ronald Reagan's presidency and have never known a world without the Internet and cell phones.

In between the veterans and generation Y are the baby boomers and generation X, groups that bring their own unique experiences and approaches to the office with them every day.

The generation gap in the workplace is producing natural clashes of values and communication styles, and disagreements over everything from appropriate clothing to attitudes about authority and technology.

"If you look at the four gen- erations, they grew up when different things were going on, they have different views of family, education, ideas about communication, money. They grew up under different styles of parenting," said Gail Dawson, an assistant professor of management at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

"If they don't find ways to work together, you have miscommunication in the organization, and that affects productivity," said Dr. Dawson, 42, who specializes in human resources and diversity.

One major difference among the four generations is their approach to authority and workplace hierarchy, said Ms. Garren, the manager of corporate communications and public relations for McKee.

Four days after Ms. North started her job at McKee, she sent a department-wide e-mail admonishing her colleagues to double-check facts in company publications after an error in a photo caption was brought to her attention. In the e-mail, Ms. North urged her colleagues not to let such a mistake happen again.

Her boss, Ms. Garren, was startled by the e-mail, but applauded her new hire's instincts.

"It was surprising that it came from her, but she's absolutely right," Ms. Garren said. "More power to her."

Ms. North never thought twice about sending that e-mail.

"My thinking was 'Hey, there's a problem. Let's all try to look at this,'" she said.

Direct, results-oriented action is one hallmark of the new generation of workers, said James Fowler, a 24-year-old supervisor for Youth Villages, a social services agency in Chattanooga.

"If we ever think there's a better way of doing things, we're going to pitch the idea very quickly," he said.

But that approach can backfire if it strikes the nerve of an older worker with a strict sense of hierarchy and formal communication, Greg Hammill said.

A retired director of employment for AT&T, Mr. Hammill wrote about the four-generation workplace during a five-year stint at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. As the range of generations in the workplace grows - and the experiences that define them become more divergent - it's important for people of different ages to learn how to communicate effectively, he said.

"People really need to try to understand the other generations," he said. "If you don't know how the other people on your team react and how they want to work, you're less productive."

FOUR GENERATIONS: WHO ARE THEY ?

Depending on the source, generational lines can move a few years in either direction, leaving some members of these groups in unclear territory. In Mr. Hammill's article, he defines the generations this way:

The oldest of today's workers, the veterans generation born before 1946, grew up in the shadow of the Great Depression and World War II. Many are retiring soon or already have left their jobs, but the traditional approach they have to authority, work and sacrifice still is very much part of many workplaces, Mr. Hammill said.

They also have years of valuable experience and knowledge, but the warp-speed changes in technology that dominate the American workplace now may be lost on them.

Just behind the veterans is the tidal wave of baby boomers born from 1946 to 1964. The oldest of them are turning 61 this year, and some are starting to retire, but boomers still largely dominate the work force. The generation typically brings an intensely workfocused attitude and a penchant for meetings and consensus-building to the workplace, said Robert W. Wendover, managing director for the Center for Generational Studies.

"For boomers, meetings are a part of life," he said.

One challenge for boomers is managing generation X, their workplace colleagues born from 1965 to 1980, who have a very different approach to work from the two previous generations, said Stephen Ruffin, 46, a consumer care manager for McKee.

"Generation X grew up with access to so much more information, they expect it continually," he said. "With my generation, your boss says 'Jump off a cliff,' and we say 'Yes sir, thank you very much.' Generation X wants to know 'Why am I jumping off this cliff? How far is it? What's my velocity going to be on the way down?'"

Generation X often is looking for work/life balance, flexible hours, or the chance to telecommute, which older workers may view as just plain lazy, Mr. Hammill said.

Having grown up with career-focused parents and a climate of corporate lay-offs, generation X also is likely to have a fend-for-yourself mindset, said Danette Scudder, 32, training administration manager for the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association.

"By the time I was 26 I had been laid off through no fault of my own," she said. "I don't expect a company to be loyal to me. I'm going to build my skill set to be valuable to them, or to be more valuable to the next company I go to."

And then there's generation Y - a group born after 1980 that has grown up with unprecedented access to technology and information, and the multi-tasking mind-set that goes with it, Mr. Wendover said.

"Parents tell me 'I'm trying to talk to my kid and he's texting his friends and it's making me nuts,'" he said. "They're online buying a car and listening to their iPods and texting each other. We say 'Don't do that,' and they say 'Why not?'"

Generation Y also is looking for work/life balance, said Lindsey Powell, a 24-year-old counselor who worked for Youth Villages until last week and starts a new job at Signal Centers on Monday.

Ms. Powell takes her work seriously but also expects to have a full life outside her job, she said.

"I'm thinking about my social life a lot," she said. "I think that is different about our generation."

MAKING AN IMPRESSION

While veterans and boomers tend to wear formal business attire, members of the younger generations sometimes dress more casually for work.

"They want to know 'Why is it important?'" said Ray West, a 39-year-old consultant in Chattanooga.

But Laura Oakley, who runs Chattanooga-based Professional Recruiting Services, said the youngest job candidates she sees often dress casually for interviews when it's absolutely not appropriate.

"They say, 'Why should I dress up for you? You're just the recruiter,'" she said.

Mr. West, who works on marketing for Youth Villages, said the older generation has more of an expectation about appearance and style.

"With the younger people, it's all about the work and not about the presentation," he said.

Mr. Wendover from the Center for Generational Studies said many of his clients are put off by young job applicants who look not just casual but downright unconventional.

"Clients come to me and say 'What do I do with this kid with the green hair and the body piercings who wants to work behind my counter?'" he said. "I tell them looks are deceiving. People who look like that may be more courteous than the all-Americanlooking boy."

MEETING THE CHALLENGE

At McKee, the workplace generation gap was the subject of a series of articles in the monthly company newsletter, Conveyer, that ran November through February. The project was the brainchild of Georgia Duke, 39, a senior communications specialist for McKee.

"The more you know about a certain generation the more you'll be able to understand them," she said. "The payoff is better relationships across the board."

At McKee, an employee survey found 253 veterans, 2,714 baby boomers, 3,754 generation Xers, and 522 generation Y workers.

A variety of ages at work can be positive, said Kathryn Kestner, a 24-year-old assistant account executive for Waterhouse Public Relations in Chattanooga.

"You are able to get many different perspectives on one issue," she said. "It's all about using your strengths, and each age group has different strengths."

Ron Harris, a baby boomer who is the senior manager of work force diversity for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, said cross-generational understanding will become crucial as younger workers replace retiring veterans and boomers.

"Over the next 10 years, 43 percent of America's work force will start to retire, and you're going to have a brain drain if you don't bridge that gap," he said.

Ms. Scudder, who teaches communication across the generations at seminars for area utilities, said she hears a lot of complaints from boomers and veterans about generations X and Y, she said.

"One of the big complaints is the work ethic - or lack thereof - in the younger generations," she said.

Older workers come from a very loyal group that thinks retirement is the reward for years of hard work. Younger generations are much more focused on balancing life and work.

"There's a different values system there. From one generation's perspective it looks like they don't want to work hard, but the younger generation says 'This is my time; why can't I use it the way I want to?'"

Mr. Wendover from the Center for Generational Studies has worked with hundreds of companies across the country over the last 10 years to help keep workplace communications open among generations.

In some cases, the leaders of organizations may be "too far up the food chain" to recognize that an employee who is 23 or 24 years old has an utterly different set of attitudes about work, he said. It's critical to talk openly with workers of every age about expectations, Mr. Wendover said.

"I sit with the 20-somethings and say 'They (older generations) make assumptions about work that you aren't making. You have to understand where they're coming from.'"