This month's Harvard Business Review was full of interesting insights as usual. But I had a funny sensation when reading "How Gen Y and Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda". It seems that we Gen Xers are old news. We are outnumbered when Generation Y and the Baby Boomers club together, a bit like the middle child whose older and younger siblings are playing together leaving us at a loose end.
However, feelings of neglect aside, the collaboration between younger employees and older ones can be very powerful. In most workplaces I have been in there is a sense that older employees are just looking to wind down or wind up their careers. They aren't in a learning phase. In fact, I heard that very comment today from a client who felt his team mates who were close to retirement wouldn't be interested in a high potential programme.
And Generation Y are seen as more obsessed with facebook and surfing than making a serious career for themselves.
But this article suggests that Generation Y connects with the Boomers because they share similar values. Y'sare the children of Boomers themselves so they are used to that dynamic. Boomers were growing up in an age of sexual freedom and youth power. They travelled the world, they changed politics, they transformed music and they created a whole new set of rules about adulthood. Generation Y aren't as free in the sense they are less rebellious and more interested in home comforts. But they are also technically savvy and early adopters of new gadgetry. They see themselves, as the Boomers did, as breaking the rules and making up a new set.
The article gives examples of companies who have developed schemes where Boomers and Y's can work together. Gen Y likes to be mentored by Boomers who they perceive as parents. And because both share the idea that work isn't as much about financial gain as other forms of reward they both appreciate flexible working conditions, especially those that allow them to take breaks from work and come back after an "odyssey". And, actually, Generation Y can become mentors of Boomers in a kind of "switcheroo" where they show older workers how to get the most from new technology, social networking, blogs and wikis.
Although I do feel a bit left out of this big family hug I appreciate that a workplace which adapts to the needs of its talented people, no matter how old or young those individuals are, is looking at "Human Resources" in an innovative way...and who are the great innovators in the workforce? Generation X! We may not be the beneficiaries of this new thinking but it was probably our idea!
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