Comments on: When Boomers, Gen Y Collide

By: Brett Hummel

Brett Hummel — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:52:16 +0000

As a Millennial myself I think that one of the greatest challenges facing my generation is a loss of human contact. I believe the dehumanization of many tasks has left my generation feeling very isolated and alone. While we as a generation are very open about our actions, many of us do not discuss our deepest feelings because many of our friendships are the superficial kind (think the 700 or so friends we usually have on Facebook or MySpace).

From a generational standpoint, many young professionals would like to have an older mentor figure, but too often do not find our older co-workers very open to our ways or ideas. Many older workers do not see the point in spending time with us because they themselves are so busy.

The older workers are not all too blame; I know of plenty of young professionals that look down on their older counterparts, but both generations I have so much to learn from each other that I do not understand why it happens so infrequently. Companies who can bridge this gap between the older and younger workforces will see both productivity and profitability gains.

By: Brandt Dainow

Brandt Dainow — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:12:05 +0000

Generation Y’ers can be techno-fixated to the point of stupidity. I once caught one of my Gen-Y employees sending an email to the guy sitting next to him rather than simply speaking to him. It’s plain to me supervising them that “multi-tasking” is a joke. They are not switching their full intelligence from task to task, they are simply dividing it amongst the tasks, resulting in each task being done with about the same intelligence as I could get from a wet sponge.

By: Chris Dessi

Chris Dessi — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:35:52 +0000

Recently in a Harvard Business Review Podcast they speak of generation gaps in the office environment, but with a slightly different spin. When the Boomers are at the C-Level, X-er’s are in Middle Management and Y-er’s are entry level things get really interesting. The point they make is that Boomers love the Gen-Y perspective because (unlike their managers in Gen X), if Gen-Y’ers have a question – they won’t follow protocol; rather they will go directly to the source (their Boomer CEO) and ask the question. This apparently infuriates their Gen X manager, but flatters their Boomer CEO. Either way you slice it – Gen – Y is shaking up the way we do business.

By: Smiley faces & cracked hearts « Y How

Smiley faces & cracked hearts « Y How — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:40:06 +0000

[...] Amy Manus over at Adotas concurs. Our over-exposure to digital media has left Y-ers struggling to grapple with the concept of face-to-face communication. We’re so used to having the time to formulate witty responses in the stasis of cyberspace that we find ourselves outpaced in real time conversation, where we are unable to hide behind the relative safety of the backspace key and ‘BRB’. Some of us even struggle to make eye-contact when conversing with colleagues. Yikes! [...]

By: JessieX

JessieX — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:42:32 +0000

I find it fascinating that the author here felt confident to write of generations yet skipped over (ignored) completely GenXers. It’s OK. really. See GenXers, the largest of any extant generation, though few believe it, do just fine when no one pays us any mind. Heck, we’re so occupied taking care of messes few others are unwilling to face that we’re plenty busy anyway.

By: Timothy Johnson

Timothy Johnson — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:18:58 +0000

Great article. You have to love the paradox here, considering that most of Gen-Y are the CHILDREN of baby boomers… hence, you have almost a parent-child stand-off in many ways. The irony being that the materialism of the boomers gave rise to the techno-savvy of the Gen-Y-ers.

Of course, as a Gen-X-er who loves to watch from the middle, the dynamics only get more fascinating when one looks at how the generational values have been formulated which created both ends of the spectrum you’ve set up.

You’re right about learning how to learn… from each other. In the end, if we play off of our strengths instead of rebutting others’ weaknesses, we’ll all be further ahead.