According to HR professionals, who say they’ve never seen anything like it before, companies are now seeing FOUR (count-‘em) generations of employees working together.
They say something interesting -- that HR departments better learn to do two things well: convince Baby Boomers to postpone retirement and adapt to working with the Gen Y’ers with their very different expectations. And that’s not even talking about the older “traditionalists” and the in-between Gen X’ers.
So how will this wash? A lot of BBs that I know are anxious to retire (yup, they’re the ones who bought into the idea of 60-80 hour workweeks for white-collar workers, thought it was a good idea for career advancement).
A lot of GYs I know are anxious to get ahead quickly. Traditionally, that was done by starting with a small (but diversified) job at a small company, moving up after several years to a larger company, and so on. Not so much anymore.
GXs and GYs say they look through the red tape, see the price their parents (and grandparents) paid for playing the corporate game, and are trying to short-circuit the process.
I know I wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of an HR person, trying to avoid saying “no way, but please stay” to everybody in sight.
OK, so here’s a radical solution – let the BBs go. In fact, incentivize them. Yes, they’re often the mentors and the managers – so what!
Find ways to fast-track the GX and GY stars – the managers of tomorrow. Give them the career paths that they want, knowing that they’ll be ready to challenge and be challenged.
Do we have any votes for bringing the workplace all the way down to two generations – anyone? Or is a diverse workplace -- where colleagues learn from each other -- actually still worth something?
