About Generations In Today's Workplace

I was 16 when I met my uncle Andrew who was visiting from Aberdeen, Scotland for the first time. His first words to me were "Halò, tha mi toilichte do choinneachadh, Shamus".  And initially I thought there was something seriously wrong with him.  

He was at least 55 years old (ancient in my view of the time) and very passionate as he spoke, but I apparently looked confused. So, he repeated it. Even though I was 16, I didn’t roll my eyes, give him attitude or walk away to look at my iPhone (which didn’t exist yet). I also didn’t roll my eyes and silently dismiss him as not having the courtesy to speak English in a way I would understand it.

No.  I leaned in with respect, my face smiling and curious, and nodding with compassion.  He repeated again, this time slower and with less Gaelic and said, “a pleasure to meet you, Shamus”.

There was clearly a generational difference between us (maybe several), but there was also respect going into the conversation.  And that’s the objective of telling this story.

Our strategic partners at PeopleView and I are working with a number of clients right now, who seem to be at odds with managing and leading the four generations of employees who work in workplaces these days.  It’s quite common to find Gen Z’s through to Silent Generation members engaged in today’s workplace ranging in ages from 17 to 80+, and their behaviours don’t always align for that “collaborative culture” that organizations might be trying to establish.

And before any of those members start getting their backs up that this might be a discussion between those “that won’t put their iPhone down” to those who are always “talking about how things used to be”, it’s not.  It’s not about generational differences in the workplace that cause our conflict today.  It’s often the lack of a desire to converse with respect.  Age shouldn’t have anything to do with it…. but it seems to be a popular diagnosis.

But here’s where today’s leaders need to step up and where their reluctance needs to be challenged. Rudeness, bad behaviour, disrespect and poor performance are a whole other cause, and no generation gets a special pass to continue them in the workplace. And it’s worse when leaders ignore it, as it becomes poison to culture, and why people eventually quit, or worse, quit and stay.

Workplace conflict shouldn’t be about getting mad or disconnecting when people behave differently than we do. It should be about listening and wanting to

understand.  Workplace conflict should be about inappropriate behaviours, ignoring company policy & standards, and poor performance, regardless of age.  And this is where we expect leadership to step up.

When “Boomer’s mutter about it under their breath” or when “GenZ’s create a video blast about it out to their network”, it’s just their way of managing their reactions to what they feel is inappropriate, rude, fair or nice.  Leaders need to cut through the reactions and get to the real conflict causes and manage them with confidence.

Now in fairness, this is an honest challenge to any leader today, as their role has shifted significantly from “supervisor” to developer, counselor and some would argue, parent.  As a quick aside, GenZ leaders are just as frustrated with their GenZ employees as they are their Boomer employees.  Back now, But those roles needed to change, just as these generational behaviours did as well.  There were many bad bosses in the 70’s that we tolerated where companies clearly should not have and

they were lucky to have avoided lawsuits accordingly.  But those bad bosses also affected performance, culture and bias not always in an effective way.

And before my fellow Boomers stand up and say, “yeah, but we got things done”, most expect more from the workplace today.  The world is far less predictable, is much more stressful, and we’ve moved away from the boss/employee model to the leader/collaborator model.  We still expect to “get things done” but we do it more engaged, and innovative while doing it.

Research has taught us that while earlier generations were very strong on pride-of-craftsmanship, younger generations were stronger on quality and consistency.

A discussion with a university professor recently painted this scenario of a recent class interaction.  And it was a healthy mix of GenZ’s and Boomers in the audience.  Part of the instruction was his 10-minute introductory lecture, followed by a 15-minute PowerPoint presentation with him narrating.  As soon as PowerPoint launched, the GenZ’s pulled out their iPhone’s and began clicking.  But Boomers alternated between watching the PowerPoint presentation and being indignant about GenZ’s apparent lack of attention.

The Boomers didn’t realize that the GenZ’s had begun recording the presentation with their iPhone’s, as is typical these days, for later reference.  Knowing his blended audience, the professor said, “I trust those with iPhone’s lit up are improving their changes of passing the exam”.  And temperatures cooled in the room.

As is his style, the professor continued to walk around the room during the presentation, looking to ensure iPhones were recording, rather than a TikTok episode running, which is cause for “conflict”.  Returning to the front of the room, the professor reminded the class that iPhones are permitted in the class as a “contract of trust” with students for learning, and that they will be removed if trust is abused.  He didn’t snatch any iPhones out of anyone abusing that trust, but he reserved the opportunity to eject the student with iPhone in tow.

Workplace conflict shouldn’t be about getting angry or disconnecting when people behave differently than we do. It should be about listening and wanting to understand.  True workplace conflict should be about managing inappropriate behaviours, ignoring company policy & standards, and poor performance.  And this is where we expect leadership to step up, and this professor did.

The difference between these generational behaviours and what’s appropriate for your workplace, its policies, and performance objectives is what seems to be causing a lot of leaders to either freeze or not lead today.  Whether it’s the fear of confrontation or not knowing where their company stands on the latter is why these issues are often not being led.  And how an authentic company culture and the pursuit of organizational resilience is often wounded.

This is where company standards and metrics are critical to managing generational behaviours in the workplace, and leaders ensuring they happen.  As an 80 year old manager said to me the other day, there’s more than one way (generation) to make an omelette….

It’s not about generational behaviour that is causing workplace conflict…. It’s about not leading it.

Jim Ellis for Cambiara -2025