“Technology Trailblazers” VS “Generation Digital”

There may be Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Gen Y and Millennials, and even Generation Z, yet today’s business marketplace really consists of just two sets of professionals: the older and the younger. While their ages may span early 20s to 65 years old and beyond, both groups share a universal commonality and a universal disconnect.

“Crossing the Generational Gap.” Accounting Today, 9 Dec. 2013, http://www.accountingtoday.com/opinion/crossing-the-generational-gap.

Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve disagreed with someone but you are both actually correct its just that you are coming from different places in the way of your thinking? Well, this happens very often in the workforce and in day to day activities between baby boomers and millennials. Baby boomers make up the largest demographic and millennials make up the second largest. They come from two vastly different worlds. They possess widely different mindsets. And their moral codes vary along with their work ethic. Baby boomers want to simply do what they are used to doing and what favors them best; whereas millennials want to simply tear everything down and do everything in their own new way or how they believe it should be done. Baby boomers believe that you have to study hard and work hard in order to succeed and achieve your dreams. Millennials believe that they should take it easy, find their passion and they shall be successful. Frankly speaking baby boomers were programmed to go to college, get married, have children, buy a house and keep the same job for 50 years. Whereas millennials just go with what they believe best suits them. Baby boomers value experience and they take pride in their old classic ways. Millennials are claimed to be entitled and they want to do things the new better way with the aid technology.

Having both generations in the workforce undeniably
creates conflict. However, we should take advantage of having the big gap in
the work force because the older generation are wiser and are essential to the
success of a business and the younger generation is tech savvy and efficient.
The younger generation should value the experience of the older ones. In order
to bridge the gap, it is crucial to create a clear understanding for better
communication between both. According to an article I read titled 7 ways to
bridge the Boomer-Millennial gap by Todd Berger, President and CEO of Redwood
Logistics, he suggests that having diverse groups encourages communication.
This also cancels out any misconceptions that one group has of the other
generation. In addition, he suggests that the workplace should create a mentor bond
between the baby boomers and millennials. This technique will help them improve
their skills and deepen their relationship. Todd suggests trying reverse mentoring
as well, where baby boomers can learn from millennials and perhaps pickup on some
time saving strategies and adapt to the technology. It is also very important
to understand the motivators for both generations. Baby boomers tend to favor a
job that is secured, that offers benefits and the working hours are set and
they work from an office. Millennials on the other hand, prefer a laid-back
environment, they want flexible hours and they don’t want to be tied down to a
specific time and day and they can work from anywhere. As long as they get the
job done. This could be a valid reason why they are underemployed. Lastly,
encouraging communication and feedback between both generations will go along
way. Having done so will help the company go forward and grow whereas other
companies may still be struggling with the clash of both generations and that
will be putting them behind.

The gap of difficulty between the lives of baby boomers and millennials is not as vast as the Boomers claim it to be. However, job requirements back then we’re indeed less significant as something like using a fax machine was considered a great skill, where as now it it is naturally assumed that anyone has this “skill”. Baby boomers think that they got it hard and that their lives were challenging. And Millennials believe that baby boomers had nothing to worry about and everything was handed to them. Although millennials are surrounded by technology; their world has transformed since the times of baby boomers. Today, millennials have a lot more requirements and obligations in the workforce. They are expected to have 2 or 3 years of work experience upon graduation. This was not a requirement that baby boomers had to face. The workforce actually needs millennials, but they need millennials with experience to replace the older generations. However, that becomes very challenging when millennials are not able to work in reasonable positions.

The workforce isn’t the only place where baby boomers and millennials clash, conflicts also arise when it comes to budgeting and financing. Baby boomers and millennials have different approaches towards budgeting. In my next blog spot will be digging deeper into their differences in accounting. Stay tuned.