Workplace Calisthenics: Gen Xers, baby boomers can complement each other

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It is the workplace prejudice no one talks about.|ret||ret||tab|

"They want everything without paying their dues." "If they are in the middle of a project and it is 5 p.m., they are out the door." "I call them the Y Generation because they are constantly asking me why we are doing things this way."|ret||ret||tab|

That's right, it is knockdown, hair-pulling baby boomers vs. the Gen Xer's. |ret||ret||tab|

But this snit is no longer just jokes about "senior moments" and "skateboard nerds" or "What is this younger generation coming to?" (a statement Adam and Eve must have made about little Cainy and Able); this is about victimizing people on the basis of a birth year.|ret||ret||tab|

The insidious quality of prejudice is it casts attitudes in reinforced, psychological concrete without ever checking out the perceptions. As a certifiable baby boomer (those of us born between 1943 and 1960), I am concerned about growing workplace generational stereotyping and prejudice. |ret||ret||tab|

You know what? We don't need this. With many of our organizations overdosing on merger-mania, our e-mail boxes throwing up, our "so-sue-me" banality growing and Dilbert the poster-child of American business we don't need this. You and I cannot do anything about the future of paper jams or OPEC raising the price of crude, but we can do something about stupid prejudice.|ret||ret||tab|

To the baby boomers yes, the Generation X "kids" do see the world different from you. No, they do not get weepy over the stars and stripes being raised over Iwo Jima because they think Iwo Jima is a new coffee concoction at Starbucks. No, these young people do not have the same level of commitment to a job because they watched some of you work 80 hours a week and be tanked (sorry, thanked) with a pink slip. And, no, these fold-up-scooter-types are not impressed with titles because they have watched one sitting president resign and another blatantly lie.|ret||ret||tab|

We have to be willing to adjust and accommodate to what has been called "the forgotten generation." These latchkey kids waited for someone to show up in the universe. Parents did not show up because they both had to work to keep the Caravan on the road. God did not show up because, as children, Generation X heard he was dead and then Jim and Jimmy proved the reports might be correct. And love did not show up because of AIDS.|ret||ret||tab|

Therefore, in the workplace, baby boomers will have to: Motivate Gen Xers using something else beside money; listen without tacking on, "We would have never done it this way;" be open to actually having fun at work; encourage questioning; challenge with a difficult task; and be willing to hike, hang-glide or just hang out.|ret||ret||tab|

If there are any Gen Xers reading this column, you may want to consider this about your baby boomer coworkers. These stodgy folks were weaned on working hard for the sake of doing the task. They were taught, " it doesn't matter if you like your job, you just do." They are the prehistoric Nike people.|ret||ret||tab|

They save everything (string, rubber bands from the mail, plastic bags from the store) because their parents told them stories of the Depression (that is not a mental disease).|ret||ret||tab|

And, the majority of them are reverent of position, titles and this country because they and their parents fought wars. Wars that exalted the human spirit and wars that split the red, white and blue down the middle. Wars, you will discover, are the depository of everything that is noble and obscene about us.|ret||ret||tab|

So, cut the baby boomers some slack! As a matter of fact, you may want to: Ask their opinion (we geriatrics love that); when you disagree with us, keep it professional, not personal; be patient with us when explaining technology (which, we know is your fort) some of us have never played Nintendo; seek a baby boomer out to become your mentor (we know a lot); and watch the Centrum Silver jokes. You will be financially supporting us when we are riding our mountain bikes at age 102.|ret||ret||tab|

|bold_on|(Dr. Cal LeMon solves organizational problems with customized training and consulting. His company, The Executive Edge, can be contacted via the Business Journal at sbj@sbj.net.)|bold_on||ret||ret||tab|

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