Editorial

Let’s talk generations.

About how Zoomers are too focused on work-life balance, dressing down, and taking mental-health days to get anything done in the office.

About how Boomers can’t adapt to a workplace culture that’s more flexible, collaborative, and tech-driven than they’re comfortable with.

How Gen X — oh, wait, no one cares about Gen X.

Now, let’s take the first line of this article and add a comma.

Let’s talk, generations.

That’s better.

For all the (sometimes negative) stereotypes about how four (and often five) generations coexist in the work world, there’s really more that connects us than divides us, as savvy employers and HR managers have learned.

What was striking, when we delved into the topic in the story on page 17, was the emphasis on what communication and openness to new ideas can do for a workplace culture, turning generational differences that might otherwise cause conflict into something positive.

You’ll read about a 29-year-old leader who regularly seeks out the advice and perspective of an older employee whom she manages. And, conversely, how employers have instituted something called reverse mentoring, whereby younger employees share their ideas with older employees, including older executives.

That may be the biggest generational shift of them all, away from a hierarchical, siloed model of management that, if it didn’t actively discourage such exchanges and questioning, at least didn’t encourage it.

But as Millennials and Zoomers continue to comprise a greater and greater share of the workforce, employers, even those from the Boomer and Traditionalist generations, are learning … well, the value of learning from each other, no matter the ages or positions of the people having the conversation.

The consensus seems to be that many benefits and perks favored by the younger cohort, from work-life balance and hybrid schedules to more wellness-focused benefits, are here to stay, benefiting all generations in the workplace, but it’s equally true that they have plenty to gain from the perspectives of business leaders who have been succeeding and adapting for decades.

It all begins with open conversation and trust.

“You want everyone on the team to question everyone else — to question everything, in a good way,” the 29-year-old Operations director told us. “Does this make sense? Is there a better way to do this? Why are we doing this? Why are we still doing this?”

So let’s talk about it.