Generation Flap

Generation Flap

MANAGING by Francis X. Gilpin | Associate Editor

Bruce Tulgan stereotypes people. Not based on race or ethnicity. Instead, Tulgan pigeonholes U.S. workers based on when they were born.

"I make rash generalizations about tens of millions of people," Tulgan told a group of business leaders recently in St. Pete Beach. "That's what I do."

Tulgan doesn't come by his stereotypes easily. He gave up a law practice on Wall Street to spend the past 13 years studying how different generations work together, or don't.

After interviewing some 13,000 workers at more than 700 companies, educational institutions, government agencies and non-profits, Tulgan has concluded that the so-called Silent Generation's elder statesmen handle the stress of the 21st century American workplace differently from Baby Boomers who handle it differently from generations X and Y.

"We're all experiencing more profound changes in our economy, society, culture, workplace, families and communities than at any time since the Industrial Revolution," says Tulgan. "Depending on where you are in your life and career, depending on how you grew up, depending on what life stage you're at, you're probably experiencing these changes differently."

The biggest change is the incessant demand for increased productivity – what Tulgan calls "more, better, faster." It may be good for the economy, but the efficiency push has driven a wedge between generations.

Younger workers fare better because they are more comfortable with the electronic gadgets that boost output. They are impatient with outmoded organizational frameworks.

Indeed, according to Tulgan, adaptability to change has become more important to occupational success than seniority. That shift hasn't sat well with older workers, notably the Boomer generation born between 1946 and 1964.

"In this environment, where it's all about more, better, faster, all of a sudden the seniority system is breaking down," Tulgan says. "It is becoming less and less important where you've been and what you've done and more and more important how fast you can learn things and put them into action."

What's seniority?

Boomers, in particular, resent the timing. Seniority became devalued as Boomer temples grayed and they expected to begin tasting the fruits of having paid their dues.

"Remember downsizing, restructuring, re-engineering?" asks Tulgan. "The older, more experienced people were hiding under their chairs. 'Don't downsize me. Please, not me.'"

Although Boomers were clearly traumatized, the change was much less shocking to Generation X workers. Born between 1965 and 1977, they had childhoods shaped by the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, Tulgan says, and some grew up not trusting institutions.

So when pink slips started flying like confetti in the early 1990s recession, the reaction of the stereotypical slacker from Generation X was: "Downsize me, whatever."

Generation Y workers have a different mindset. "They're like Generation X on fast-forward," says Tulgan. Gen Yers are ideally suited to the contemporary American workplace, argues Tulgan.

Workers who came into the world between 1978 and 1990 grew up in an optimistic age when American technological innovation reaffirmed U.S. global preeminence. On a personal level, their upbringing was marked by a parental obsession with boosting their self-esteem.

The death of loyalty

Corporate America generally likes what has sprung from the supreme self-confidence of Gen Y workers. "They have high expectations for themselves," says Tulgan. "They want to out-work the next person."

But they have short attention spans. "They have no concept of getting up to speed slowly, figuring out the culture," he says.

Tulgan jokingly calls it "just-in-time learning." Boomers may ridicule rash Gen Y co-workers, but top executives have fewer qualms. "They are in such a hurry to be valuable," says Tulgan. "That's one of the things that makes them more valuable."

The downside of nimble young workers is that they are hard to please and hence quite mobile.

Tulgan says one Boomer boss confused a new hire by outlining the fringe benefits based on tenure with the company. The young employee, who had no intention of sticking around five years for an extra week of vacation, asked if the boss still wanted him to come to work the next day.

Younger workers have introduced a purely free-agent mentality into the modern American workplace. Tulgan recalls asking one Gen Y worker who had just pledged allegiance to his company where the employee wanted to be in six months. "Oh, that depends on my best offer," replied the worker.

"It's a shift toward the logic of the marketplace," Tulgan says.

Silent Generation workers and Boomers may scoff at the short-term thinking of Gen X and Y workers. But Tulgan says the younger workers are on to something.

"Do they have such short attention spans? Are they so short-term?" Tulgan asks in a series of rapid-fire rhetorical questions. "Are they so out of sync? Are you sure? Read the newspaper."

Company pensions, which Tulgan calls "the metaphor for the long-term, vesting reward," are disappearing.

Tulgan says Boomer and even Silent Generation workers have begrudgingly come to share the working worldview of their progeny. But they aren't happy about it.

"I've got to take care of myself and my family, too," Tulgan quotes a typical remark from an older worker. "It's just that I'm sad about it because it feels like loyalty is dead."

Generations Defined

Tulgan'S stereotypes

What are they called? When were they born? %/2006 workforce?

Silent Generation Before or during World War II 7%

Baby Boomers Between 1946 and 1964 42%

Generation X Between 1965 and 1977 29%

Generation Y Between 1978 and 1990 22%

Source: RainmakerThinking Inc.