Introduction
In today’s workforce, it is very common to have coworkers in multiple generations. The four generations that are currently in the workforce are the Traditionals, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Currently, the Baby Boomers and Generation Y make up the majority of employees in the workforce. There is great diversity between the generations in terms of what motivates them to perform well at work, attitudes about work, causes of conflict in the workplace, and communication in the workplace. Another aspect of the generations that has great diversity is the way in which they learn in the workplace. Because of this, employers have to provide training and development opportunities that cater to each generation. Baby Boomers typically prefer traditional classroom training, while Generation Y prefers online, self-paced training.
The reason why each generation prefers a particular type of training is a result of their upbringing and the method of learning used in school as they were growing up. For example, the millennial generation grew up using computers in school settings. Rather than using televisions and VCRs to watch videos as a way to supplement learning, they used computers, as computers and the internet made information available at any time. By 1994, 35% of schools provided access to the Internet. By 2003, close to 100% of teenagers used the Internet for research on school assignments, and about 80 % used the internet for all school work (Schullery, 2013).
Additionally, the upbringing of trainers influences how they teach, which in turn influences how students in their courses learn. Baby Boomers grew up with traditional classroom training, so that is the method of training most common, and comfortable...
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In the article “Why Your Office Needs More Bratty Millennials”, the author Emily Matchar expresses a variety of reasons why the new generation in the workforce (millennials) needs to have their voices heard. She uses different terms to discuss this generation of workers, including Generation Y, another common name for millennials. Matchar’s exposition of why millennials are changing the workplace is broken down into specific points. She references the declining job market and why, due to circumstance, it is hard for millennials to get jobs as it is. Moreover, millennials are now pushing for a “customizable” workplace, such as being able to set their own hours.
Boomer’s see millennial’s as having a short attention span which is not what millennial’s intend. If they don’t see a job working out, they are faster to jump ship than Boomer’s and that fearless attitude actually leverages them more power with their company. Sherry Buffington, co-author of Exciting Oz: How the New American Workforce Is Changing the Face of Business Forever and What Companies Must Do to Thrive, says that they have the upper hand because they are perfectly fine working dozens of different jobs in their lifetime. “In a survey conducted by IdeaPaint of 600 employed Millennials, 49 percent believe that poor management is dragging their company down; 45 percent attribute that to the lack or misuse of technology solutions.” (Avallon) This helps the reader to better understand the mentality of millennial’s. They are typically more tech savvy then their older bosses and feel they could make more of an impact if they were in charge. Millennial’s are hard-wired to think that time really is their most important resource. If they feel they aren’t being treated completely fair then they won’t hesitate about trying to find a new
The millennial generation is made up of people that were born from 1978-1999. People from older generations say the millennial generation people are growing up being unprepared for the real world. In an article titled “The Tethered Generation” written by Kathryn Tyler she talks about why the millennial generation is so different than any other generation. She also explains how they depend heavily on their parents well into adulthood. In this article Tyler allows the reader to see why HR professionals are worried about the millennial generation entering their work force. Using Toulmin’s schema the reader can judge the effectiveness of Tyler’s essay to the audience, and this schema is used to persuade the audience to
Education about the generations reduces age discrimination and alleviates potential organizational “brain drain” as older generations leave the workplace.
With the current change in demographics throughout the workforce, organizations are feeling the effects of a larger percentage of baby boomers retiring and a large percentage of millennial new entrants. The words used to describe millennial employees, “spoiled, trophy kids, ambitious”, seem to be as everlasting as the constructive and negative perspectives attached to them. Many can debate on the entitlement of these employees within an organization, how these employees can be groomed and managed to better fit the organization, the positive and negative attributes they bring into the workplace, and how the preceding can benefit or derail the effectiveness of an organization. Nonetheless, a harder debate, comes about in denying that organizations must adjust to and integrate these employees into the workforce.
This is a reason why many Baby Boomers prefer traditional classroom training. Baby Boomers have difficulty learning new skills, are change resistant and can find it difficult to multitask in the workplace (Kapoor and Solomon, 2011). The rapid changing pace of technology is difficult for some Baby Boomers to adjust to, especially under the pressure of the workplace where their performance is being evaluated. Rather than adapting to all the new technologies in the workplace, many Baby Boomers prefer to communicate in face-to-face meetings or over the phone, rather than using email and instant messages (Kapoor, Solomon,
By 2025, about 75% of the American workforce will be made up of Generation Y workers, said Emily Matchar, author of “Why Your Office Needs More Bratty Millennials.” Generation Y, also known as millennials, are those who were born within the years 1982 and 1999. Time management has become a persistent issue for people in the United States because of the lack of flexibility in the workforce. Work is taking over people’s lives. The current generation of workers tend not to demand because of the fear of unemployment; jobs are scarce these days. Generation Y workers have shown that they will not accept today’s hierarchical workplace, on the contrary, they will begin to change the workplace to their likings.
In Catherine Rampell’s article, “A Generation of Slackers? Not So Much,” the idea of the younger generation, known as Generation Y or Millennials thought of as lackadaisical and indolent by older generations has been quashed by Rampell’s explanations of the differing behaviors and ideas held by these two generations, causing a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of productivity. The era of computers has especially been a major cause of such a rift, specifically the dependence on technology of which has contributed to the growth of synergistic and collaborative dispositions amongst the younger generations- behaviors once thought of as ineffectual in the workplace.
Workers are often pitted against each other in the work place as a form of competition. One division that is commonly seen is gender and race, but there is also a divide concerning age that isn’t discussed as frequently. Baby Boomers are those who was born between 1946-1964, when WWII soldiers came back home, settled down and started the “Baby Boom”. While Millennials are those born around 1981-2000, and have a similar population size as Baby Boomers. In the workplace, Millennials are categorized as being bad workers due to how they were raised in sheltered lifestyles and require a different environment than the previous generation, but that is not accurate. Even though the two generations view work different, sometimes to the point of conflict,
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The ever-evolving workplace of the 21st century is constantly being reshaped by the millennial generation, who were born from the
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