In fact, according to a Career Builder Survey, this scenario, as typical as it may sound, is actually far from typical.  That survey found 43 percent of workers ages 35 and older currently work for younger bosses, as do 53 percent of workers ages 45 and up, and 69 percent of workers who are 55 or older. That means not only are Baby Boomers being managed by Gen X or Gen Y, but sometimes the age gap can even result in a Gen X-er reporting to a Millennial manager.

What this has done has created some very unique management challenges. In particular, the survey also found that a significant percentage of workers (16 percent) who were 25 to 34 said they found it difficult to take direction from a younger boss, but only five percent of workers age 55 and up had problems with it.

Complaints about younger managers run the gamut and include micromanagement, a sense of entitlement, favoritism with younger colleagues, and not giving enough direction. Sound familiar?

These are age old and ageless management problems that people with advanced degrees, colleges with massive research budgets, and consultants with $500/hour billing rates have been trying to solve since some guy managing the fire told another guy to go get more wood.

It should be no surprise that you could be managing people who may not like you or you could be managed by a boss you believe doesn’t deserve his or her position. Most of us have or will be in one of these situations at some point in our career. Rather than fight either situation, imagine an alternative one where the tables could be turned—you’re the younger boss managing an employee either close to your age or much older, or you’re the one being managed. Then do everything you can to be the manager who’d get you to do your best work and the employee who’d do the best work for you. That isn’t a multi-step process, but it’s one many people of all ages have trouble taking the first step toward.

The book had been fermenting in my mind and soul for some time—partly as a result of the vast amount of change the workforce had endured since my last book, “Communicating for Change,” was published in 1996, and partly because I believed that our profession has taken a wrong turn and preoccupied itself with technology and ‘conversations’ as the cure for today’s daunting internal communication challenges.

Those challenges loom larger than ever as the workplace undergoes revolutionary transformation, with more and more insecurity and greater reliance imposed on individual’s resources and responsibility for their economic well-being. An estimated 40% of company work will soon be done by outside contractors, according to Time Magazine. Free agency will more and more be the fate of today’s worker, a not altogether negative trend if people are prepared for that kind of independence and self-reliance.

In a recent webinar, I outlined my personal view of these developments and what I believe they mean for our profession. I invite you to take some time to watch the webinar replay and to reflect on its message. We at ROI Communication would be equally interested in your views of the coming challenges. How about giving us your online comments in response to this blog?