Anyone out there want to take a guess at how many entries you’ll get if you google “multi-generational workforce?” Try over 450,000. Sure, that’s not the over 20 million you’ll get by googling Lindsay Lohan, but it is an amount worth tweeting about.

As I read through some of the blog posts that come up, I wonder whether or not any of the entities writing, consulting and complaining about this phenomenon have actually spent any time in a multi-generational workplace. Most of the contributors categorize baby boomers as the “me” generation, Gen Xers as the cynical generation, and the Millenials or Echo Boomers with
every term related to super-connectivity which leads me to believe that the closest they’ve gotten to “multi-generational” experience is their last family reunion.

I’m not criticizing the labels as much as I’m pointing out that what’s really driving the differences within the workforce is not just chronological age, but the speed and willingness of technology adoption at the individual level, regardless of how old we are.

My dad is in his mid-70s and spends more time on his computer with an ease that I never thought would be possible 20 years ago. He has multiple email  accounts, a Facebook page, and a large library of music. Yet, I have heard of CEOs in their 40s who still don’t quite get the concept of email — they ask their assistants to print them out for them — and certainly don’t understand Twitter, Facebook or even LinkedIn.  I’ve met 20-somethings who have sworn off as much social networking as they feel they can get away with, and 30-somethings who wouldn’t know how to live without their smartphone for a day.   Yet all of these people could very well work in the
same place together, separated or united as much by their affinity and adoption for the technology du jour as they are by their expectation of how they are managed and rewarded.

As with any issue, the multi-generational workforce is one that has multiple points of view and varied dynamics.  The sooner we realize that age is not the only factor, and possibly not even the deciding one, the more likely we can start making this unique and historical situation work instead of working to make it unique.

A recent survey from The Conference Board shows that Americans of all ages and income brackets are increasingly unhappy at work. Only 45 percent claim to be satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1 percent in 1987. Worse, the youngest cohort of employees—those under age 25—express the highest level of dissatisfaction ever recorded for that age group with only 25.7 percent satisfied.

Linda Barrington of The Conference Board notes that these numbers do not bode well for the multi-generational dynamics of the labor force. Only 46% of the Baby Boom generation express satisfaction with their jobs. Barrington worries that their growing dissatisfaction will negatively affect multi-generational knowledge transfer—an  increasingly important task in today’s competitive economy—not to mention the potential loss of discontented, young talent.

Workplace malaise aside, the hope in organizations has always been that the more experienced employee would mentor the less experienced. That usually meant that older, experienced workers would be training younger, less experienced workers in what seemed to be ‘the natural order.’ Increasingly today the mentoring process is being reversed. Those under-25 Gen Y workers, who practically teethed on computers and cell phones at the same time that they allegedly learned to expect the words “Good job” as their just due, are frequently the mentors to their older colleagues on all things technical

How both parties handle this changing role reversal and what it means going forward in their relationships will be important to future collaboration and knowledge transfer. What’s required on both sides is a willingness to learn as well as respect for the other’s experience and vulnerabilities. In other words this can be touchy.

Is there an answer to this long-standing issue of generational misunderstanding? The obvious one is the old bromide of improved communication. In short, learn to explore and appreciate one another’s values and life experience. Above all, don’t patronize or dismiss.

As a young man in my first corporate job, I found myself working under an entire generation of World War II veterans, who had tended to bring their military experience and its autocratic leadership styles back to the workplace. While it would be dishonest to say that I learned to appreciate ‘because I said so’ as the end of a discussion, in time I did learn to respect and even to feel some affection for many of my old bosses. The ultimate answer was to understand their battles and demons with compassion and understanding.  In return and over time, many of them eventually reciprocated my respect with a greater tolerance for dissent and questioning.

So if there’s an answer to the problem of inter-generational mentoring and knowledge transfer, I believe that it lies with this simple one of mutual respect, patience, tolerance for difference and the golden opportunity to learn from each other.