by Aaron Heinrich

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.