Communication Gap Between Generation Y And The Baby Boomer Generation

Every generation is influenced by its period 's economic, political and social events. From the Great Depression to the civil rights and women 's movements to the advent of television and advanced computer technologies. Thus generational background/situation may also affect the way they work. The key is to be able to effectively address and take advantage of the differences in values and expectations of each generation in the workplace. The current work place consists of four different generations; The Baby Boomers (1946-1964) who are slowly retiring and existing the workforce, The Generation X (1965-1976), The Generation Y or millennia (1977-1997), and the Generation Z who are about to or are just entering the work force. Although these different generations tend to want similar things in a workplace their environment/background has shaped their character, values, and expectations (Hahn 2011).

The compare and contrast of these two generations; X is merely based on feedback and how the information is received and how the criticism can be used to accomplish goals and advancement opportunities. In regards to generation Y; prefers regulation via social networking websites to sustain firm information being provided to them. The issue in this generation is the multi function capability of basic mediation without higher authority assistance. Technology for the veterans and baby boomers is just a laughing situation to most, my views are they do appreciate change, they have traits of a human with autism; someone who accustom to routine.

This generational gap was what altered the development of real learning, for it allowed Generation Me children to assume that hard work was not needed to succeed and to learn. Due to the different mindset that was developed through the gap, self-esteem was not lacking in GenMe. So, it is understandable why Boomers felt that an individual should be more important than society. They had to go through life fighting for what they believed in, causing what Tannen calls the “human spirit” to take the blow (Tannen, 419). She states, “contentious public discourse becomes a model for behavior and sets the tone for how individuals experience their relationship to others and the society we live in” (Tannen, 419). Baby Boomers did not have self-esteem so they enforced it on their children, keeping them from ever feeling that way. The cause of them feeling this way is that “the human brain is almost infinitely malleable” (Carr, 70). That malleability was used by Baby Boomer parents in order for them to set a sense of self-esteem and individualism in their children. This alteration of their children’s minds was Boomer parents’ first mistake, for it did not allow children to discover their own worth. Rather, it supplied them with false encouragement, and prevented the possibility of engaging themselves in a society where everyone works together and is confident, but not individualistic.

I do believe that leaders communicate differently based on age and generation. As a late generation baby boomer I find that I have adopted my communication style to the current times, but still garner traditional communication styles as well. I do utilize technology to the fullest; I no longer receive a newspaper, but keep up with current events by reading them on the internet. As a leader I communicate often by e-mail, but still enjoy face to face meetings and team collaboration. I like to surprise people with a hand written note and send it in the mail, something later generations rarely do.

Sander does a great job of getting sources that are credible and informative. She has a variety of sources who, when put together, create a great picture of what is happening with these boomer students. She utilizes real people that are going back to school who give great personal experiences to give the reader a more in-depth look at the situation that these students are in. These personal experiences are accompanied by Jan Abushakrah, a sociology professor at Portland Community College; Susan Porter Robinson, vice president for lifelong learning at the American Council on Education; George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges; and Bernie Ronan, acting president of Mesa Community College. These perspectives give the reader a big picture look at the situation. For an even bigger picture of the situation, in numbers, Sander cites the Bureau of Labor Statistics to explain how many adults 55 and older will still be in the workplace. She also brings up a survey conducted by the MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures who surveyed baby-boomers to determine how long they planned on continuing work. Sander gives the reader good information while assuring the reader that

It is important to understand our current generations and previous generations. Understanding generations’ differences can help us when serving the clients. Human service workers will be meeting clients not only from different cultures but also from different generation cohorts. Generation cohorts usually define as grouping people together who born 12-15 years apart and have common experiences. There are five generational cohort groupings: Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennial Generation (Generation Y) (The University of Iowa [UIOWA], 2009), and Generation Z. “Each generation has unique experiences that shape their behaviors and attitudes” (Kilber, Barclay, & Ohmer, 2014, p. 80).

Nearly 3.7 million American babies born in 1982 were the first members of the new Generation Y, or more affectionately known as millenials (Thompson, par. 1). Many things play into whether a generation is considered to be faring ‘better’ than another one; job opportunities, the state of the environment, whether the U.S. is at peace or at war, income vs. living expenses, the general happiness of the people, and the list goes on. Millenials are part of a special generation because

“The kids of today are throwing society away,” cry the Baby Boomers meanwhile the Millennial and youths are tweeting that the “olds ruined our country, our society and our planet.” Both groups are transfixed in this eternal smear campaign with each declaring the other to be morally repulsive and ignorant to their values, but this is rather ironic as each generation has been just as progressive and equally rebellious to society as the generation that came before it. Millennials and Baby Boomers aren’t even that different: they each fight for social change and justice, both create their own culture and find their own way to achieve nirvana, and neither really know where they’re going in life, yet both seek economic prosperity. Take this slightly

Different generational groups communicate differently manly based upon the cultural shared practices that are most salient during their birth cohort, according Vann Morrison, with MLT Creative (Morrison). Since generational gaps have different communication styles the result is miscommunication and misunderstanding. The different generations, according to Michael S. Seaver, a career business coach, are Traditionalists that are born from 1922-1945, Baby Boomers that are born from 1946-1964, there is also Generation X born in 1965-1980, and Millennials (AKA) Generation Y born from 1981-2000 (Seaver). Although Baby Boomers and Millennials share many similarities they differ in important

Effective leaders of my age are faced with a few challenges, quite a few actually. One being the generational divide that currently exists between four different workplace peer groups: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, my age group of Generation X, and Millennials. Aside from increased global diversity, our workforce has mushroomed with generational cultures as well. Young associates of today are the future leaders of tomorrow, yet there is an obligation to honor the long-term commitment of our older associates. When bridging these distinct generations,

Some may say that because of the technology that we have today like texting and social media the younger generations no longer no how to effectively communication with one another. On the other hard, you could argue that because of these tools, we are able to not only communicate better, but quicker and more effectively. Unlike in past generations, breaking news and trends are at our fingertips. It is recorded that it takes less than a minute for a story to break on twitter. In older generations, events would happen and people would not find out until the newspaper came the next day, but now thanks to hashtags and trends we are never out of the loop.

“Generation X” (“Gen-Xers”), born from about 1960 – 1980, maintained some attributes typical of the “Baby Boomer” generation, but feel that their upbringing was too strict. They added an emphasis on work/life

The conflicts or differences can be caused due to various reasons like the preferences in the Communication Style, the Traditionalists and the Baby Boomers prefer more of face to face communication and the GenX and the Millennial prefer email and text messaging ([16] Glass ,2007:[52]Wagner,2007) Differences can also happen how they view authority and Management like Traditionalist believe in a chain in command , Baby Boomers believe in a consensus Model ( Roy,2008a,b) And when it comes to career stability, Traditionalists and Generation X likes to focus on employability over climbing the career ladder. And Generation Y has a high preference for engaging workplaces

Generation gap means difference in attitude, or lack of understanding between younger and older generation. This generation gap has always been there but these days it has reached to an explosive stage. The values and patterns of life have changed to a great extent. Today, everybody likes to live and behave in his own way. This attitude has widened the generation gap, which can never be filled. It is now destroying family life completely. The elders look after the children and make all sorts of sacrifices to bring them up. Naturally, they feel they have a right over them. They want their children to follow their instructions as they have certain expectations from them. But the children, when they grow up, want a complete freedom in their thoughts and actions and unfortunately their thoughts and actions are just opposite to those expected by the elders. They revolt when any kind of restrictions are imposed on them. Consequently, the family breaks up and everything gets ruined.

To begin with, let me tell you a little bit about my generation. We are the generations that zd6was born between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s. The “Gen Y” has we are call, was raise by the “baby boomers” our parents’ generation.