Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers in the Workplace

321 Pages·2013·3.98 MB·English

by  Ron Zemke

SECOND EDITION
Generations at Work
American Management Association / www.amanet.org
American Management Association / www.amanet.org
SECOND EDITION
Generations at Work
Managing the Clash of Boomers,
Gen Xers, and Gen Yers
in the Workplace
Ron Zemke • Claire Raines • Bob Filipczak
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zemke, Ron.
Generations at work : managing the clash of boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen
Yers in the workplace / Ron Zemke, Claire Raines, Bob Filipczak. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-3233-4
ISBN-10: 0-8144-3233-6
1. Diversity in the workplace—United States. 2. Age groups—United
States. 3. Conflict of generations—United States. 4. Supervision of
employees. I. Raines, Claire. II. Filipczak, Bob. III. Title.
HF5549.5.M5Z45 2013
658.30084—dc23 2012040281
© 2013 Susan Zemke, Claire Raines, and Bob Filipczak.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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Printing number
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American Management Association / www.amanet.org
This second edition
is dedicated to the memory of
Ron Zemke
American Management Association / www.amanet.org
American Management Association / www.amanet.org
Contents
Introduction: The New Economic Reality and the
Cross-Generational Workplace 1
PART 1
Dynamics of the Multigenerational Workplace
1 A New Chapter in the Cross-Generational Workplace 11
2 The Traditionalists: What Will the Colonel Do Now—
Work? Retire? Consult? 27
3 The Baby Boomers: Retirement Postponed 61
4 The Gen Xers: Survivalists in the Workplace 89
5 The Millennials: Be Careful What You Ask For 120
6 The Global Workforce: Generations Around the World 154
PART 2
Where Mixed Generations Work Well Together
7 The ACORN Imperatives and Three Companies That
Bridge the Gaps 165
8 Company Best Practices and Other Great Ideas 179
vii
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viii Contents
PART 3
The Interviews
9 From the CEO’s Perspective 189
10 From the Trenches 207
PART4
Articles
11 Here Come the Millennials 255
Ron Zemke
12 Younger Boss and Older Worker 265
Claire Raines
13 A Field Guide to Mentoring Millennials 273
Bob Filipczak
14 Emerging Media and the Workforce 280
Bob Filipczak
Appendix 287
Inventory: How Cross-Generationally Friendly Is Your Work
Group, Department, Business, or Organization?
Endnotes 293
Acknowledgments 297
Index 299
About the Authors 311
American Management Association / www.amanet.org
Introduction
The New Economic Reality and the
Cross-Generational Workplace
It’s been more than ten years since the first edition of Generations at
Work. The world has changed profoundly and so have our personal
circumstances. In 2004, we lost Ron Zemke, one of our original coau-
thors. He was the driving force that led to the first book. Ron was a bril-
liant writer, an even more brilliant presenter, and a great mind and men-
tor. We still can’t stand in front of an audience without thinking of him
and, every time we get a laugh from the group, it’s because we are chan-
neling Ron’s spirit. In updating this book, there are phrases and para-
graphs and whole pages of the original that are pure Ron, and it hurts to
revise them. Just the act of deleting the words seems sacrilegious.
Fortunately Ron was nothing if not irreverent, so the idea that we would
attach religious potency to his writing would have him chasing us from
his office with heavy projectiles—as we fled for the elevator on the eigh-
teenth floor of Minneapolis’ Foshay Tower.
Suffice it to say, the world we live in has changed. In some ways, it
seems as if the earth has shifted on its axis. We find ourselves near the
end—we use that phrase with great hope and determination—of a dra-
matic economic decline that has affected the entire world economy.
Recent years have seen a sharp increase in oil and food prices, a precipi-
tous drop in international trade, and low consumer confidence. The
European Union (EU) is stretched to its limits as it decides whether to
bail out the failing economies of Greece and Spain. Growth has slowed
in the formerly booming economies of China and India. In the United
1
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