Gen-Z vs. Boomers? Why Gen-X Is the Key to Solving Today’s Workplace Culture Wars

New survey data indicates workers aged 45 to 60 years old are ideally positioned to link the contrasting workplace vibes and values of Boomers, Millennials, and Gen-Zers.

BY BRUCE CRUMLEY @BRUCEC_INC

Rapid changes in business, society, finance, and technology create knock-on tensions within the workplace, and employees of various age groups respond to the disruptions differently. When that happens, new study data suggests employers should consider turning to Gen X workers — now roughly aged 45 to 60 years old — as a key generational bridge between younger and older staff cohorts whose reaction to and perception of change often considerably varies.

New research highlights the importance of the role Gen Xers can play in smoothing over intergenerational workplace differences in behavioral norms and outlooks that can divide older baby boomer colleagues from their younger millennial and Gen Zer workmates. As part of its continued research into the lives and wellness of older workers, the Mather Institute questioned 1,000 people from each of today’s four main workplace age cohorts. Responses given reflected considerably divergent habits and views between those groups on using new tech, wellbeing priorities, and loyalty to employers.

Those differences, study authors said, left Gen Xers born between 1965 and 1980 as the logical partner to leaders trying to connect workers of varying age groups when their perceptions differ, or at times clash.

“The study shows how Gen X is uniquely able to understand workplace dynamics across all generations,” said Mather chief people officer Dominice LaPorte in comments about the study. “Employers should recognize the value of this unique generation, which has successfully adapted to rapid social and technological changes and brings untapped potential to the workplace.”

LaPorte noted that survey data also identified that “younger and older employees are more alike than stereotypes suggest.” But she stressed that the findings showed Gen Xers are ideally placed to span points of considerable differences within today’s multigenerational workplace.

One obvious example of that involves learning and use of new tech. About 56 percent of baby boomer respondents described adapting to new workplace technologies as easy or very easy, but those rates surged to 77 percent of millennials and 68 percent of Gen Zers. Gen X survey participants ranked in the middle of that generational pack at 69 percent.That ease in adjusting probably shouldn’t be too surprisingly. After all, Gen Xers had to navigate big tech changes throughout their careers, including the introduction of fax machines, rise and expansion of personal computing, and revolutionary impacts of the internet. They also had to get hip fast with innovations like social media, instant messaging, and once unthinkable options like using phone apps for dating.

Gen Xers also witnessed big social and workplace changes throughout their lives and work. Those included expanded employee rights through the Americans with Disabilities Act and creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1970. They then witnessed the dramatic increase of women in the workforce — and in leadership positions — and greater inclusion of other underrepresented groups in businesses generally.

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