For employees, working with those significantly younger or older than themselves can be challenging.
Different generations often focus on different values in their work and personal lives. They are shaped by different historic events and trends. They have all come of age in wildly divergent periods of technological innovation.
Sometimes employees struggle to understand one another, creating friction or morale problems. Older employees might feel that they know how to get work done, and younger employees may be eager to find new and improved ways to work. The older generation might be suspicious of new methodologies, while the young workers might resent their ideas being dismissed. Finding ways for them to work together can be key to organizational success.
Defining generations
One of the older generations working today, the Baby Boomers, named for the dramatic birthrate increase after World War II, is often said to include those born between 1946 and 1964. Those known as Generation X have birthdates from around 1965 to 1979. What was known as Generation Y runs from about 1980 to 1994, although they are now commonly known as Millennials, since they came of age around 2000. Generation Z, or “Gen Z,” runs from 1995 to 2009.
Communication styles and slang
The challenges of communication among generations can be illustrated by some of the slang terms associated mostly with a particular generation. Here are examples:
Baby Boomers
- Square – A person who is undesirably old-fashioned or untrendy.
- Groovy – Anything that is fashionable, attractive or excellent.
- Split – To depart a location quickly.
- Threads – Clothes, especially fashionable clothes.
- Right on – Expresses agreement.
- Peace out – “Goodbye” or “I’m leaving.”
- Far out – Strange, but usually in a good way.
- Hang loose – Relax.
Gen X
- Take a chill pill – To relax or calm down.
- Radical, rad, tubular, killer or bodacious – Exciting and desirable.
- Bogus – Fake.
- Bad – In certain contexts, it means “good.”
- To the max – To the greatest extent possible.
- Trippin’ – to act foolishly, become overexcited, or become overly disturbed.
- Talk to the hand – An insulting dismissal, delivered with an outstretched palm.
- As if – A cynical response to a comically unlikely suggestion or statement.
Millennial
- Adulting – To engage in responsible behavior.
- Ghosting – Suddenly ending all communication with a person without giving a reason.
- Humblebrag – A superficially modest statement that allows the speaker to boast of achievements.
- My bad – A phrase accepting responsibility for fault.
- FOMO – An acronym for “Fear Of Missing Out.”
- Basic – Excessively commonplace, unoriginal and boring.
- Bougie – Indicative of expensive or even pretentious tastes. Derived from bourgeois.
- Slay – To perform exceptionally well.
Gen Z
- Cap – A lie. “No cap” means “truth.”
- Bet – A statement indicating understanding.
- Sus – Suspicious.
- Is giving – Is demonstrating a particular quality. For example: “Her outfit is giving vacation vibes.”
- Goat – Originally an acronym: “greatest of all time.”
- Mid – Something neither truly good or bad, but rather of a middling or below-average desirability.
- Bussin’ – An adjective for good-tasting food.
- Ick – Expresses a sudden feeling of disgust or repulsion.