How do you communicate effectively in a workplace where as many as four generations working side by side? Photo: File.
Rachel Pelta says with Baby Boomers working longer and Gen Z entering employment for the first time, communication between the generations is becoming an increasingly important issue.
More people are working past the ‘traditional’ retirement age. At the same time, many Gen Zers are entering the workforce for the first time.
That means there are as many as four generations working side by side.
There’s no denying that each generation has values and beliefs, whether that be a different outlook on social norms or what a career path should look like.
One of the most noticeable generational differences is in communication styles, and with that transition comes differences in how the generations communicate at work.
You may think it’s not a big deal. The act of communicating is people sharing ideas, opinions, or information. How hard is it?
However, workplace communication can be fraught with unintended innuendo, power plays and miscommunication.
Communication has been around since the Stone Age. The first cave drawings were a way for early humans to share information. As humans evolved, so did our communication styles.
While some people may argue that current forms of communication have come full circle, from cave drawings to emojis, there’s no denying that there are many communication options today.
Language is always evolving. Whether that’s the spoken word or written works, meanings and interpretations will change as humans change. Even the meaning behind punctuation can change.
In the digital age, communication tends to be written more than spoken, especially in the workplace.
However, different generations tend to interpret written communications differently, and this can lead to intergenerational conflict.
For example, older generations see the ellipsis (the set of dots at the end of a sentence) as a way to create mystery or indicate a loss of thought. However, many younger people view the ellipsis as a passive-aggressive power play.
These differences can lead to tension between generations. If this tension is not addressed over time, co-workers may choose not to communicate with each other unless necessary.
Baby Boomers grew up with face-to-face communication as the dominant method of workplace communication.
During the Boomers’ work years, phone calls also became an important communication method.
For many Boomers that was as far as it went. Email was not adopted until the late 1980s and even then you generally had to connect through slow dial-up.
For that, and probably other reasons, Boomers have never fully embraced the digital communication revolution at work.
Most Boomers still prefer using the phone as their primary communication method.
Generation X was the first generation to embrace digital communications. The earliest adopters of email, they became comfortable with writing as their primary method of communication at work.
They generally aren’t fans of social media and, more often than not, Gen Xers will choose email when they can.
Whether you call them Gen Y or Millennials, this generation is considered the first ‘digitally native’ generation.
Growing up with cell phones (and even smartphones) means texting and other messaging tools are an integral part of how they communicate.
Many Millennials grew up texting instead of calling friends and family. They prefer text communications because they can send and receive short messages that get to the point.
They dislike talking on the phone, which they regard as inefficient.
Many Gen Zers, defined as anyone born after 1996, are now in their early to mid-20s. Like Millennials, Gen Z has grown up with access to screens and the internet from a young age.
However, unlike Millennials, Gen Zers can’t remember a time before smartphones. So, they too may prefer written communications, and they also expect a fast response to their messages.
While technology has changed, written communication is still a critical part of work life, from email to Slack messages.
However, one of its biggest problems is that it’s hard to interpret the tone of the sender.
When using written communication, it’s easy for lines to get crossed or messages to not land as intended due to a lack of tone and body language.
While you can help with tone through the use of emojis (the eye-rolling emoji can help indicate sarcasm or irony), not everyone interprets the same emoji the same way.
The eye-roll emoji can also indicate boredom, annoyance, or impatience.
Even punctuation can be subject to interpretation.
Let’s go back to the ellipsis example.
Older generations learned that the ellipsis was a way to be playful or even coy. It’s also used to indicate that there’s more to the sentence, but it doesn’t need to be said.
It’s implied that the reader knows what’s being expressed without the writer having to write it all out.
However, social media changed that. When someone uses an ellipsis on social media, it doesn’t just mean an incomplete thought.
It also means, “I ran out of characters to complete this thought, so stay tuned for the rest of it!”
This is where written communication can get difficult. It’s not just the difference in communication styles (that’s part of it, though). It’s that different generations have different interpretations of the same thing.
Interestingly, a recent study found that part of the cause of generational communication gaps has nothing to do with emojis or ellipsis. It’s caused, in part, by each generation having negative perceptions of others.
The study examined the communication gap between Millennials and Boomers and found that they have more communication methods in common than they realise.
However, each generation feels the other has a negative impression of them (lazy and entitled versus conservative and tech-ignorant), which may cause each generation not to bother communicating with the other.
While it may be difficult to change perceptions, more interaction between generations may help ease some of these tensions.
Encouraging younger generations to teach older generations about technology may help erase some of the tech-ignorant perceptions of older generations.
The positive sharing of information may help change the perception of younger generations as lazy.
Effective communication is essential not just for work but for life.
While each generation may have its preferred communication methods, that doesn’t mean cross-generation communication has to be ineffective.
With a little extra communication, a simple explanation can go a long way toward addressing larger communication issues.
Rachel Pelta is a Content Coordinator for FlexJobs. She creates content to help people succeed in their job search and help managers get the best out of their staff.
This article first appeared on the FlexJobs website.
