The workplace has always had its mix of young and old. What's different about today's workplace is that roles and responsibilities are seldom linked to age. In former generations, “kids” were hired on and “old-timers” took them under wing, teaching them both job skills and social roles within the hierarchy of the company. Younger workers respected the wisdom of older workers, knowing that someday it would be their turn to receive such deference.

Now it is someday, but it's not quite what everyone expected. The American population is aging, and so, not surprisingly, is its workforce. We're living longer; it makes sense that we're working longer, too. What else are we going to do with ourselves? How else will we support our longer lives?

The Changing Status Quo

Technology, typically the glory field for the young, has upended the workplace status quo. Many younger workers enter the workforce at higher levels, stepping into management positions because of their technical knowledge and experience. Though there has always been a mix of young and old in the workforce, today older workers are just as likely to be learning the ropes from younger employees. And with the end of mandatory retirement, the age gap in the workplace may span two or three generations — fifty or sixty years may separate the youngest and the oldest employees.

As new technologies such as personal computers and the Internet began booming in the 1990s, companies hired techno-whiz kids — young people with brilliant skills in narrowly focused technology areas — like crazy. Competition was hot, growth was fast, and the stakes were high. Webbased upstarts and established companies alike vied to lead the pack into a technology-driven future. In such an environment, the young hotshots flashed to the top. Once there, they hired people like themselves — smart risk-takers who supported, but didn't challenge, each other's ideas. People who didn't fit the new mold suddenly didn't fit in at all.

Older employees and even managers who had been in the workforce long enough to understand its dynamics grew frustrated. Corporate structure forced them to take advice and direction from superiors who knew little beyond the scope of their technology world. They didn't know about business models, and they didn't know the market. What could have been a “dynamic duo” level of collaboration instead became a standoff. As older employees tried to get comfortable with the new technology, the whiz kids resented their “interference” and continued to dictate solutions or use technology to retain their superiority in the workplace.

Meanwhile, older employees continuously tried to take a new technology and mold it to their own outdated ways of doing business. The result was often a disaster. Each age group resisted the other's knowledge. In many companies, the rocky start ended in disaster, with the company falling apart or returning to its previous business models. Ultimately, both sides — and companies — lost more than they gained.

Finding Balance

Such a clash of cultures presents unique challenges for managers. Younger and older employees tend to have different attitudes and approaches toward work. Younger people often want to be left alone to complete assigned projects without interference. They expect managers to trust them to do this. If they fail to come through, there's always an external reason. This is not, in the young employee's mind, an effort to escape accountability, but simply the way things turned out. Game over, push restart. Move on.

Older employees are generally accustomed to, and comfortable with, more structure. Their work and life experiences have taught them that progress is a series of steps, and moving through them is a matter of taking them one at a time, not all in a single leap. They expect their managers to show interest in these steps and to appreciate their steady progress toward completion. Today's manager must be able to work with both extremes, taking the time to understand the issues each generation's culture brings to the workplace.