Baby Boomers Across Generations

A generation is a group of people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. Today we see that there exist four generations in the workplace namely the Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z.

Baby Boomers

The Baby Boomers are a generation of people born during the post WWII ‘Baby Boom’, roughly during the years 1946 to 1964. In the years following WWII many western nations experienced a spike in births as they slowly recovered from the economic hardships experienced during wartime. There are about 72 million baby boomers in the workplace.

Generation X

Generation X includes those individuals born between 1961 and 1981. The term Generation X was popularized by Douglas Coupland through his novel, “Generation

Every generation carrying its own methodologies, ideas, innovations, styles and experiences, an organization is equipped with all the diverse talent it needs to become successful in the long run. Though we have numerous advantages and opportunities in working with all the four generations at workplace, following are the benefits that make a difference:

Increased Competitiveness: When generations work together, it leads to healthy competition among the workforce. The older generations believe that if not more than, they can work for the same duration as their younger colleagues do. On the other hand, the belief, “The younger, the better” drives the minds of the younger generation people to work much more as they would do with the same generation people.

While the older generations value consistency and loyalty, the younger ones value flexibility, innovation, openness, and choices. This difference in work style and values can cause some

Managing technology: Managing technology is one big challenge that emerges when working with different generations at the workplace. The older generations, especially the Baby Boomers find it hard to cope with the technological changes that take place in the business. On the other hand, we have the younger generations, generation Y and generation Z that worship technology. The challenge of dealing all the generations with the same technology in hand is a major one and needs a lot of emphasis.

Difference in view of authority: Every generation has a different view of authority, ranks, positions and power. Baby boomers prefer hierarchies, vertical structure in the organization. They want prestige pride position and power. On the other hand, members of the new generations (Y and Z) prefer to have a horizontal structure in the organization. They want to free lines of communication instead of specific one. They do not believe in reporting everything they do to someone sitting at a higher level in the