Overcoming Ageism (HBR Women at Work Series)

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Three Strategies to Bridge Generational Divides at Work

by Heidi K. Gardner and Denise Roberson

In a recent conversation with the HR leader of a midwestern U.S.–based financial services company, she told us that older employees were confounded by the views and behaviors of Millennial and Gen Z employees, such as their insistence on working remotely, “fickle” work styles, and unbridled honesty when work wasn’t going their way. Conversely, the younger set found the company veterans to be inflexible, uncreative, and often naive in their willingness to take company leaders’ word at face value.

These differences were exacerbated by the organization’s hierarchical culture, where senior employees—who were invariably older—had their own meetings, ...