The Truth About Managing People, Third Edition

Truth 17. Managing Across the Generation Gap

Jan Stewart couldn’t believe her ears. On her phone was the mother of one of her employees, complaining about the long hours that Ms. Stewart was asking her son to put in at work. Said Stewart, “I’ve had employees complain to me before, but never a parent!”

Jan Stewart was getting a first-hand taste of what it can be like managing employees who have been coddled and protected by “helicopter” parents. Welcome to the challenges of managing workers from Generation Y.

Most current employees fall into one of three generational groups, differentiated by when they were born. There are the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964; the Gen Xers, born between 1965 and 1977; and Generation Y, also sometimes referred ...