Learning and Leading a Multigenerational Laboratory

Let's just start off with the basics, right? The multi-generational workforce.

There are a plethora of titles and categories of the different generations at work right now.

So starting off by just naming the generational demographics, right? Let's start with the traditionalists who were born before 1946.

They are probably retired, but I feel like there are some people who are still present in the workplace.

You have your baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964.

Generation X born between 1965 and 1980.

Millennials born between 1981 and 1996.

That's Sophia Crowley.

She does the most millennial dance as I'm reading that.

And then Gen Z, that's me, born between 1997 and 2012.

And that is who occupies our workplace right now.

So just like even naming off those categories, what's everyone's like thoughts on the titles and how your perception has been in like seeing that over the years?

I will say we have somebody that is in her 90s working full time and also bringing in people who just graduated high school.

So there's definitely and I wouldn't easily categorize people by their generations.

I mean, honestly, the person in her 90s gets around better than people in their 70s, but But there is definitely a knowledge gap.

There's a difference in styles, communication styles, not necessarily the motivation to work, but they do have a different reason to work.

Yeah, I'm going to come out of it just a little bit of a different angle.

In some ways, it's been very beneficial to understand those generations because they're influenced by different things that happen during their lifetime and what they're exposed to.

But at the same time, I feel like it's created silos.

It's created an expectation of how this employee is going to interact or how that employee is going to interact, or it creates divisions.

And I think sometimes it's been less helpful because not everybody, like you said, fits in those exact generational categories.

And I think it's often been a situation where people lean on those and say, well, they're in a different generation and they don't get it.

Or we can't communicate because their exposure is so different.

Instead of seeing that it's a body of employees that have so many different experiences and perspectives and how we would leverage all of those things, because every generation has value to contribute in the workplace.

And I think it's coming from the older generation, kind of a cusp of baby boomer, Gen X right there.

Let's just start off with the basics, right? The multi-generational workforce.

There are a plethora of titles and categories of the different generations at work right now.

So starting off by just naming the generational demographics, right? Let's start with the traditionalists who were born before 1946.

They are probably retired, but I feel like there are some people who are still present in the workplace.

You have your baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964.

Generation X born between 1965 and 1980.

Millennials born between 1981 and 1996.

That's Sophia Crowley.

She does the most millennial dance as I'm reading that.

And then Gen Z, that's me, born between 1997 and 2012.

And that is who occupies our workplace right now.

So just like even naming off those categories, what's everyone's like thoughts on the titles and how your perception has been in like seeing that over the years?

I will say we have somebody that is in her 90s working full time and also bringing in people who just graduated high school.

So there's definitely and I wouldn't easily categorize people by their generations.

I mean, honestly, the person in her 90s gets around better than people in their 70s, but But there is definitely a knowledge gap.

There's a difference in styles, communication styles, not necessarily the motivation to work, but they do have a different reason to work.

Yeah, I'm going to come out of it just a little bit of a different angle.

In some ways, it's been very beneficial to understand those generations because they're influenced by different things that happen during their lifetime and what they're exposed to.

But at the same time, I feel like it's created silos.

It's created an expectation of how this employee is going to interact or how that employee is going to interact, or it creates divisions.

And I think sometimes it's been less helpful because not everybody, like you said, fits in those exact generational categories.

And I think it's often been a situation where people lean on those and say, well, they're in a different generation and they don't get it.

Or we can't communicate because their exposure is so different.

Instead of seeing that it's a body of employees that have so many different experiences and perspectives and how we would leverage all of those things, because every generation has value to contribute in the workplace.

And I think it's coming from the older generation, kind of a cusp of baby boomer, Gen X right there.