Age and Office Politics

Increasingly our workplaces are becoming a hybrid of millennials, generation x’s, and baby boomers. As ever we celebrate diversity, but can this spread of ages make for a tense office experience? Are generational differences the answer we’ve been searching for behind uncomfortable office politics?

Millennials walk into a workplace expecting to find a fast-paced, technologically changing, no-job-is-safe zone. Yet this is everything that a baby boomer would stereotypically shy away from, longing for the comfort of their perpetual job. Who is to make the compromise in this situation?

There is a demand for an upgrade in the working styles of many offices. Are you able to set up group meetings where you can discuss and share ideas relating to improving the atmosphere amongst the office? Take the lead and welcome change with open arms, show that adapting to new methods doesn’t need to be scary? Show that working with new technologies can exist in harmony with traditional methods? That the desired outcome can still be achieved, even though different roads have been used to get there?

The last thing anyone would want is clones sat in an office; different personalities bring different cards to the table. Learning how to work with these differences is the key to a successful office environment.