{"id":2226,"date":"2015-12-21T16:01:16","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T16:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/genhq.com\/?p=2226"},"modified":"2022-07-23T09:42:54","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T09:42:54","slug":"is-your-boss-a-millennial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/genhq.com\/is-your-boss-a-millennial\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Boss a Millennial?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With more generations than ever in the workplace at once, it\u2019s no wonder that there are some never-before-seen challenges. You have Millennials for whom smartphone use and instantaneous emailing and texting<\/a><\/span> are a given, but also Baby Boomers who still value well-thought-out emails and, yes, even actual phone calls.<\/p>\n

\"Is<\/p>\n

You can imagine, then, just how difficult inter-office communication can be when one person expects a phone call and the other is left wondering why you didn\u2019t respond to a text the minute it was sent. And all bets are off if your text features an emoji<\/a><\/span>!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s normal and almost expected for new, young hires to rail against their older boss\u2019s \u201cold-fashioned\u201d ways, but this is all about to change, since one-fourth of Millennial<\/a><\/span> workers, the largest generation in the US workforce, are now in managerial roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cMillennials are the generation assuming management roles the fastest,\u201d says Jason Dorsey, a Millennials expert, in a recent New York Post article<\/a><\/span>. Dorsey adds that this \u201cchanging of the guard\u201d is causing a fundamental shift in corporate leadership and decision-making.<\/p>\n

And while it will be interesting to see how Millennials will act as mentors and managers to the younger Generation Z \/ iGen generation<\/a><\/span>, the more immediate conflicts are arising from Millennials managing workers older than they are. According to a survey by Future Workplace and the networking site Beyond, 83 percent of respondents have seen Millennials managing workers older than they are.<\/p>\n

How are Baby Boomers and Gen Xers responding to people young enough to be their children or younger siblings stepping into management roles? Forty-five percent of Boomers and Gen Xers who responded to the study thought that Millennials\u2019 lack of experience could have a negative impact on a company\u2019s culture. Doesn\u2019t sound like they\u2019re too happy about this change in leadership!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Millennials are feeling pretty good about their promotions, with 44 percent of Millennial respondents viewing themselves as the most capable generation to lead in the workplace. Perhaps not surprisingly, only 14 percent of all survey respondents agreed with that sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important for older workers to see this not as a threat, but as an opportunity,\u201d Dorsey adds. \u201cMillennials need older workers to be successful.\u201d Dorsey stresses that it\u2019s also important that these older employees not view their younger supervisors as their sons and daughters who may have moved home recently<\/a><\/span>. They are qualified workers<\/a><\/span> who got their positions for a reason.<\/p>\n

Dorsey offers these three tips to help ease some generational differences that may arise in the office:<\/p>\n