Boomers. What are they good for?

Baby Boomers make up about 25% of the workforce but their numbers are shrinking each day.  This generation, in fact, is largely responsible for the workforce shortage as many Boomers decided to retire earlier than expected due to the pandemic, leaving a significant gap in skilled labor.  For those who are still working, there are clear, long standing and strongly held beliefs that make up the character of Boomers that the other generations should understand if there is a desire to coexist and flourish.  

The hard truth is, Boomers see the finish line.  Within the next 5 years, their numbers in the work place will dwindle to less than 15%, replaced with Zoomers and entry level Alphas (the Generation that follows Zoomers). There’s a sobering thought for you, huh?  My niece, Simone, who starts college in September, will be a contributing part of the Alpha Generation in 2028.  Boomers have worked over 40 years, mostly for only a few employers (highly loyal to company or person), traded time for money, had a strong work ethic that they were proud of, were willing to make personal sacrifices for professional success and recognition and valued stability and recognition.  Boomers, like their predecessors, have a high amount of respect for traditional hierarchy (older manager-promotion-experience ladder), possible based on military roots.  At the end of the day, these Boomers don’t want to rock the boat anymore; their days of making dramatic change and noise in an organization are over.  They are looking for a graceful landing, trying to figure out whether or not they have saved enough money for retirement.  They have come to grips with the fact that the job they have today is likely the last job they will have.  Even though they are no longer career minded, they do still feel like they have something to contribute and want to feel valued.  Afterall, 40 years of experience should be worth something and there is a lifetime of knowledge and “school of hard knocks” that should have value to someone.

Younger generations can sense this “tired” attitude, and it can cause resentment, in particular with ineffective Boomer managers.  “Joe doesn’t do anything for me and doesn’t inspire me.  Why is he in that job anyway, I don’t get it?  I am so frustrated in that old way of thinking.  He has that job only because he’s been buddies with Tom for 10 years.”  Or, “If the executives would open their eyes and see what I could do in that role, I would really turn this group around.”  Younger generations need to see genuine passion for the job, organization and company.  They also want to have a personal and unique relationship with their boss, a manager who understands what makes them tick, what motivates them, how they want to work (remote, in-person, hybrid, etc.), how they communicate (in-person in 1:1s, over the phone, email, text, Slack) and helps them achieve their career goals.  And above all else, they need to have a relationship with their manager that is built on TRUST.  Unlike relationships that I had with managers when I was coming up through the ranks, that was built on intimidation or fear, Gen X and in particular Millennials and Gen Z must TRUST their managers.  This is part of the reason why at HP, we were proponents of 8:1 employee: manager span of control.  It is increasingly difficult to have any ability, let alone influence over the careers of the people on your team if you went above that number.  When you stack people development on top of DOING YOUR JOB, there aren’t enough hours in the day, and the fact of the matter is, everyone is too busy and under so much pressure simply doing their jobs.

In some cases, there is a role reversal taking place, where Gen Xers and Millennials are assuming managerial positions over Boomers, creating yet another interesting dichotomy.  In particular in tech, where progressive thinking and innovation are essential and often take precedent over “the way we used to do things”, Gen X and Y are leading and using the experience of Boomers to execute.  Regardless, teamwork and clear communication and setting expectations is critical.  For the Millennial leader, he/she must understand how the Boomer, in this case, likes to communicate.  Boomers prefer specific goals and deadlines, clear rules and accountability.  “Do this, and get that reward.  Don’t do this, get that consequence.”  It may be completely counter-intuitive for Millennials, in particular, to employ these types of restrictions or rules, but they resonate best with the older crowd.  And, by the way, Boomers love the energy, team work, ambition and youthfulness that the other generations bring, especially when it comes with a little accountability, structure and discipline.

I would also strongly encourage more cross-generational work groups when possible, as they can foster mentoring opportunities both ways.  Older Boomers may still be intimidated, whether they want to admit it or not, by technology, and would benefit by working on projects with younger generations.  Don’t assume that forecasting tools, ERP, CRM, etc. are intuitive and come naturally for all Boomers.  Sure, maybe after that 12th time explaining it step-by-step to your VP, you’re entitled to get frustrated, but some Boomers are slow on the uptake on technology.  Some are still trying to figure out how to forecast on Excel.  Likewise, there are business and life experiences, people-skills and emotional intelligence skills that older employees have accumulated over time that can be invaluable in accelerating the health of an the organization.  

It's common in workplaces for younger employees to stick together while older, often more senior workers form their own social group. If your company is starting to have gatherings or company parties again, I’ll bet that by the end of the evening, you’ll see groupings, not necessarily by departments, but divided by “like age-groups”.  To be honest, the Millennials will go home first, because they have kids at home, or a Little League game to get to.  Followed by Baby Boomers who have been to enough of these things over 40 years and they’re just tired or simply bored with these now.  Gen Xers will wait around to see if there is an after-party somewhere so they can get a real cocktail, and Gen Z figures, “Hey, I’ll stay as long as the company is serving free drinks”.

But if all groups have more regular contact, some generational misconceptions will start to evaporate, or at the very least, be better understood and accepted for what they are.  It would be great if a lot of this happened organically, but much of it will need to be spoon fed and initiated by executive leadership, at least initially.  There are a lot of great attributes from each generation that can be taught and learned by the others to make the organization operate better.  Even though Boomers might be looked upon as old, slow, anti-tech and “one foot out the door”, younger generations would be remiss by not taking every opportunity to tap into these people and their collective experience before they are gone forever.  By 2030, Gen X  will make up the senior generation in the work force and I hope they will have taken advantage of all the institutional knowledge that’s about to walk out the door.  Sure, Boomers may have made a lot of mistakes along the way, but one thing they didn’t do is take their predecessors for granted.