Episode #18: Unraveling the Boomer Influence in The Modern Day Workplace
Jul 17, 2024
Transforming Culture Consultants
Unlock the secrets to understanding the Baby Boomer generation in the workplace and transform your professional interactions. Join Sharon Wilson and Cindy LaCom, co-founders of Transforming Culture Consultant, as we break down the unique characteristics, values, and communication patterns of Baby Boomers, shaped by pivotal historical events like the Vietnam War and the civil rights movements. Challenge common stereotypes, such as the "okay boomer" catchphrase and the "never-grow-old" mentality, and discover their nuanced impact on a multi-generational workforce. Equip yourself with the knowledge to navigate and leverage these generational dynamics to foster a harmonious and productive workplace environment.
Empower yourself and your organization by joining a vibrant community of HR professionals, executive directors, and managers dedicated to creating thriving workplace cultures. Don't miss our insights into upcoming workshops, free resources, and virtual gatherings designed to tackle workplace challenges head-on. Engage with industry leaders, exchange innovative ideas, and explore opportunities for creating workplaces where employees feel happy, respected, valued, and safe. Take advantage of our free virtual consultations to address your specific workplace culture needs and connect with us on LinkedIn to be part of this transformative journey.
Unlock the secrets to understanding the Baby Boomer generation in the workplace and transform your professional interactions. Join Sharon Wilson and Cindy LaCom, co-founders of Transforming Culture Consultant, as we break down the unique characteristics, values, and communication patterns of Baby Boomers, shaped by pivotal historical events like the Vietnam War and the civil rights movements. Challenge common stereotypes, such as the "okay boomer" catchphrase and the "never-grow-old" mentality, and discover their nuanced impact on a multi-generational workforce. Equip yourself with the knowledge to navigate and leverage these generational dynamics to foster a harmonious and productive workplace environment.
Empower yourself and your organization by joining a vibrant community of HR professionals, executive directors, and managers dedicated to creating thriving workplace cultures. Don't miss our insights into upcoming workshops, free resources, and virtual gatherings designed to tackle workplace challenges head-on. Engage with industry leaders, exchange innovative ideas, and explore opportunities for creating workplaces where employees feel happy, respected, valued, and safe. Take advantage of our free virtual consultations to address your specific workplace culture needs and connect with us on LinkedIn to be part of this transformative journey.
Welcome everyone to Transformation Talks. The intention of our podcast is to provide tips, strategies and inspiration to transform workplaces, communities and lives. I'm Cher Wilson. I'm the co-founder and Chief Mindset and Growth Officer at Transforming Culture Consultant, and I have with me today our other co-founder, cindy Lecom, our Chief Impact and Inclusion Officer. Today we want to explore some elements of the boomers age cohort currently in the workforce and to consider key aspects of their communication, behaviors and patterns as part of our series of podcast episodes to support you in creating, sustaining and navigating a more effective multi-generational workforce. In our last episode, we defined an age cohort as a group of people whose members are born during the same period in a nation's history and who therefore tend to experience significant events in similar life stages. We currently have four age cohorts, but by 2029, when Gen Alpha turns 16, we'll have five, which adds to our opportunities for more innovation, productivity and collaboration, but only if we're intentionally informed about how to bridge generational divisions effectively, right.
Speaker 2:
Cindy oh my God, big time. I mean, we have talked in previous podcast episodes about specific aid cohorts and, as you said, today we want to spend a bit more time on boomers, and that's that generation that's born between 1946 and 1964. So they're currently between the ages of 60 and 78. They're called boomers because they were born in the population boom following World War II and because during that period the economy also boomed for many, but not all, in our country. As with other age cohorts, there are some specific events that have significant impacts on boomers. Here are just a few. As I've noted, they were born in the shadow of World War II, but they were also witnesses to the Vietnam War, the first generation to watch the horrors of war unfold on televisions in their living rooms. They also experienced many of them the return of veterans to a country that was really divided on the war and really divided on treatment of veterans.
Speaker 2:
Boomers were children and youth. When the Second Wave Women's Rights movement gained momentum, an increased number of women in the workplace started to show up and they also lived through the legalization of birth control that gave women greater reproductive freedom and really thus greater autonomy. Boomers watched, participated in and, in some cases, resisted civil rights movements, but regardless of their role, resisted civil rights movements, but regardless of their role. Demands for racial equity and equality had a big impact on this age group. They also grew up experiencing the rich results of a national disability rights movement that eventually led, in 1990, to the passage of the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. And we mentioned music in our last episode, so let's not forget the role of rock and roll, which was part of a hippie movement and, more generally, what was sometimes referred to as a drug culture, and there are some boomers, especially at the tail end, who were part of this.
Speaker 1:
Right experienced these national events in the same way, but most boomers had an experience of these major events, and so their lives were impacted in ways that other age cohorts were not. So, given this, I actually want to share with our listeners some additional insight into the national shifts that shaped boomers' values, perceptions and communication patterns and habits. They tended to marry and married at a younger age than currently 18 to early 20s. They came from and had larger families. I myself came from a family of seven Emerged as the strongest middle class, mostly white, in our nation's history. They often started working before age 16. They had access to stereos and analog phones, no personal computers. They dealt with fewer state and federal regulations no seatbelts, smoking in restaurants. We can remember that.
Speaker 2:
And I can remember that, I'm embarrassed to say I remember smoking in restaurants. And, as we noted in other podcast episodes, like every age cohort, boomers tend to have some pretty specific stereotypes that are applied to them. I imagine some of these will be pretty familiar, while others might be left, so so let's start with the one that is likely at the top of mind for many of us, and that is okay boomer. This is a catchphrase that's been used to mock bro-ers based on their supposed lack of technological skill and savvy. Right, but interestingly, if this negative ageist stereotype is applied freely, there is another that can have both negative and positive implications, and that is the kind of never-grow-old concept that comes with phrases like hey, man, 60 is the new 40. And on one hand, this supports positive ideas of aging, which is that I can remain vibrant and alive and active as I get older. But this can also burden boomers who may not look or act, or who may not want to look or act like they're 40.
Speaker 2:
Let me offer a specific example for you to think about. A recent Sports Illustrated released their swimsuit edition and to celebrate that they had Gayle King, one of Oprah's best friends and, more recently, one of their morning anchors on CBS mornings. She's 69 years old and Sports Illustrated included her as one of the models, and this is or I think it can be really cool, but it can also impose these expectations that are burdensome to women who are in their 60s or 70s. One other example I think of is that boomers lead the way in making cosmetic surgery more acceptable and it helps to make this kind of anti-aging industry a billion-dollar business. So just think Botox and fillers that your neighbors, your family members, your friends and maybe you are getting, and again, there are pluses and minuses to this right. This is a lot to consider and in our webinar we go into more depth as we kind of parse through how these events, these experiences and these biases might play out in the workplace.
Speaker 1:
Right and that Sports Illustrated. It's very interesting because there were a number of people Christy Brinkley is 70 and she was in there as well and that's why it's worth considering some of the communication patterns and behaviors of boomers to get our listeners thinking. You know, boomers tend to appreciate direct, face-to-face communication, to value hierarchy and structure in organizations. Boomers prioritize personal connections and formal communication and this means that they appreciate phone calls, meetings and memos. Respecting their experience and knowledge fosters effective communication, and finding ways to do so while integrating other generational communication patterns can be incredibly helpful. Though the OK Boomers is usually applied as a negative stereotype, research tells us that boomers are less technologically oriented as a whole and they may be more resistant to change. They can tend to feel more entitled than COVID issues on planes and with waitstaff Exactly.
Speaker 2:
And this is not to demean any generation or age cohort that we've talked to. This is really to point out general patterns and trends and, as we move to the end of this episode, we want to remind people that we are trading in generalizations here and we do recognize that it's better to treat people as individuals than as members of an aid cohort. But, with that said, it's also helpful to understand why one co-worker might value a firm handshake and a more defined hierarchy, while others might expect a response to an email or a text within 10 minutes, as you said, sharon, a kind of instantaneous response, and they might get frustrated if a question has gone unanswered for hours, which for them may feel like forever. Because knowing those general patterns and possible differences can help us to address them for a stronger, more collaborative and more empowered workplace.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely, and you can email me directly at Sharon at transformingcultureconsultantscom. We're putting together a free Zoom workshop on creating a successful multi-gen workforce and love to hear your thoughts. We can put you on a waiting list to get more info when that workshop is available. Our intention is to be a support and resource for you to help navigate these challenges in our workplace cultures and create thriving cultures that have a ripple effect that impacts us all in a positive way, and we'd love for you to join our community of HR professionals, executive directors and managers that are wanting to grow and create more empowered workplaces and organizations.
Speaker 1:
You can get free tips, resources and opportunity to attend free virtual gatherings. We can engage with industry leaders and innovators, exchange ideas, strategies and best practices. Just go to transformingcultureconsultantscom slash HR and we'll make you aware of when those are available. We're also available to provide you with a free virtual consultation to explore any challenge or opportunity in your workplace culture, and you can apply for that at transformingcultureconsultantscom slash free application. You can connect with us on LinkedIn at transformingcultureconsultants. Our vision is a world where employees feel happy, respected, valued and safe, and thank you for being a part of this vision.
Speaker 2:
We're really glad you're part of the journey and we hope you'll join us for our next episode.
