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Younger boss, older worker by Karl Ritzler

Cooperation, communication can overcome age differences

“Whippersnapper.”

“Old coot.”

You won’t — or shouldn’t — hear that kind of exchange on the job.

In the new multigenerational workplace, what could have been a name-calling confrontation between an older worker and a younger boss is more often a partnership that capitalizes on the bosses’ and employees’ different experiences and strengths.

Age doesn’t make a difference.

Jeremy Crow, 25, is the supervisor of the Magnolia home theater ministore inside the Best Buy in Buckhead. Three of his five direct reports are older than he is.

“I go to them for as much as they come to me,” Crow said. “I understand they have more knowledge” about the products. He also incorporates that knowledge base in training for all employees.

Crow has been with the company for about four years in several roles and departments, including a job as an assistant manager. He also has a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

“I was taught how to communicate effectively, how to motivate people,” he said.

Other workers such as Chris Petersen, 36, haven’t been at Best Buy nearly as long, but they have more knowledge about high-end home theater products.

“[Crow] uses me as a resource quite a bit, especially where a customer has a 3- or 4-year-old sound system,” said Petersen, who has been in electronics sales for 12 years. “He knows the current product, but not previous ones.”

In addition, Petersen said, he has the experience to close the deal, especially on more expensive purchases. A large-screen, high-definition television set can cost as much as $15,000, and speakers can go for $1,000 or more.

“The more you do it, the better you get,” Petersen said. “Very rarely do I run into a situation I haven’t dealt with before.”

Crow’s and Petersen’s situation is becoming more common. One-fifth of employed adults are older than their bosses, according to a survey last year by Randstad USA, an Atlanta-based staffing company.

And that number is likely to increase as more older workers say they plan to stay in the work force even after they retire. This year, an average of 4.6 adults turn 65 each minute, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That rate will almost double by 2025.

A well-documented retirement boom has begun already, as the oldest baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) begin to take early retirement and approach the age for traditional retirement. A 2005 Merrill Lynch study of baby boomers’ retirement plans found that more than three-quarters see themselves doing some sort of work during their retirement years.

There are some potential pitfalls ahead. The Randstad survey found that three-quarters of older workers (age 55 and older) said they relate well to younger workers, but only 56 percent of all employees said they relate well to older workers, and 77 percent said younger workers do not seek advice from employees older than 50.

A report by the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College points out that a multigenerational workplace is hardly a new phenomenon.

In agrarian societies since the dawn of time, children, parents and grandparents worked side-by-side on the farm as a matter of survival. And even after the Industrial Revolution began, children often were employed in factories alongside adults, who often worked until they dropped dead.

Of course, all that was before child-labor laws, Social Security and 401(k) plans.

The Boston College report also noted that, in our modern, more mobile society, life events — such as getting married, rearing children or beginning a career, especially a second or third career — are no longer closely tied to age. People of different ages are at different places on the career ladder and at different stages in their lives.

In the workplace, you might find thirtysomethings talking with 55-year-olds about the problems they each had last night with their teenage children, for example.

Apparently, employers have found that it helps business and morale to have the generations work together.

A 2004 study for the Society for Human Resources Management found that keeping workers of different generations apart was not a successful business practice. Combined training, mentoring, collaboration and team-building activities helped, but communicating information in multiple ways proved most successful in managing multiple generations.

When it comes to communication, both Crow and Petersen are comfortable with e-mailed notes, but Petersen prefers direct communication.

Crow said e-mail is the usual way he communicates daily responsibilities, but he’ll meet with individuals face-to-face regularly for evaluations and personal updates.

In a technology-related business, Petersen said it’s common to have younger bosses. He also managed older workers when he was a boss.

While Crow may not always take Petersen’s advice, “I’m always free to let him know what I think,” Petersen said.

However, Charryse Green, 24, does see some differences.

As an assistant controller for Marriott Hotels at the Grande Lakes resort in Orlando, she has two direct reports who are in their mid-40s, along with several in their 20s and 30s.

“It’s different,” she said. “I was brought up to respect a person older than you.”

As a result, she says, she doesn’t joke around as much with the older workers as she might with their younger colleagues, yet she treats them all professionally. “We’re all there to do a job,” she said.

One of the older workers, Green said, emphasizes her experience.

“Everything she refers to is related to her experience. She does tend to stress that,” Green said. Still, “I don’t see any resentment.”

As a manager, she’s never done the jobs most of her employees perform because she came straight to the position out of college. Many of her employees do not have college degrees and started as hourly employees, she said.

“I may ask questions [of the more-experienced workers] I don’t know the answer to. I go to them a lot; they are my go-to people,” she said.

Green said the older workers often are the leaders among her employees.

Ultimately, cooperation helps everyone, Crow said. “I get myself promoted and the people who work for me promoted,” he said.

Tips for older workers and younger bosses

• Get insights from older and younger colleagues, who may have different ideas.

• Keep an open mind for new ideas, but don’t ignore the time-tested ones.

• Communicate and collaborate.

• Older workers feel authority is earned through longevity, while younger workers feel it is earned through merit. Employers now lean toward the latter view, as they try to recruit the best workers.

• Older workers also believe that time drives raises; younger workers believe performance and results drive pay. If you have a younger boss, appeal to that perspective for advancement and raises.

• Ask older employees how comfortable they are with technology; don’t assume that they aren’t.

• Don’t be intimidated by a younger boss’s or co-worker’s technology skills. Work with him or her to improve yours.

• Younger workers have grown up with e-mails and text messages; older workers often favor face-to-face meetings and consider e-mails rude. Focus on compromise, working with the necessity for person-to-person contact and the efficiency of e-mails.

• Recognize the difference in work ethic. Older workers stress face time at the office, while younger workers, using the Internet, believe it doesn’t matter where the work gets done as long as it gets done.

• Tap into older workers’ knowledge of how the company operates and insights into other workers’ temperaments and work styles.

• Speak up. Don’t allow the boss to make assumptions about you or your plans for the future, such as retirement.

• Toot your own horn. Remind your boss when you’ve completed a project, reached a goal or solved a major problem.

• Become more valuable by mentoring younger workers or helping to recruit new employees.

• Improve negotiating skills. Salaries often plateau for older workers unless they actively ask for raises. Be specific when you cite your reasons for deserving a raise.

• Brainstorm with peers. Other workers in your position may have strategies that work for dealing with age-specific problems at your company.

• Stay connected. Relate to your younger colleagues as peers, including sharing personal information and going to lunch with them.

• Guard against “old-fogeyisms,” such as talking about the good old days or your health problems.