How to deal with generation gap

One of the increasing issues companies would have to face today and in the coming years is the problem on generation gap. There are many employees who opted to stay longer in their job even though they are already past their retirement age.

This forces other employees to stay one position too long and more often than not an entry level employee would have the same position with an employee who has been with the company for more than 10 years.

 

This creates a friction between employees not because they have a personal problem with each other but the generation gap could create a problem because of varying work ethics. As a fresh graduate who just found a job, expect that this could be one of the challenges that you will be facing fast.

 

Concentrate on the Goal

Fortunately, generation gap will not always become a problem in the office as long as there are standards or a goal.

 

When every employee works towards a specific goal, they are increasing their productivity without having to jeopardize their operations through generation gap.

 

But when work ethic comes to play, the difference on how to get things done could be easily magnified.

 

The older generation may use the same technique that have been proven effective for a very long time while the you innovate and look for ways on how to get things better. That might become a source of conflict as everyone will insist on their procedure.

 

This is where the idea of give and take should happen. It is actually not a matter of generation gap anymore but on how to make things a lot better by injecting a few ideas from the young ones.

 

The success of the fusion of ideas is not guaranteed however, by the mere fact everyone is contributing to develop a better way on dealing things is already a step forward.

 

Points Clash

But what if there is a need to have only one idea? This would usually happen when you are in a meeting and everyone has to present something. It is always inevitable that ideas would clash between generations.

 

Think about it: even in our generation we clash with each others idea so its just common sense that our idea with clash to a person from a different generation.

 

At this point, everyone loses if they insist that their idea is better. The managers and supervisors should be smart enough to go in between and make a decision.

 

The manager may have some biases but they are in a better position to judge the ideas since he or she will hear each side of the story.

Respect

But even though you might think that their ideas would be outdated, they still should be shown with respect. The mere fact that they are here in the company is a proof that they have done well and their ideas have helped the company to where it is today.

 

Remember that one day, your ideas will also be deemed outdated so its better to show your appreciation to receive the same appreciation.