Dear Annie: 16-person product-development team. This was somewhat surprising, since I am the youngest team member (I'm 27) and have been here for the shortest period of time (two and a half years).
It's a great job and I'm delighted to have it, but several of my direct reports, who are twice my age or older, are not so thrilled. I'm trying not to let their wisecracks about my age get to me, but I am having a hard time getting them to take me seriously as their boss. So far, we've managed to get the work done despite the friction, but it's tough. Do you (and your readers) have any suggestions for me on how to win them over? — Nobody's Baby
Dear N.B.: Scant comfort though it may be, you've got lots of company. A survey last month by office-equipment maker Pitney Bowes found that about 20% of midlevel corporate employees now report to a boss who is younger than they are.
That figure seems set to climb: Almost half (45%) of manufacturing companies are trying to encourage workers in their 50s and 60s to stay on the job longer, so as not to lose their hard-to-replace skills and experience, according to a new poll of senior executives by Advanced Technology Services.
"It's happening everywhere," says Jim Finkelstein, president and CEO of a consulting firm called FutureSense, based in San Rafael, Calif., and author of a new book, Fuse: Making Sense of the New Cogenerational Workplace. Many of his clients are tech companies and family-owned businesses that bring him in to help resolve clashes between Baby Boomers and bosses they perceive as still wet behind the ears.
"Part of the reason for this big shift, of course, is that we Boomers were supposed to have retired en masse by now, to make room for the next generation of talent," Finkelstein says.
A range of economic factors, from the ever-mounting cost of health care to the decline of defined-benefit pensions, has kept many people working longer than anyone (including Boomers themselves) expected.
"So the dynamics of different age groups at work have changed radically from even just a few years ago," Finkelstein says. "Everyone is having to adapt."
He has noticed in his consulting work that the generation gap shows up "even in seemingly minor details like office space. A video game company, for instance, might have a 'wow' workplace with pool tables, dogs under the desks, and everyone in blue jeans," he says. "A Boomer hire will take a look around and say, 'You can't be serious.'"
It doesn't help, Finkelstein adds, that people of different ages tend to stereotype each other. "There is a tendency to view young people as 'slackers' immersed in technology, with short attention spans and deficient people skills. Boomers get typecast as set in their ways and stuck in the past," he says.
