ONE:
A building project is occurring a great distance from the HQ offices in Rockford. The team assigned to the site by Tom the Boomer manager, is made up of primarily Gen Xers and Millennials. The commute will be a challenge to the group adding one hour to their ride to and from work each day. One Millennial member of the team with a critical specialty is coaching his sons’ little league sports team twice a week after work. This specialist has asked his team supervisor, a Gen Xer, if he can drive his own vehicle and leave earlier so he can keep his coaching commitment. A major consideration is that this worker holds some skills that will impact 2 other team members on the site certain days of the project.
In addition, Barbara, the Traditionalist owner of the company, specifically placed a bid on this job because she is a personal friend with this building project client. She also committed to have the project done by a deadline that makes this a pressing job under the best of circumstances.
Tom hopes to purchase the Barbara’s company within two years because he knows she is looking for a buyer, and he sees this project as another chance to win favor with the owner.
The work teams for this new building project are frustrated with the commute, the pressure to get the job done on time, and the request by the specialist team member to leave earlier than the others on the project. The manager and team leaders want to discuss their plan for dealing with this special request and how to make the deadline a reality.
TWO:
A newly hired nurse in the Emergency Department (ED) has been posting on a social networking site her professional work experiences to include graphic photos of an ED cubicle following a multiple trauma case. No patient identifiers are being used but details of the circumstances of the multiple trauma and resulting injuries are discussed along with the nurse’s personal feelings.
Other ED nurses are part of her social networking group and are reading and commenting at the workplace about the postings. This Millennial nurse defends herself to her coworkers by explaining she is not using patient names and has the right to her own personal thoughts and the freedom to discuss them when not at work.
Staff have begun to take sides in this issue and communication between the younger nurses (Millennials & Gen Xers) versus the older Baby Boomers has resulted in tension and a lack of team synergy. Not all staff members have taken sides and there are those in the middle (of varying generations) who verbalize they can identify with both sides of the issue.
Recently, the hospital Board of Directors consisting of 6 Traditionalists and 3 Boomers have been made aware of the potential legal and financial dangers of social media and are looking for policy revisions.
THREE:
Joan, a 57-year-old Boomer clinician/therapist, spoke with Megan, a 26-year-old Millennial client over the phone prior to the initial session. Megan says she is overwhelmed, extremely anxious, and unable to sleep.
Joan enters the initial session with a judgmental curiosity and predetermined agenda to find out why Megan still lives at home with her parents. Megan, who is not financially self-supporting, increasingly resents her parents when they offer advice, ask questions, or impose rules. Through early sessions with Megan, Joan comes to believe that, if Megan is so dissatisfied and argumentative with her parents, the solution is simple: Megan should move out and stand on her own two feet. But, Megan has missed two of the last four sessions.
Joan’s comments to her Gen X staff suggest that her client is irresponsible and lazy and needs to be more mature. Joan’s background? She was financially self-sufficient and living on her own since age 21.
Most of her staff do not agree with her assessment, but don’t respond immediately because she hasn’t specifically asked. The Gen X staff do not want to see Megan hurt more by Joan’s approach while they value Joan’s vast experience in the field.
FOUR:
Several directors have been at the large manufacturing corporation for greater than 15 years with some boasting careers greater than 40 years. A new director, a Gen Xer, has joined the facility with 2 years of mid-level management experience and 12 years of corporate experience.
At weekly meetings to discuss issues with the Vice Presidents, the Gen X director feels like an outsider to the group, finding it more comfortable just to listen rather than to speak up and be ignored or chastised as being new and not understanding.
During a recent discussion of staff reward and recognition, the directors with longevity (Traditionalists and Baby Boomers) came to the agreement that staff should not be rewarded for “doing their job” since they were given a paycheck to perform their job.
The newest director expressed a concern that without recognition and reward, as cited in the literature, recruitment and retention of crucial upcoming Millennial talent would continue to be a problem. Response to her input was met with extreme verbal negativity.
The resulting conflict has left the youngest director wondering if she has made the wrong choice coming to this large corporation.
FIVE:
Terry is 22 years old and an enthusiastic new starter at your organization. This is the career that he’s wanted since high school and, now that he’s got just completed his degree, he has been hired and joined your team. He’s really sharp, but he’s also impatient to impress his new colleagues with his ambition, creativity and skill.
Terry soon finds the going tough. Some of his fellow team members (Gen Xers) don’t seem to appreciate his eagerness, and they are wary of his ideas and suggestions because they do not take into account the nuances of the work environment and the “why” behind certain organizational processes.
There are two Boomer senior managers that are extremely excited to have Terry on board and have been developing both a mentoring relationship and personal friendship with this Millennial, because they see him as the future of the company.
While Terry’s enthusiasm and energy are an irritation to the Gen X team, they are a source of vision and hope for the Boomers. The managers want to develop recruiting programs around the new Millennial generation while the Gen X team is in complete disagreement stating that this kind of “showy talent” would undermine the entrepreneurial spirit of the existing workforce teams at the company.
The Traditionalist owner of the organization wants an update at next month’s meeting on the current morale and prospective recruitment/hiring practices within this fast-growing company.
