2.4. GENERATIONAL COUNSELING

With four generations in the workplace at the same time, companies worry about how well their employees will mesh. Clearly, there's animosity among the generations, which include the millennials, generation Xers, baby boomers, and traditionalists. The older generations tend to write off millennials as a bunch of whiners who not only expect too much but also lack a strong work ethic. From their elders' perspective, millennials aren't as loyal and dependable as traditionalists, aren't willing to earn their stripes as work-centric baby boomers did, and are less self-reliant than generation X.

Here's what a 63-year-old critic had to say about the millennials in an e-mail to me after one of my articles appeared in The Wall Street Journal: "The lucky schools and employers will be those who fail to attract these spoiled millennial babies until they are knocked around enough to realize that the world is not going to give them the sort of support and detailed guidance they expect."

Cindy Rakowitz, a public relations executive in Encino, California, is similarly put off by the millennials. "They are very ego driven and try to get away with putting in as little time as possible to complete their work," she says. "They make excuses about arriving late to the office without any guilt. Self-fulfillment comes first with them, responsibility later."

Millennials aren't any nicer in their comments about their elders. On The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, for example, millennials call law firm partners "old fogies" and declare, "All you boomers need to do us a favor and die."

To be sure, some young people do respect the experience and institutional knowledge of their elders. Pfister, the founder of Open Yard, acknowledges that there's "a disconnect" between millennials and older generations. "I don't sense a lot of respect from them for our work ethics and ideas," he says. Still, he adds that he considers older workers "our most valuable asset because they can teach us a lot and save us a ton of time and mistakes. My aged mentors have been the biggest help. I've seen some older, very successful people break down and talk to me about their inadequacies and tell me what they thought was truly important."

By tapping the different perspectives and experiences of the four generations, companies can gain valuable insights. Yet how do they prevent dissension and overcome the generational bias? It's a very tall order but an absolute priority as the generational makeup of the workplace continues to shift. The generations are likely to collide for many years to come, so it's best to start minimizing the damage now.

Companies should first encourage greater understanding through more open, honest communication. They need to teach the generations to try to appreciate their different abilities, attitudes, and styles of working rather than take a dismissive view of each other. Team-building activities and mentoring can certainly help. Not only can older managers provide guidance and share their many years of accumulated knowledge with millennials, but young people also can teach their elders a thing or two about new technologies and online social networking.

For Michael Kannisto, global staffing director at contact lens maker Bausch & Lomb Inc., the best strategy is to introduce this "new species" into the workplace in very small doses, followed by conversations with older generations after they have interacted with a few millennials. "I'm seeing some real disconnects between young people who do phenomenal work and boomer bosses who can't get past feeling that they didn't like the slides or the way the young people dressed or the way they talked or the way they presented their conclusions," says Kannisto, who reminds older managers that in 5 to 10 years they may be begging millennials to work for Bausch & Lomb. "It's not about making the older generations like the millennials; it's about educating people to the differences."

At the same time, he understands why some bosses resent millennials. When a group of college seniors visited Bausch & Lomb, they were asked where they would like to work if they could choose any company in the world. They rattled off names like Google and Starbucks, but "no one threw us a bone and said Bausch & Lomb," Kannisto recalls. "After their visit, we received one thank-you note—from the students' baby-boomer teacher. That was another example to me of this generation's self-centeredness."

To keep the peace, some employers are trying to stimulate more dialogue through generational insights workshops. The training programs attempt to dispel unfair stereotypes and prevent misunderstandings. Such seminars are similar to diversity training sessions that promote harmony among workers of different genders, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and sexual orientations.

Companies are especially hoping they can help the older generations better understand the millennials' expectations about work. One of the most common generational conflicts is over the number of hours worked in the office. Millennials feel that they should be measured by the quantity and quality of work completed, regardless of when and where it's done. But older managers believe strongly in punctuality and plenty of face time. A major corporate recruiter was amazed by one of his young M.B.A. hires who wanted to take long lunch hours to do her banking and spend a few hours a day shopping online and surfing the Internet. She said going online made her feel good and helped break up the stressful workday.

Such generational clashes don't surprise Diane Piktialis, research working group and project leader for the Conference Board, a business research organization in New York City. "Older workers who grew up in a face-time culture believe young people have no work ethic if they leave at five o'clock," she says. "What they don't realize is that the millennial worker gets online and is working at home at midnight."

Piktialis was a speaker at a generational diversity training session at IBM, which hopes to resolve some of the differences among its employees over work and management styles and familiarity with technology. Among the issues discussed at the event: millennials' need for more frequent feedback than annual or semiannual reviews, their tendency to approach senior managers without regard for hierarchy, and their demands for work-life balance.

Similarly, Merrill Lynch managers are participating in seminars called "Uncommon Threads: Four Generations in the Workplace." As part of the program, managers are asked if they would give an employee time off because he says he's sick. Of course they would. What if he asked for time off to visit his spiritual adviser? Their first reaction: "What is a spiritual adviser?" followed by disbelief. The point of that exercise, of course, is that the millennials will expect flexible hours for personal needs that many older generations won't consider valid reasons to take time off. "Managers absolutely need to understand the millennials better," says Subha Barry, managing director and head of global diversity and inclusion at Merrill Lynch. "They are going to force us to change a bit for them."

For Ernst & Young, the millennial generation is also serious business. By 2010, the accounting firm expects it to account for more than half of its client-serving employees, up from 32% in 2007. Even so, the company takes a somewhat lighter approach in its generational dynamics workshops for interns, new hires, and managers. Called "Hello. WU?! [text-message lingo for What's up?]: Your Pocket Guide to Generational Differences," the presentation even includes quizzes and prizes. At the workshops, employees learn characteristics of the baby boomers (materialist "me generation"), generation X (realistic, cynical), and generation Y or the millennials (instant gratification). They also are advised to develop their "emotional intelligence" by acknowledging their own needs and respecting those of the other generations.

Goldman Sachs is also dealing with the generation gap creatively. The investment banking firm enlists actors to portray millennials who assertively seek more feedback, responsibility, and involvement in decision making from their baby boomer and gen X managers and teammates. After the performance, employees discuss and debate the generational differences they have seen played out.

In the final analysis, the generational tension is a bit ironic. After all, the grumbling baby-boomer managers are the same indulgent, overly protective parents who produced the millennial generation with its grandiose expectations. But oddly, the boomers can't seem to relate to these alien millennials when they reach the workplace.

"We need to get the boomers to recognize that they should treat younger workers as they handled their children in the home environment," says Roy Schroer, assistant vice president for recruitment at Union Pacific Corp., the railroad operator. "Are they as caring and protective of junior employees as they are of their own children? Is the management style they use at work the same as the management style at home?"

Barry of Merrill Lynch also gets the irony. She is teaching her teenage daughter to value her own opinions and to challenge things. Now she sees many of those challenging millennials streaming into her company and wonders how she and other managers can expect the kids they raised to suddenly behave differently at work.

"It doesn't mean we can be as indulgent as managers as we are as parents; we have to slap them back a little," she says. "But as parents of young people just like them, we can treat them with respect. Maybe they can't sit in and listen to the presentation they helped put together for senior management. But we can tell them, 'If not this time, maybe you can next time.'"