Clarence Wittwer is the owner and chief operating officer of Wittwer Environmental. Wittwer can be reached at [email protected].
Last month we closed with some thoughts on Millennials and Gen Z. You have all heard the stereotypical comments about not just these generations but all of them I am sure. Millennials have no work ethic, they are bad at taking criticism, difficult to manage and more. Gen Z are said to be addicted to technology and have very short attention spans.
You have heard these statements or read them, but first, put a pin in this thought as we will come back to it later.
Just what separates the generations? You can read 10 different articles and will see 10 different charts on the generational dividing lines. Luckily for us, they almost all cite the same general information with only slight differences in years. For the purposes of this series we will concentrate on Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z.
Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, are around 57 to 75 years old and still a vital part of our workforce. Another interesting thing to note here is how their age links to our infrastructure.
Gen X were born between 1965 and 1980 and represent the bulk of the next huge wave of retirements we will see. This group (of which I am a proud member) adapted to technology as it developed. There were no personal computers when I was born, but I was taking classes on an Apple IIE desktop by junior high. When I entered the workforce, cellular phones were heavy and carried in a huge bag. There was no SCADA at the wastewater plant when I started but it did not take long. In short, we were the guinea pigs for all that followed. We now range in age from 43 to 56, roughly.
Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996 and started turning 40 over the last few years. This group will be the bulk of the workforce in 2025 as we see the mass exodus of Gen X and the last of the Boomers still working. This is one of the reasons I mentioned in the February article that all of the classes still being taught on recruiting and managing Millenials need to be stopped. Millennials are not your target and chances are high that they are now managing you.
One of my biggest points of admiration for this generation is their want of a work-life balance. Many use this to perpetuate the “Millennials are lazy” stereotype. They are not lazy, folks. They have learned to do significantly more in less time than their Boomer and Gen X counterparts. Let me explain.
Boomers and Gen X members, like myself, were taught from a young age that working harder meant working longer, as well. This had merit in the Industrial Age, but we are no longer in that era. This is the Information Age now. For us, we were not working hard if we were not at the office at 7:30 a.m. and leaving the office after 7:30 p.m. Millennials have managed to get much more work done during a normal work day than we did.
Gen Z were born in 1997 and on. Gen Z has grown up with technology. They are the first generation that do not know a time before tech. It dominates their life and nearly all of their communication is done with tech and social media platforms. There are a ton of so-called experts out there that talk about Gen Z being addicted to tech and having issues with genuine face-to-face communications. Next month we will take a deep dive into why some of the perceived weaknesses of Gen Z actually makes them the hope for the future of our industry.
