Generational Nuance FTW

Some people insist that generations have similar life experiences during critical periods which influence their worldview, values, and priorities.

Others say that the stereotypes are unhelpful and cause people to lose nuance and not treat/respect others as individuals.

Whenever I read these disagreements over generations warily coexisting in the workplace, I have a workplace flashback.

I was on the phone with a new boss who — while training — asked me to hit ‘Refresh’.

After nothing happened on my screen, I told her so. She replied, “the Refresh button is gray with two green arrows” (this was in Internet Explorer ca. ‘09).

As a member of the Napster Generation and veteran of the Netscape-IE Browser Wars™ I knew what a Refresh button looked like — thank you very much — and felt a little insulted. Surely, she didn’t think I was an idiot!

But, I tried to put myself in her shoes when onboarding new hires. It was apparent that enough other people had not, requiring coaching, and this was a tic developed via lived experience trying to help people. Now those folks were my colleagues and teammates.

I remember the dawning realization that putting people into buckets can be a helpful heuristic, but when those stereotypes have the know-how and experience needed to succeed, assuming they don’t comes off as super-cringe.

My $0.02.