Age gaps: How to much age diversity may do more harm than good.

I once worked at a summer camp with people mostly in my age group except for one much older lady in her late 50’s, lets call her Miss T. Every time she came into work the rest of us would scatter hoping to avoid her. Wait! Do not jump to conclusions now. We didn't avoid her because of her age; we avoided her because she was an unpleasant woman and treated all of us as if we were on of the kids. She was constantly yelling, gossiping, making weird jokes, and constantly talking about menopause. She wasn't inappropriate in a sexual way, I do want to make that clear, but she absolutely was in every other way you could think of. All the nonsense and altercations herand I went through made me really think if it was because of our age gap, maybe the difference in generations. Many people would agree there are vast differences between the four generations currently involved in the workplace, Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers; how do these differences affect the workplace environment? Let's take a look at the pros and cons of age diversity in the workplace. 

One of the biggest arguments against age diversity is how older generations are with technological advancements. Each growing day it appears to be harder for older generations to keep up. According to Fazi L, Zaniboni S, Wang M younger generations, have a more positive reaction when it comes to technology while older generations tend to shy away from it. Which is completely understandable, your whole life everything is done by humans and now you can't even get on the phone with one when you're trying to dispute a credit card charge, I too would have a distrust of technology. As someone born with technology in her hand I can't stand AI so I certainly feel for our seniors. However, our older folks don't seem to completely hate technology either. Fazi L, Zaniboni S, Wang M It also explains how older generations actually enjoy using technology as long as it serves a purpose or is in the workforce, perhaps for a client. The unenthusiastic response given is usually from personal use of technology. As for the actual learning adaptation of technology, Fazi L, Zaniboni S, Wang M found eleven studies proving there is no correlation between age and technology but rather gender and age. 

Now, the biggest misconception the older generations has about us younger folk is that we don't want to work, or the younger generation feels we are in competition with our older friends; this isn't completely true. You can'tcompete with all the career experience Bob has from accounting has, he can learn how to use excel, you can't learn thirty-six years of experience. Besides, Bob isn't your competition, everyone else your age who went to the same school, worked at the same ice cream shop, joined the same clubs, and worked the same unpaid internship is, we call this experience inflation. It's the same as when you were applying to your dream school, and your counselor told you to stand out because your application looked identical to the five kids before you. Despite how impressive your accomplishments are, your resume looks just like the next and the one before. According to Entrepreneuer quartely in upcoming years, recent graduates will need four years of experience to get their first job, and over half of current entry level positions require three years of experience. Imagine you and your friends like the same boy, but you all use the same tricks on him, he won't be impressed by any one of you. Not only that, but little do you know his friends are telling him the girl from English is cool and pretty. The job market is just like that; you compete with all your peers and find some way to stand out, just for Bob to tell the boss to hire his grandson. So, it's not that you don't have enough experience, you don't have the right experience or friends. So to Bob from accounting no, we’re not lazy it just wasn't as competitive in your day. 

So far the problem doesn't seem to be age difference but rather divisive. Maybe my problems with Miss T were purely her terrible personality and not some sort of age gap miscommunication. Despite my bad experience with Miss T, our boss was the same age and she inspires me still to this day. The research implies that we could help each other out with our work troubles. Younger people have always been known to bring in fresh ideas and new ways of thinking, and nothing pairs better with innovation than the wisdom Bob from accounting has. What I mean by this is instead of rejecting each other's differences, we should be embracing and combining our knowledge.