SECOND EDITION Generations at Work American Management Association / www.amanet.org American Management Association / www.amanet.org SECOND EDITION Generations at Work Managing the Clash of Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers in the Workplace Ron Zemke • Claire Raines • Bob Filipczak American Management Association New York • Atlanta • Brussels • Chicago • Mexico City San Francisco • Shanghai • Tokyo • Washington, D.C. American Management Association / www.amanet.org Bulk discounts available. For details visit: www.amacombooks.org/go/specialsales Or contact special sales: Phone: 800-250-5308 E-mail: [email protected] View all the AMACOM titles at: www.amacombooks.org American Management Association: www.amanet.org This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the sub- ject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Zemke, Ron. Generations at work : managing the clash of boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers in the workplace / Ron Zemke, Claire Raines, Bob Filipczak. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-3233-4 ISBN-10: 0-8144-3233-6 1. Diversity in the workplace—United States. 2. Age groups—United States. 3. Conflict of generations—United States. 4. Supervision of employees. I. Raines, Claire. II. Filipczak, Bob. III. Title. HF5549.5.M5Z45 2013 658.30084—dc23 2012040281 © 2013 Susan Zemke, Claire Raines, and Bob Filipczak. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of AMACOM, a division of American Management Associa- tion, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. The scanning, uploading, or distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the express permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions of this work and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copy- righted materials, electronically or otherwise.  Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. About AMA American Management Association (www.amanet.org) is a world leader in talent development, advancing the skills of individuals to drive business success. Our mission is to support the goals of individuals and organizations through a complete range of products and services, including class- room and virtual seminars, webcasts, webinars, podcasts, conferences, corporate and government solutions, business books and research. AMA’s approach to improving performance combines ex- periential learning—learning through doing—with opportunities for ongoing professional growth at every step of one’s career journey. Printing number 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 American Management Association / www.amanet.org This second edition is dedicated to the memory of Ron Zemke American Management Association / www.amanet.org American Management Association / www.amanet.org Contents Introduction: The New Economic Reality and the Cross-Generational Workplace 1 PART 1 Dynamics of the Multigenerational Workplace 1 A New Chapter in the Cross-Generational Workplace 11 2 The Traditionalists: What Will the Colonel Do Now— Work? Retire? Consult? 27 3 The Baby Boomers: Retirement Postponed 61 4 The Gen Xers: Survivalists in the Workplace 89 5 The Millennials: Be Careful What You Ask For 120 6 The Global Workforce: Generations Around the World 154 PART 2 Where Mixed Generations Work Well Together 7 The ACORN Imperatives and Three Companies That Bridge the Gaps 165 8 Company Best Practices and Other Great Ideas 179 vii American Management Association / www.amanet.org viii Contents PART 3 The Interviews 9 From the CEO’s Perspective 189 10 From the Trenches 207 PART4 Articles 11 Here Come the Millennials 255 Ron Zemke 12 Younger Boss and Older Worker 265 Claire Raines 13 A Field Guide to Mentoring Millennials 273 Bob Filipczak 14 Emerging Media and the Workforce 280 Bob Filipczak Appendix 287 Inventory: How Cross-Generationally Friendly Is Your Work Group, Department, Business, or Organization? Endnotes 293 Acknowledgments 297 Index 299 About the Authors 311 American Management Association / www.amanet.org Introduction The New Economic Reality and the Cross-Generational Workplace It’s been more than ten years since the first edition of Generations at Work. The world has changed profoundly and so have our personal circumstances. In 2004, we lost Ron Zemke, one of our original coau- thors. He was the driving force that led to the first book. Ron was a bril- liant writer, an even more brilliant presenter, and a great mind and men- tor. We still can’t stand in front of an audience without thinking of him and, every time we get a laugh from the group, it’s because we are chan- neling Ron’s spirit. In updating this book, there are phrases and para- graphs and whole pages of the original that are pure Ron, and it hurts to revise them. Just the act of deleting the words seems sacrilegious. Fortunately Ron was nothing if not irreverent, so the idea that we would attach religious potency to his writing would have him chasing us from his office with heavy projectiles—as we fled for the elevator on the eigh- teenth floor of Minneapolis’ Foshay Tower. Suffice it to say, the world we live in has changed. In some ways, it seems as if the earth has shifted on its axis. We find ourselves near the end—we use that phrase with great hope and determination—of a dra- matic economic decline that has affected the entire world economy. Recent years have seen a sharp increase in oil and food prices, a precipi- tous drop in international trade, and low consumer confidence. The European Union (EU) is stretched to its limits as it decides whether to bail out the failing economies of Greece and Spain. Growth has slowed in the formerly booming economies of China and India. In the United 1 American Management Association / www.amanet.org