The year is 2005. YouTube has just launched, and social media usage is on the rise. Mariah Carey and Gwen Stefani are vying for the top song of the year. The first cohort of Millennials is stepping into the workforce. And the business world has plenty to celebrate: The economy is booming, job offers are plentiful and competitive, and technology is advancing faster than ever.
Visitors use their mobile devices to take pictures of themselves posing in a pink ball pit at the Supercandy Pop-Up Museum in Cologne, Germany, in 2018.
(Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/DPA/AFP via Getty Images)
Is Generational Prejudice Seeping into Your Workplace?
Age stereotypes can undermine your programs, policies, and decision-making.
March 08, 2022
· Long read
Summary.
If you had to name three characteristics of Millennials or Gen Zers right now, you probably could, right? But your generalizations may be largely borne from stereotypes. And they’re not just momentarily unhelpful; they influence everything from how we perceive and treat our colleagues to how we design processes at work. If generational differences aren’t as big as we think, how do we make our workplaces, policies, and processes rely less on assumptions and more on ideologies that aren’t rooted in age? First, understand the history of generational stereotypes at work, who has benefited from them, and why we like to place people into buckets. Next, learn how to create prejudice-free processes and policies that can work for all employees, irrespective of birth year.