Society is always pitting generations against each other. And, largely thanks to the internet, each generation has their own embarrassing traits that have been assigned to their generation.
From the ‘OK Boomer’ meme of 2019 that spread wildly across Instagram and Facebook – a Gen Z rebuttal to the Baby Boomers being out of touch with today’s young people; to the millennial pause pointed out on TikTok in 2024 – referring to the brief pause millennials often take at the start of a video they’re recording – no generation is safe from mockery.
Of course, we also cannot forget the viral Skibidi Toilet fiasco in 2020, attributed to Gen Alpha (no-one really knows what that one was about).
These unflattering stereotypes, too, extend to our professional lives : Gen Z’s are lazy and don’t want to work; Millennials are selfish and cringey (or ‘cheugy’); Gen X’s are slackers and bad with technology; Boomers are rude and out of touch.
But now each of those generations, with the exception of Gen Alpha, are working in the same offices, part of the same teams and collaborating on the same projects. The diversity of ages in a modern workplace is currently as extensive as it’s ever been. With such significant divides in place, how can multigenerational teams possibly overcome them to work together effectively?
In answering this, the BlueSky Thinking team contacted Patrick Vestner, a PhD Candidate at the University of Cologne, specialising in age diversity and digital collaboration, to invite him to share his ideas and advice with us on the Digestible Academia podcast.
My co-host Kerry and I went into this conversation with one key question on our minds: how can we best unite different generations in the modern workplace?
But Vestner’s response opened up an entirely unexpected – and far more interesting – conversation: is continuing to focus on the differences between generations actually part of the problem?
Generational stereotyping in the workplace
“Thinking in generations is problematic,” reveals Vestner, “Although it makes perfect sense to do so – we’re living in a complex world, and heuristics help. However, they can have dangerous implications for the leadership of organisations”.
Generation cohort theory – the idea that people born in the same time period have similar traits and attitudes – while helpful for understanding differences, he says, can also hinder progress by encouraging stereotypes, biases and discrimination. This leads people to have an ‘us and them’ mindset to people of different ages.
Grouping individuals by generation can also mean that people often don’t gain the opportunity to benefit from an older or younger colleague’s experience or ideas. By mentally placing an older colleague into a generational trope, employers/managers may not fully consider what an older colleague brings to the project – perhaps only seeing the negatives of their age, rather than what skills and experience they’ll bring.
Hiding deeper issues
Beverley Searle, a senior lecturer at the University of Dundee notes that generational labels also often mask deep-seated inequalities, by oversimplifying the complex realities experiences amongst different age groups.
By grouping individuals with diverse life experiences, cultural contexts, and socioeconomic backgrounds into broad categories, these labels risk overlooking significant disparities .
For example, the term Millennials might refer to those born between the early 1980s or the mid-1990s. This group has not only experienced a significant societal shift during their early years, but their vastly different backgrounds, whether growing up in wealthy, developed regions or nations to those who faced economic hardship in less affluent areas, has also played a crucial part in how these shifts were felt/experienced.
By only focusing on age as a differentiator, issues such as wealth inequality, access to opportunities, and cultural differences are often overlooked, making it harder to address systemic problems.
Similarly, Emma Parry, a professor of human resource management at Cranfield School of Management, warns that businesses sometimes over-rely on generational labels, particularly when it comes to recruitment and retention.
“They provide a shortcut by which to generalise about the characteristics of age groups and therefore decide on what to include in our employer value proposition in order to attract a particular age group,” she explains in an interview for HR Magazine.
She adds that she believes stereotyping different generations is actually no different to discrimination based on age, but it is somehow more socially acceptable. “We have somehow positioned this as something else, so actually it is not acceptable at all,” she says.
Are different generations really that different?
Vestner also raises an interesting point about its validity: when you control for age and period effects, there are often no significant differences left to differentiate between generations.
“Besides, if you Google the different generations, you will find that there are different definitions of when each generation starts and when it ends,” says Vestner. “As a scientist, everything that is not clearly defined is also very hard to measure and analyse.”
In theory, it is presumed you can effectively explain someone’s attitudes and behaviours towards something based on when they were born, says Vestner. But how often do we consider the effect of “when” this question is asked. Depending on what stage of life they are at, their responses would more likely be an age effect, not a generational effect.
A millennial interviewed in 2025 at age 30 will have a very different perspective on life than a millennial interviewed in 2005 at age 10, he explains.
Instead, individuals are likely to fit into lots of different groups, all of which they’ll share certain personality traits with – groups like gender, age, location, education levels, etc.
Recent research by McKinsey & Company backs this up, indicating that many stereotypes about generational differences in worker preferences are unfounded. Their findings suggest that focusing on individual needs and life stages is more effective than relying on generational labels.
So how can organisations, and those that lead them, navigate such diversity amongst their employees and ensure they’re creating job roles, and work environments that can support everyone in achieving their potential?
Organisations should move away from simplistic generational thinking, suggests Vestner, and instead focus on balancing individual differences and team cohesion, using more nuanced leadership approaches.
To hear our full conversation with Patrick Vestner, check out the Digestible Academia podcast now.
By Chloë Lane
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