WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF YOUNGER BOSSES AND OLDER WORKERS

They’re young corporate climbers, full of brash attitude and rogue ideas. And suddenly, they’re
in charge. Better get used to it. As Generation X matures and job promotions no longer depend on
seniority, the baby-faced boss is here to stay.

That means more managers are in their 20s or 30s and overseeing employees who are older, a
twist on the typical manager-employee relationship. The age reversal is causing a shake-up. Employers
are more vulnerable to age-discrimination lawsuits, and workers are facing generation gaps never
before tackled on the job.

“We’ve always had older and younger workers, but they never mixed. You were ghettoized with
your own age group,” says Ron Zemke, co-author of Generations at Work. “Now it’s the first time
they’re together. It’s a new kind of diversity and a new kind of challenge.”

In a tight labor market, the trend has swept across industries. Youthful managers are cropping
up in manufacturing plants and white-collar offices. When striking General Motors workers in Flint,
Mich., took to the picket lines last year, many complained that supervisors were too young and
inexperienced.

The discord is coming in part because the number of workers age 20-34 in the managerial
category increased in the recent years.

The young bosses are expected to surge as the people who make up Generation X – born from
1965 through 1978 – assume more supervisory roles. Already, 14% of top executives such as CEOs,
presidents, and company owners are in their 30s or 20s, according to Dun & Bradstreet, which provides
financial management services.

The age difference is bringing a values clash. Raised on a diet of MTV and video games,
Generation X bosses are generally quick to roam from job to job, hungry for quick results, willing to do
things differently and intolerant of technophobes. All this can be a bit bewildering to baby boomers
widely considered more loyal to employers and less likely to bend rules.

“I say ‘dude’ a lot, which people have to get used to,” says Rayan Deutch, 27, vice president of
operations at Sidney Printing Works in Cincinnati, who directs employees in their 40s. “The experience
gap is the biggest challenge. You’re never going to know or have as much experience as the people you
work with, so it’s important to give the proper respect.”

Says Richard Autzen, 43, a plant manager and his employee: “I enjoy his energy. I get to explain
a lot of things to him.”
A New Breed of Boss

More young bosses are coming in part because employers are seeking a different type of
supervisor no longer molded solely by seniority and experience.

They want a new breed of boss who can provide strong leadership, handle technology, inspire
teamwork, cope with constant change and handle never-ending uncertainty. Many older workers have
such attributes. But such characteristics are widely considered to be traits learned in college business
programs or picked up from employees who hop scotch from job to job attributes strongly linked to
younger workers and newly minted graduates.

And employers are willing to pay. Managers’ salaries can reach up to six figures. It’s no longer
safe to assume that the silver-haired worker earns more than a new hire.

But making it work once they’ve started the job is easier said than done. Younger bosses can
contend with plenty of resistance.

Older workers may think a young boss who is still single can’t understand family demands. They
may chafe at taking commands from someone with less job experience. And they can be less tolerant of
a younger person’s management mistakes.

“There are huge value difference among generations,” says Ben Rosen, a management professor
at the University of North Carolina. “So many companies have focused on diversity, but they’ve
overlooked age, and it’s such a prevalent issue. There are potential problems.”

No age group is immune from the friction – even 20-something employees have found
themselves dealing with younger supervisors.

“She was terrible,” says Ali Friedman, 26, who once had a boss who was just out of college.
Friedman now works for a record label in Boston. “When someone has no mentors, how are they
supposed to mentor someone else? I had to manage her managing me.”

Some young workers burst onto the scene full of flashy new ideas without the experience or
proof to back them up.

But newer isn’t necessarily better. Hagberg Consulting Group of Foster City, Calif., researched
results of more than 3,000 executives who were rated by coworkers and found that as an executive’s
age increases, he or she becomes more thorough and better at planning.

Stereotyping Problems

Blame many of the problems on stereotyping. Young workers may see their older counterparts
as ill at ease with technology, unable to make snap decisions, and set in their ways.
 “People tend to look on older people as if they can only do so much,” says Mary Barbour, 73, an
administrative assistant in Washington, D.C., whose supervisor is roughly 20 years younger. “But believe
it or not, our memory does not leave us. You’re never really too old to learn.”

Older workers, on the other hand, may see their younger managers as inferior. They doubt their
loyalty to the company, think they’re favored because of their youth.

“You have to work harder to prove yourself,” says Lyle Lininger, 31, at Sandia National
Laboratories in Albuquerque. “Especially when I was new in this job, it was really awkward to feel like I
was giving instructions to someone as old as my parents. I just say, ‘You know what, I don’t have all the
answers.’”

And there is hope for younger managers and their older counterparts. Many such pairings work.

They’ve relied on patience, mutual understanding and an ability to look beyond age-defined
stereotypes, drawing on each other’s strengths instead of focusing on their differences.

Take Russ McFee, 40. He is a manager of GHS Strings, a company in Battle Creek, Mich., that
makes guitar strings. He says he doesn’t let age become an issue.

“Age is irrelevant,” McFee says. “It’s the person.” It’s a good thing he sees it that way. One of his
employees, John Mally, is still working as an engineer at the age of 90.

“It’s wonderful,” Mally quips. “You never know what he’s going to do next. It’s a very big
pleasure. He’s a very nice fellow to work for.

Source: Kreitner, R., Management Principles. Cengage Learning