My Generation, Your Technology, and Our Workplace

Abstract

One of these events was a watershed moment for your generation, and such events are only one of the factors that distinguish your attitudes, behaviors, and generational culture from those of your co-workers.1 In your workplace, you may well have four generations side by side. Each of these generations has divergent expectations and motivations. In addition, each generation has a unique relationship with technology based in part on life experience. In this article, we will explore how those differences and those relationships can affect your work life. Sociologist Karl Mannheim says that generations are held together and create a generational consciousness by their experience of historical events from the same or a similar vantage point.2 Table 1 is an overview of the defining characteristics and demographics of the four generations. The column entitled Technologies is not a scientific timeline but rather an attempt to show how some technologies have evolved over time. The four generations that make up many workplaces today all have widely varying experiences with technology.