The Corporate Age Gap

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For years, many industries in corporate America have been nervous about the generational gap that exists in the workplace between Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials. One of the biggest challenges arising from this gap is the loss of tribal corporate knowledge. As Baby Boomers continue to retire, there are not enough Gen X’ers to supply the demand. Because of this, the majority of the workforce turns from ‘seasoned’ to ‘less experienced.’ As Millennials have already flooded the workplace, they are being promoted to positions that some would argue they are not prepared for because of a lack of experience, whether the skillset is present or not.

Younger managers are working with older employees and vice versa. The gap is then exacerbated by the difference in lifestyles, values, experience, skills, or even technological aptitude. This causes a breakdown in communication and more than anything, it is causing younger employees to leave the corporate world because older leadership are reluctant to reinvent the growth structure of an employee within their organization.

Speaking from my own experience with the creative arms of two major corporations for the better part of decade, the current failures in the design of the corporate structure stem from an expectation that young employees must fit into a role defined for them, rather than allowing them to be guided while growing into the company and help to define it’s processes and potentially even it’s direction. Many large corporations are designed to allow employees to move up the way the company needs, filling only available positions and creating false ceilings. If employees were left to find their own trajectory at their own speed, within a framework that protects the corporation, I feel that companies would find their employees were exponentially more productive, inspired, and fulfilled.

It’s exhausting to beat on an immovable wall. Many tech companies have embraced letting their employees have a part in the direction of the company, fostering start-ups and encouraging the pitching of original ideas, so why is it that so many more companies don’t see the value in supporting the way a new generation works and lives? Because, it’s too risky… What is yet to be realized is that it’s actually riskier to stifle internal growth.

Give the younger generations the resources many corporations have. Combine this with the passed down knowledge and support from an experienced generation that is already on their way out of the workforce and we would see younger leadership more able to explore and evolve within a corporate structure, strengthening the foundation of old corporations to move forward in new directions!