Kelly Macias Video Dictation
July 19, 2013
[0:11] So I read an article called Breaking Through Generational Stereotypes, which is from the most
recent [American Society for] Training & Development magazine. The article is by A. Keith
Barnes and it’s about generations in the workplace.
[0:34] We talk a lot about generations in the workplace. So we talk about three generations:
Generation X, the Baby Boomers, and Generation Y or the Millennials. And how we know that
it’s inappropriate socially to talk about race in the workplace or to talk about gender in the
workplace, and yet, we’re still kind of stereotyping generations in the workplace. So that’s
immediately sort of what jumped out and what I thought about.
[1:05] So when clients want us to talk about diversity, we’ve looked through the lens of what makes us
unique and how do we leverage that difference in the workplace to be positive. And I think
we’ve talked about different aspects of it, but we’ve really not addressed this one. So for me it
wasn’t so much as, we’re working on it now, and so far as I thought it was related to what we
could be doing and how could take this as a lens.
[1:37] I think in a lot of our client systems, our relationship with the “client” or the key person in that
client system have been relationships with people who more tenure TRGers have known for
thirty years. And as we think about those same senior TRGers transitioning into less time and
eventually into retirement, so too I think our clients are potentially facing that. And so how do
we then make sure that we have good relationships with, I guess, newer or younger people
within those client systems? How do we see them? How do they see themselves exchanging
with each other? I think those are all really important issues. I think in terms of the stuff we’re
doing internally, we’re looking at our own diversity and how we leverage our own diversity as a
company. I think generational issues definitely play a role; that more senior TRGers question the
commitment of newer TRGers. I think that this has been a firm that [was] rightfully so set up
with longevity in mind; that people came in and worked here for thirty years. I think the work
world looks different, and so what more senior TRGers may or may not be seeing as [far as]
people being less committed I think is a reflection of the reality of work.
[3:14] Having four different organizations worth of experience means you’ve seen lots of different
things and you can bring that to us. [But] at the same time, you know, then we’re kind of
looking at you thinking, “well why is it that you’ve been in four different organizations, why
can’t you stay put?” So I think it’s a double-edge sword.
[3:34] So certainly we look at someone who’s been in a workplace for thirty years or been working for
thirty years with a different kind of experience than we do with someone who’s been working
for ten. Yet, I think that within those ten years of experience could be a lot of experience. We
deal with that too, that we are trying to constantly meet client needs and balance the right mix
for a team. You know people who bring certain skills may be in that particular sector; diversity in
terms of gender, diversity in terms of age, in terms of who our team is for that client.
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Sometimes, I’ve heard us say we need to have a senior person or we need to have the grey hair
factor and I wonder what’s driving those assumptions and what would happen if we decided to
say, “let’s present somebody younger, but who we feel confident has the right level of
experience.” I wonder, what would happen in those instances?
[4:45] What we’ve learned and how we’ve learned to function with technology, I think [that] there’s a
gap there. It doesn’t mean to say I know people who are older than me who are much better
with technology than me, so it’s not to say that to continue those stereotypes, but I do think it
means something different. So for example, I imagine that your generation grew up pretty much
with the internet, right? I didn’t have internet until, I think college and then people older than
me had internet in their thirties and forties. So very different sort of ways we manage and
function and I think those definitely show up in the workplace.
[5:39] [Barnes] also does a nice job of adding a little bit of tips about how to combat some of those
stereotypes. So I don’t think it’s very biased. I think what I would’ve liked to have seen in the
article might be some examples where companies are doing this well; where they have this mix
of generations in the workplace and they’re functioning really effectively and they’re leveraging
the age differences to make a more creative or innovative company. I would’ve liked to have
seen that and I think [Barnes] left that out.
[6:16] What I liked about [the article] specifically was around the stereotypes and putting them down. I
mean, I think we probably have already heard people give voice to them but I think, for me, it
was really like, “wow, you know, as I read that I do hear that and I do see that a lot, and we need
to kind of name it.” In the world of organizations I think people have been really intentional
about breaking down kind of stereotypes around race, and around religion, and around gender;
and to me, this is the next step. So I feel like it’s a current issue that we could be looking at.
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