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talent
retention
team building
newsletter
(please see Request Form
at the end for permission to copy content)
Issue #8
During our team building work with client
organizations, we've compiled a collection of barriers that we see creating
enormous stress for individuals, blocking performance in teams, and robbing
organizations of productivity.
Each issue, one of these barriers will be addressed in
our newsletter.
We'll include some suggestions for breakthrough
thinking to give you ideas for
how you might begin busting through these
barriers.
Younger workers are all
clock-watching slackers. Older workers are dinosaurs who resist
change.
“Just because I want to go home at five, they infer I’m disloyal.”
“Because I put the company needs ahead of my own sometimes, these kids think
I’m a lackey.”
Productivity comes in a
variety of packages.
Are you a part of one
of the nasty stereotypes that have begun to stalk the corridors of our
organizations?
You know ... “All Generation X&Y are slackers who don’t know the meaning of
hard work.”
Guess what? If that’s what you think, you’ve only got a small piece of the
picture. The Gen-X workers looked on as older generations were “outplaced” and
“downsized.” They weren’t so quick to jump on the loyalty bandwagon. But what
these technically adept people can accomplish in five hours — thanks to their
familiarity with technology and their creativity — took previous generations 15
or 20 hours to do.
Your younger colleagues don’t mind hard work. They just aren’t as ready to
sacrifice their home lives and personal interests on the altar of corporate
loyalty. You may have heard people say things like: “Those yuppie baby
boomers. What a driven lot! I wish they would all take a Valium and get out of
the way and let us get on with it.”
While the yuppies have had to work hard because so many of them showed up for
work/careers simultaneously, they aren’t as sold on the old corporate “sell your
soul to the company” model as one might think. Lots of yuppies are opting for
early retirement and taking off to remote retreats.
And
lest you characterize your yuppie and older colleagues as dinosaurs, remember,
it was these very people who pioneered computing in the workplace and drove the
information technology revolution all of us now are surfing.
In
short, be prepared for diversity in the workplace. Some people are opting not
to take early retirement, and more people are arriving from foreign shores. To
borrow from a genetics-class example: the more diverse the workplace, the more
resistant it is to debilitating problems.
Remember: Generational differences can enrich or divide your workplace ...
the choice is yours!
Information Request Form
For more
detail or permission to copy, let us know how to contact you.
Your contact information will never be released to any organization,
for any reason.
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