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From Gen Z to baby boomers, here’s how employees describe their coworkers from different generations

When it comes to job performance, we tend to rate ourselves differently than our younger or older colleagues would.

From Gen Z to baby boomers, here’s how employees describe their coworkers from different generations

[Source Photo: rawpixel]

BY Shalene Gupta1 minute read

Pundits go back and forth over the differences between generations. On the one hand, each generation is shaped by the time and events they live in. On the other hand, aren’t we all human and similar at heart? So instead of fighting over generational differences, why not unite before climate change kills us?

Well, now there’s new data to add to the debate. Job search site Indeed surveyed over 1,000 full-time employees to get their take on how they’d describe each generation. The survey found that, yes, we do tend to view ourselves differently than people in other age groups view us. Here are some of the key insights:

Baby Boomers

  • Roughly a third of baby boomers described themselves as responsible, cooperative, and dedicated. Meanwhile, Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X agree that boomers are responsible. Millennials go as far as to add dedicated into the mix, so perhaps there’s hope that the generational tension between boomers and millennials isn’t as bad as it seems. 

Generation X

  • Gen X, the generation that has somehow managed to lie low during the generation wars, saw themselves as responsible. Boomers agreed and kept the compliments coming: They also described Gen X as cooperative and dedicated, while they tended to be more lukewarm toward millennials and Gen Z.

Millennials

  • Millennials described themselves as hardworking. In fact, every generation described millennials this way, except for baby boomers, who went with the aforementioned responsible and cooperative.

Gen Z

  • Over a third of Gen-Zers described themselves as hardworking. Millennials agree, but they are the only generation to do so. Boomers and Gen X prefer to stick with the responsible label. Overall, Gen Z was more likely to be described as lazy or selfish by other generations, except for boomers, who were more likely to describe millennials that way.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shalene Gupta is a frequent contributor to Fast Company, covering Gen Z in the workplace, the psychology of money, and health business news. She is the coauthor of The Power of Trust: How Companies Build It, Lose It, Regain It (Public Affairs, 2021) with Harvard Business School professor Sandra Sucher, and is currently working on a book about severe PMS, PMDD, and PME for Flatiron More


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