As the state pension and retirement age increases in the UK, many workplaces are finding, for the first time, that they have four different generations in the same workforce. With this comes both opportunities and challenges for employers.
While the accumulation of diverse range of perspectives, experiences, and skills can bring great advantages for innovation, knowledge transfer and creativity (to name just a few), the innate differences between generations can cause friction and make it difficult to unlock this potential. For employers, managing these different expectations and dynamics while upholding productivity, job satisfaction, and a positive, cohesive company culture can be challenging.
With all of this in mind, we wanted to explore office dynamics in more detail, learning more about how employees of different generations perceive their relationships with colleagues and what the main sticking points appear to be.
We commissioned a nationally representative survey of over 1,000 office workers in the UK – those that spend at least some of their working week stationed from a company HQ. This included representation from Gen Z (aged 18-27), Millennial (aged 28-43), Gen X (aged 44-59) and Baby Boomers (aged 60-78) as well as respondents of different workplace seniorities, business sizes, sectors, and locations across the UK. Here’s what we found.
Gen Z perceives their workplace relationships to be most negative
Our research showed clear differences between how employees of different generations perceive the overall health of their workplace relationships. Over a quarter (27%) of Gen Z office workers would describe their workplace relationships on the whole to be negative. This contrasts to just 16% of Millennials, a fifth of Gen X, and 13% of Baby Boomers.
Gen Z’s more negative perceptions may stem from their fractured introduction to the world of work over the pandemic years, with periods of enforced remote working paving the way for hybrid models. With many workers splitting their working week between home and the office, Gen Z may still not feel as well integrated as more established colleagues, who had years of office-based work and face-to-face time with colleagues before Covid-19 struck.
Communication challenges
Where respondents said their colleague relationships weren’t always positive, we asked them about what they perceive to be the main sources of friction.
Differences in communication were cited as a top-three challenge for every generation. This was felt by almost three quarters (74%) of Gen Z office workers, 73% of Millennials, 65% of Gen X and 56% of Baby Boomers. According to Murray (2017), Baby Boomers typically prefer face-to-face communication, while Gen X use email or instant messages and Millennials take a ‘just text me’ approach. While there’s not currently enough data to clearly define the characteristics of Gen Z, instant messenger apps, voice notes and AI tools are all possible contenders.
Differing attitudes and values
The research also cast a spotlight on the differing attitudes and values causing inter-general friction.
Of the Gen Z workers experiencing negative workplace relationships, 7 in 10 said that colleagues’ attitudes towards sustainability were a source of friction, while 64% of Millennials said the same. This was lower among older generations, with just 48% of Gen X and 34% of Baby Boomers identifying this as a source of friction with colleagues.
Meanwhile, two thirds (66%) of Gen Z and 64% of millennial workers identified different attitudesto DEI as a source of friction, compared to 47% of Gen X and a third (33%) of Baby Boomers.
While the viewpoints themselves are not explored, the stats suggest that younger generations typically place higher value on these topics and notice misalignment in beliefs with colleagues, while Gen X’s and Baby Boomers’ priorities typically focus elsewhere.
Building better relationships
If you’ve found these top-level stats insightful, you might want to take a look at our e-guide, The four-generation workforce: overcoming friction and building strong team dynamics, where we explore the findings in greater detail. We also take a look at the steps employers are taking to build and nurture team relationships, and share key insights from Team Tactics experts. Download it here.
