Differences between generations in attitudes, priorities and experience can lead to divergent opinions on many occasions, however the same divergence of opinions can also be found within a single generation.
Differences between generations in attitudes, priorities and experience can lead to divergent opinions on many occasions, however the same divergence of opinions can also be found within a single generation.
And so it proved at the WA Business News round table luncheon of 11 representatives from Generation X.
Participants at the roundtable agreed that a certain camaraderie seems to exist when dealing with other Xers in a professional capacity.
According to Bullet Sign Shop owner Patrick Simpson there is a notable difference in dealing with Generation Xers in a business sense compared with working with people of other generations.
“I don’t know if it is profession-alism or if they just relate better, but there certainly is a difference in dealing with an older and a younger person, and your behaviour is different in dealing with them too,” Mr Simpson told his fellow Xers.
Following up on this theme, executive director of fashion brand Keisha, Alisha Ludbrook, said she believed members of her generation related to each other as part of a shared identity.
“That brand is important and I think we identify with something as who we are and what we stand for,” she said.
SmartSoftware operations manager Donna Griffith said being in a consulting role to people a lot older could prove difficult in certain situations, but that attitudes had generally changed over time.
“Starting out in a consulting role you consult to people a lot older than you and you can see they are thinking ‘who is this young person telling me that they know how to do things?’” she said.
“But as time goes on they realise that we are people who know a bit more about their systems and can better inform them.”
For some professions naivety seems to beget some sort of rite of passage, and Michael Coombes said most young engineers had most likely experienced it.
“Every young engineer has probably experienced going to a building site and having an older guy who is pouring concrete try and pull something over you, but as you get older that goes away,” he said.
The flip side to that, often uncomfortable experience, according to architect Nicky Brennan of Parry & Rosenthal Architects, is when you meet someone who is the same generation as you on a work site.
“I think you tend to relate much better – you recognise the inexperience you have and go easy on each other,” Ms Brennan said.
Sometimes, though, the misconception is in the eyes of the younger person, according to lawyer Michael Rudd.
“We struggle sometimes,” Mr Rudd said.
“Especially when just starting out in careers, thinking that a lot of more senior people are not listening to your opinion, and it almost creates a barrier that may not actually be there.”