Introduction
At first, baby boomers refer to individuals born after the second world war, when the birth rate population escalated. On the other hand, millennials are people born in the late 20th century and the early 2000s, when technology came into existence (Linck et al., 2013). However, both generations use different language slang and idioms while communicating with their peers, making other cohorts difficult to understand the database. The job interview conversation occurring at the workplace between a millennial and a baby boomer is as follows:
Conversation
Baby boomer: Surprisingly, millennials nowadays tend to be taking over the office, with all their social media, snapchatting, and life passive perspectives. In this changing world, what is your take on such situations?
Millenial: Since technology is inevitable, using such equipment does not translate to a negative work performance outcome. Even though millennials are heavy consumers of Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook, we are utilizing these social media outlets effectively for business development due to their excellent networking and generation of venture ideas.
Baby boomer. I do not have anything bad about your generation. Nevertheless, my concern furthers beyond the social media concept of your cohort. Do you think that workplace discrimination is available in the workplace, including not hiring the right talent pool due to how they present themselves? I have been working here for the last 30 years; therefore, what do you envision yourself in the next fifteen years?
Millenial: Per me, generation jones tends to discriminate regarding how we dress without properly examining us. However, you should know such circumstances change with time and situations. For instance, if you employ me, I will wear a suit and tie on business days to impress the management and improve the company’s reputation. However, as millennials, we are flexible, making us perfectly transition to any circumstance; therefore, the ball is in your court. And sorry, did you say you have been hanging around here for the past 30 years?
Baby boomer: Yes, and do you not believe in your workplace or career longevity? Do you anticipate working in a similar job for the next 15 years?
Millenial: Lol, honestly, let alone those years; I am not sure what my next career path will be in the next two years. It does not make sense to focus on a singular thing, but I am looking for promotions in leadership duties to permit me to work until I reach 50 years.
Baby boomer: Another problem with millennials is that you demand leadership positions without working towards them. What is your take on this, and what will you do differently to ensure you escalate to those ranks when we employ you?
Millenial: Omg, most senior baby boomers think we are bums without differentiating workplace concerns and millennial cultural issues. Therefore, try to change with time, as I do not see how a person is entitled when he tends to grow in the firm. I am proactive and see myself hungry and ready to eat what my career presents me. As a result, I am not at this time making demands regarding getting a promotion, but with my career, I intend to acquire much information concerning the entity and grow and reach such managerial positions.
Baby boomer: I did not mean to flip a wig on you, and what does omg mean as I do not understand? In addition, how do you anticipate working with our company’s senior workers to increase work productivity?
Millenial: Sorry for that; it is a current slang. Nevertheless, I believe that most senior people have increased working experience, and I will collaborate with them to retrieve more job databases for them to improve my job performance during appraisals. I consider you my mentor, and I will be more knowledgeable in executing duties delegated to improve company profits
Baby boomer: I am happy as this interview conversation has been illuminating, and I anticipate working with you in the near future. Do you have any questions for us regarding how you will execute your responsibilities as the software engineer?
Millenial: No, and thank you for your time.
Summary and Analysis
To a greater extent, the baby boomers have a stronger desire for life and the services offered than millennials. From the conversation above, it is clear that generation Jones anticipates holding leadership positions. While millennials use slang, baby boomers prefer using natural language (Barrett et al., 2007). In the workplace chat, the millennial tended to use abbreviations, such as lol (lots of laughter) and omg (oh my god), which are unfamiliar to the other cohort. They extensively utilize ebonics and idioms not limited to the ball in your court. Generally, the baby boomers want to communicate and understandably drive the point. They have future blueprints concerning their career and dress appropriately to maintain their reputation. At the same time, the millennial cohort focus on their life depending on what is recently surrounding their life. They do not concentrate on the dress code and tend to pay attention to the promotions that make them have a good living. They are myopic as they seem not to think of the long-haul of their jobs and are not concerned about immediate changes and discrepancies.
Significantly, misinterpretations are inevitable for different generations’ conversations since every cohort may not fully comprehend some of the things others express. Even though each age group members have some real variations, they can learn from each other and improve themselves. For instance, despite the millennials extensively using social media platforms, after being enlightened, the baby boomer understood that they do it to gain more business ideas and for networking (Barrett et al., 2007). When each cohort develops zeal about becoming informed, they acknowledge their mistakes and rectify them. There exist massive discrepancies among generations, mainly regarding language use when conversing. The millennials do not want to behave the same as their parents or mentors.
In a multicultural community embracing inclusivity and talent pool integration in the workplace, the likelihood of working with people of different ages is higher than ever. From the generational theory, it is clear that social change and understanding can occur while preserving the previous traditions (Linck et al., 2013). For example, the millennial was ready to wear a tie and suit, despite substantially using social media to keep a relationship with an older workmate. Compared to millennials, the baby boomers have a unique outlook regarding technological advancements, maintaining work commitments, reputation, and dressing code (Kraus et al., 2012). The phenomenon spearheads the millennials to utilize coded language, such as slang that might not be understandable to the seniors, who consider it disrespectful. Such freedom of verbal usage makes the baby boomers think they are lazy and entitled.
Notably, the baby boomer population is one of the most influential groups in modern history. These populace members have been well known to have made positive contributions to the workplace environment, such as instilling discipline and ethics. The job surrounding chat showcases a massive change in the generational anticipations for both generations in undertaking their daily activities (Mou et al.,2014). The work culture revolutions by the baby boomers showcase focused individuals compared to their successors, who demand massive freedom and success without extensively working for many years.
The language used to communicate with the millennials is what makes them develop plans to attain their career goals. The misunderstandings can be erased by using natural language instead of idioms and complicated abbreviations (Barrett et al., 2007). Most people in management positions are the baby boomers in the current workplace, which demotivates the junior employees. In the end, having interpersonal and open communications can make each generation not be biased toward the other group (Durrleman & Franck, 2015). To a greater extent, millennials are highly open-minded concerning workplace socialization, whereby they are capable of quitting a job that does not value them.
With modernization, the workplace environment is constantly changing, causing a rift between the baby boomers and millennials. Generation jones does not believe that the millennials have outsmarted them as they are pessimistic and have an extensive yearning for their careers (Mou et al.,2014). The conversation showed the differences in the workplace, whereby the baby boomers believe that the millennials use social media since they are lazy, which is not the case. The junior cohort anticipates having a flexible job with limited classical management to make them grow their careers. Despite extensively relying on technological gadgets and their attached benefits, the millennials are more productive (Kraus et al., 2012). The conversation showed the differences between the two generations, whereby the baby boomers tend to have one job since they retire. At the same time, the recent cohort believes in changing work positions to acquire promotions through learning. As a result, the parents should not develop anxiety about the current youth, who acknowledge and admire doing things differently. With proper language use, the differences in the workplace and misunderstanding between millennials and generation jones can be eliminated.
References
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Durrleman, S., & Franck, J. (2015). Exploring links between language and cognition in autism spectrum disorders: Complement sentences, false belief, and executive functioning.Journal of Communication Disorders, 54, 15-31. Web.
Kraus, M. W., Piff, P. K., Mendoza-Denton, R., Rheinschmidt, M. L., & Keltner, D. (2012). Social class, solipsism, and contextualism: How the rich are different from the poor.Psychological Review, 119(3), 546. Web.
Linck, J. A., Osthus, P., Koeth, J. T., & Bunting, M. F. (2013). Working memory and second language comprehension and production: A meta-analysis.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21(4), 861-883. Web.
Mou, Y., Province, J. M., & Luo, Y. (2014). Can infants make transitive inferences?Cognitive psychology, 68, 98-112. Web.