Young bosses face workplace backlash
31% of Australian workers say they currently work for a boss younger than themselves and a further 29.5% are not happy taking orders form bosses that are often at least a generation younger according to a survey by Linkme.com.au, Australia's leading career building and networking site.
And with 24.5% of bosses in the 30-40 year old age bracket and 8.2% in the 25-30 age group, the biggest hurdle for those employers seems to be convincing older people they actually do know what they are doing says," Mr Campbell Sallabank, CEO of Linkme.
"Many Australians (29.4%) say older people should give way to the younger generation and not stay in the workplace too long. They believe these should be retirees are preventing the next generation from moving up the corporate ladder.
"The younger boss older employee dynamic is becoming more common as the number of over 55 workers grow.
"Young dynamic professionals are overtaking older workers and the resistance is sometimes extremely challenging.
"There is a huge generational difference in work ethics and perceptions and this is what causes the challenges. Older workers are work centric and more likely to be workaholics. They tend to turn up to work early, work through lunch, leave late and work on weekends. They feel this shows commitment to their employer and is a way to impress and get ahead.
"Younger workers who have been raised in the computer/internet era realize that it doesn't matter when and where work gets completed and are more likely to harness technological capability out of hours from non work zones.
"Communication methods are different too. Younger people are more likely to be able to figure out solutions to technological problems but older workers tend to need outside help or else resort to old methods of communication like meetings and memos."
