Opinion piece in Altinget

We are now five generations in the Danish labour market, and it will not be undramatic. Conflicts between generations can mean major losses in efficiency and loss of employees. The solution is generational management, writes Susanne Sønderskov.

Written by: Susanne Sønderskov, Head of Epico Public.

"The word is generational leadership". This was the message in Altinget's #dkpol podcast on 2 February, which caught my attention. A few days later, it was in the podcast 'Here Goes It Well' with Peter Falktoft and Esben Bjerre, and it is nice to see the concept starting to spread in the media.

Generational conflicts take up more space in the workplace than it does in the media, and that is a problem. The fact is that we are now five generations in the Danish labour market, and it will not be undramatic. Conflicts between generations can mean major losses in efficiency and loss of employees, ultimately costing the public purse.

Five generations at the same time

The oldest, the 68-generation, grew up before the welfare state. The boomers saw Armstrong walking on the moon. Generation X experienced the fear of both AIDS and nuclear war. Millennials lived in a time of euphoria over the fall of the Berlin Wall and the possibilities of the internet. For Generation Z, the internet also became a burden because social media made them recipients of constant stares and criticism early on.

According to business researcher Søren Schultz Hansen, this may mean that younger generations' expectations of the labour market may be contrary to what older generations consider common sense.

An example is a typical conflict that arises between Generation X and the youngest Generation Zs. The X's entered a labour market where you most often rose in rank if you stayed in the same place. Many got the impression that all good things come to those who wait.

Generation Z - or so-called 'zoomers' - on the other hand were born into a digital age. They are from a generation that is bombarded with 'overnight' success stories on social media and have grown up with the fact that trends can last a few days, so you have to hurry. Whereas waiting was the whole point for Generation X, for Generation Z it is what must be avoided at all costs.

Different views on life

For a generation Z, it is not unusual to step into the workplace and as one of the first things to tell management what they should do differently. As Generation X's, it can be perceived as an insult - and many people think "what do you know about that?"

Here you have to remember that just because a person is young and in someone's eyes inexperienced, they can have learned a lot of knowledge. At my own workplace, we have made a virtue of taking care of young people in particular. They often have a special know-how and drive, as they have received the digital with their mother's milk, and they bring new knowledge from their studies and student jobs. But it also helps that we can communicate if conflicts or misunderstandings arise.

Here you have to remember that just because a person is young and in someone's eyes inexperienced, they can have learned a lot of knowledge. At my own workplace, we have made a virtue of taking care of young people in particular.

They often have a special know-how and drive, as they have received the digital with their mother's milk, and they bring new knowledge from their studies and student jobs. But it also helps that we can communicate if conflicts or misunderstandings arise.

But if it is just the young people who take over the culture in the workplace, it can become a minefield for the elderly. If words like "triggered", "boomer", "on fleek" and other terms fly around during working hours, and things that just a few years ago were okay suddenly aren't, then you can lose the experienced resources. And this is where generational leadership comes into the picture. You have to mediate between the needs and beliefs of the different generations if you don't want things to go wrong.

Out of the starting blocks

It is so important that I think we should completely drop the concept of leadership and instead only think in terms of generational leadership. Good leadership for one generation can be bad leadership for the other - and it is this paradigm shift that we must adapt to.

This also means that we must get out of the starting blocks if we want a labour market that does not lose out in efficiency and job satisfaction. We can do this, for example, by offering the public sector courses in generational leadership and setting aside funds for research in the area. We put a lot of work and focus on introducing the next generation to the labour market and helping out if conflicts arise. But a common focus can help many workplaces with this effort.

Due to a lack of focus on the topic, there is currently a large, but invisible loss through wear and tear, pain and misunderstandings between generations, but we can do something about this if we let the public sector take the lead. Then the media and the private sector will hopefully follow.