Generational tension has rarely been as pronounced as it is in 2020, with Gen Z and Millennials accusing Baby Boomers (“Ok Boomer!”) of drifting from their 1960s idealism towards greed and a lack of ethical grounding. And the Boomers consider the younger generations (“Snowflakes!”) to be made up of entitled, social-media addicted kids who haven’t experienced enough of the real world yet to understand ethical compromises and real-world values. Add to this the complication that Boomers are currently staying in the workforce longer than people their age have in over 50 years.
Comparably examined these warring attitudes in the arena it knows best: the workplace. We compared responses from Gen Z(18-25), Millennials(26-35), and Baby Boomers(56-65) to a number of the most salient career questions asked by Comparably to see which issues are most affected by the generation gap, and which home truths don’t change with age.
When asked if a raise was more important to them than a title promotion, Gen Z and Millennial respondents were largely in agreement, with younger Millennials answering “yes” slightly more often. Boomers answered “yes” to the raise or promotion question even more frequently with 86% of older working Boomers finding more personal value in an increased paycheck than an improved title: this makes some sense, as this age group is nearing retirement age and not nearly as concerned with professional development. Older Boomers are the least confident, however, when it comes to the question of asking their boss for a raise. Less than 50% of older Boomers say they would feel confident asking their boss for an increase in salary.
That’s less than the youngest employees in the workforce: 54% of Gen Z respondents say they would feel confident in the same situation. This underlines the idealism and naiveté that is more common in our early 20s and the ageism – perceived or otherwise – affecting older employees who may feel their market value decreasing. Millennials were the most confident about asking their boss for a raise, with nearly 60% of respondents between the ages of 26-35 feeling deserving.
Interestingly, young Millennials most often reported receiving a raise over the last 18 monthsat 46%. Gen Z and older Millennials got raises just a shade less often, at 42% and 43%, respectively. Only 26% of older Boomers could say the same. Perhaps by the same token, just 45% of older Boomers say they would turn down a job offer today for slightly more money.
With less confidence and less raises coming their way, this argues that money is the absolute bottom line for those approaching retirement, with job loyalty less of a practical concern. About half of Gen Z and Millennial respondents said they would turn down a new job offer for the draw of a bit more money.
Asked what the maximum pay cut they would take to work at a company with a social mission they supported, idealism loses out to the bottom line, even for the younger generations who get so much attention for their commitment to social ideals. Forty-four percent of young Millennials, known for their strict idealism, said they would take a salary cut to work at a job where the mission was personally important to them. Boomers, currently characterized as less socially responsible and more interested in capital gains, responded only slightly higher at 50%. It may be that the drift from social responsibility to an interest in personal gain has less to do with the tension between Millennials and Boomers, and more to do with the natural aging process on the human psyche. Older workers may feel that such a change – to a job with a stronger social mission – may have little larger effect on the world.
Is the long-standing taboo regarding discussing compensation with our co-workersbeginning to erode? Gen Z has come of age in an era of heightened transparency. Answering a question about whether they would discuss their compensation with their peers at work, those employees were most likely to say they would consider such a discussion. Millennials start out agreeing, but as they age they begin to respond “not likely” as often as they did “it depends.” By the time we get to the oldest Boomers, the transition from “it depends” to “would never do it” is complete, with a third of respondents aged 61-65 answering that way.
CAREER
Does having children hold people back in their careers? Recent studieshave shown that the U.S. birthrate is at its lowest point in more than 30 years, thanks largely to Millennials feeling they aren’t able to afford kids.The youngest Gen Z workers were the most convinced that adding children to the family can hamper career trajectory. These are the workers least likely to have had children yet, and also least likely to have seen a real effect on their career momentum one way or the other. Millennials are slightly less convinced, as many older Millennials presumably already have children, and only 49% of that group opined that children can hamper a career trajectory. Only about 40% of Boomers, who have most likely already had and raised children, said they thought children were a drag on work life.
When we asked employees which soft skill had helped them advance most in their career, all respondents – from the least experienced to those nearing the ends of their careers – chose “persistence.” For Gen Z and Millennial respondents, the least popular choice from our list was “empathy.” For Boomers, the least popular answer was “humility.” This points to the rather Machiavellian nature of American working life.
We also asked: “Which of your soft skills would you most like to improve?” “Communication” was the winner for Gen Z and Millennial employees, as they learn to adapt to the sometimes unspoken vernacular of a working life. Younger Boomers wanted to improve their emotional intelligence, perhaps because many grew up in an America where emotions were largely off the table, especially in the workplace. And the oldest Boomers wanted to improve their adaptability, surely as a result of new workplace practices that have replaced long-familiar ones for that group.
As far asbiggest work fears, worries of becoming stagnant in their roles gave most age groups the most apprehension among the options offered. Even with the current focus on sexual harassment and gender equality, accusations of harassment were on very few minds among respondents. No Boomers at all, in fact, chose accusations of harassment – surely the sign of an issue meaning different things to different generations. For the oldest Boomers, the biggest fear was a stress breakdown, although that option ranked high for most respondents regardless of age.
Lying or exaggerating on a job interview – or admitting to having lied or exaggerated on an interview or resume – is a relatively rare occurrence. Nineteen percent of Gen Z workers say they have, and that’s a similar percentage to what we see for Millennials. The oldest Boomers were the least likely to have lied or to have admitted to lying, at just 5%. From this we can assume that either younger workers with less time in the job market are managing to lie more often than those with multi-decade careers, or that older workers may be more forgiving of fudging they may have done in interviews or on resumes earlier in their careers.
Perhaps predictably, the youngest employees are the most eager tostart their own business within the next five years. Between 35% and 40% of all Gen Z and Millennial employees say they are planning on hanging a shingle of their own over the next half decade, and those numbers remain relatively stable, dropping slowly until we reach Boomers, who are less concerned with new business ventures and more focused on retirement.
BOSSES
All of the age groups we looked at for this study say being supportive/collaborative is the best quality a boss could have, although that need is strongest for the youngest employees from Gen Z.
The quality of being a great coach is less important for Boomer workers, who presumably feel like they are close to knowing all they are going to know about their jobs. There was similar overall agreement from all age groups about the worst quality a boss could have: all generations chose “micromanager” as the most odious quality their leadership could display. Most workers, it seems, want to be respected enough by their boss to be left alone to finish a task.
The negative quality of a boss being overly critical becomes more toxic for our respondents as they get older. Gen Z and Millennials chose that quality as second or third least attractive, and for Boomers it was easily the second-most unattractive quality a boss could display. Workers expect to be treated with more respect as they accrue experience. Interestingly, impatience was the least unattractive of the five offered qualities for all age brackets (although for Gen Z workers that quality of impatience shared the position of lowest vote-getter, along with a boss who acts like a know-it-all.)
Older Boomers were the least comfortable giving their boss feedback, with just 55% saying they would feel comfortable in that situation – which illustrates the tentative security the oldest workers feel about their jobs.
Slightly more confident about giving their boss feedback, but less so than Millennials and older Boomers, were the Gen Z respondents; 62% of whom said they would feel comfortable letting their boss know if they differed on an issue.
When asked “If you were the boss, what’s the first thing you would change?” 26% of Gen Z employees said they would increase employee pay. This response lines up with the general notion that the least experienced employees make the least money, therefore they would be most concerned about getting more. Or it may be that Gen Z employees are simply more socially aware that their pay is a workplace topic not to be ignored.
Millennial respondents answered “Better Vision/Strategy” most often, with “increase employee pay” beginning to lose popularity. More holistic company ideas – the kinds a boss would generally be expected to make – like “make a better product” and “cut expenses” – were the least popular responses for all workers under 35.
Boomers also chose “Better vision/strategy” most often. For the oldest working Boomers, however, employee pay increasingly becomes a popular choice once again, with 29% choosing that option (compared to 26% for the youngest Gen Z workers.) Those older Boomers are close to retirement and wondering about their livelihood post-career, after realizing that Social Security is slim and pensions are non-existent. Therefore, we can see that the very youngest and very oldest workers are the most concerned with their own bottom lines, while larger ideas of company strength and culture become more important in the intervening years.
Interestingly, Boomer employees (below), who have had a longer career and therefore more chances to lie (or not lie) to their boss, responded that they never lied to their boss at a rate 20-25% more frequently than the youngest employees.
When asked if they had ever been verbally abused or severely harassed in a non-sexual manner by their boss, only Gen Z and younger Millennials broke with the average for the rest of the age brackets, most of whom said “no” at a rate of about 80%. Twenty-four percent of younger Millennials said they had been verbally abused or harassed by their boss, and 30% of Gen Z respondents agreed.
CO-WORKERS
It may be due to the nature of being a boss, but no age group chose “boss or manager” most frequently when asked who they felt most loyalty to at work. “Co-workers” were the most popular choice for all age groups, but “boss or manager” did manage to place second for Gen Z, Millennial, and Boomer respondents – although that answer begins to lose popularity with the Boomers.
WORKPLACE CULTURE
The below graph tracks responses to the question, “Are you satisfied with your work/life balance?” Gen Z workers were less satisfied with their work/life balance when compared to Millennials, 64% to 67%, respectively. This implies a learning curve as the youngest workers adjust to a working life.
Looking at the responses to the question about their biggest work distractions, all age groups chose their co-workers and bosses. But, in keeping with one of the most common stereotypes applied to them, Gen Z workers answered, “social media/internet” (31%) nearly as often as they chose co-workers and bosses. Also sticking to generally accepted social stereotypes, older Boomer workers were far less distracted by social media at just 16%.
Just 70% of Gen Z respondents report never having experienced racism in the workplace, the lowest for any age group. That means 30% say they have experienced some form of racism, the highest in our survey. (Close to 25% of Millennials and Boomers said the same.) These workers have been in the workforce the least amount of time, so the fact that they most often report having experienced racism is interesting. With racism at the center of more national dialogue, more subtle and covert forms of discrimination are being rooted out than ever before thanks to the “woke generation.”
THE FUTURE OF WORK
Worries of being replaced by a robotover the next 10 years are least notable in older Boomers, who may have less invested in the future as they near retirement and may not care about who does their job after they leave for greener pastures. Eighty nine percent of older Boomers said they had no fear of robots taking their livelihoods. The youngest Gen Z employees, however, do seem to fear robots coming for their jobs – only 63% said they had no such fears. Since most of Gen Z’s working life will take place in an uncertain future, this makes some sense.
We also asked employees which large tech company they most admired. Young and old all chose Google. When it comes to dead last, Gen Z and Millennial employees were the least enthusiastic about Microsoft, despite the Gates’ notable charity ventures. Boomer employees had the least use for Facebook, and potentially know more about the social app through negative portrayal in recent news stories than from actual social media use. Amazon, which has seen its own share of negative media attention, remains popular among Boomers. Apple, once the mightiest of the mighty, placed in about the middle for all three generations.
About Comparably
Comparably is an online career destination for compensation and workplace culture data with a mission to make work dramatically more transparent and rewarding. Employees can anonymously and publically rate their company culture and access salary data through the lens of specific demographics, including gender, ethnicity, age, location, years of experience, company size, title/department, and education. With the most comprehensive and structured data in the industry, it has accumulated 10 million ratings and hundreds of thousands of salary records by employees at 50,000 U.S. companies, from startups to Fortune 50 businesses. The company’s data-driven approach has quickly made it a trusted media resource for salary and workplace culture, and one of the fastest-growing SaaS solutions for employer branding. For more information, go to Comparably.com. For workplace culture and salary studies, including Comparably’s annual Best Places to Work and Best CEOs awards, go to Comparably.com/blog.