Susan A. Fitzell 8 min read Feb 21, 2023
While many of us don’t consider the social striations between the generations relevant, the truth is there are distinct psychological differences between the Baby Boomers and the fresh new crop of Gen-Zs entering the modern workplace. Often, a company will have representatives from all generations working together.
How these psyches view diversity and neurodiversity is, naturally, quite varied. The things that challenged the Baby Boomers are not the things that challenge our co-workers who happened to be born after 1997.
My intent here isn’t to wade into the humorous pop culture cliches around the oddities of the different generations. In response to the challenges of the times, each generation developed positive skills and strengths. Humans are constantly growing, changing, and improving. The vocabulary of different generations evolves from each generation's experiences in their formative years.
Is Gen-Z struggling?
By now, we’ve figured out that Boomers, Gen X-ers, and Millennials have much to offer society, but what about Gen-Z? From most of what I’ve seen in popular media and heard from some Gen-Z themselves, they call themselves the “snowflake generation” — easily triggered, easily hurt, embracing fluidity to a fault, anything goes. Pop culture isn’t doing them any favors. The world is a rough place for them, with limited resources in every area from finance to fuel — the same as it is for the rest of us. However, they’re the ones in the hot seat, having to deal with the fallout of this divided, pandemic-impacted, financially struggling world in the years to come.