Recently, a 25-year old member of the New Zealand parliament hit the headlines when she responded, “OK boomer” to an older MP when the latter interrupted her in the middle of her speech about climate change. It is a short, yet strong phrase that irked many “baby boomers,” who, as defined in Webster, are people born between 1946 and 1964. The dismissive and mocking nature of using this phrase as a response of someone young towards an older person is what solicits mixed reactions across generations.
This phrase cuts across various platforms, from digital to speeches, as well as across organizations, such as political parties, social groups and business entities, among others.
It is just one of the few factors that stirs generational divide in different settings, like in a workplace. On the other side of the spectrum are the older generations, including the Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979), stereotyping the younger people, the Millennials (born between 1980 and 1994) and the Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2015), as lazy and entitled in doing their work.
A young person would ask, or, at some point, demand for better working conditions. And right away, others would think of it as a form of entitlement because this young person does not know how to work (extra) hard before enjoying such benefit. Thinking about it, is hoping for good working conditions already a form of privilege? Shouldn’t that be the norm?
I am a millennial and I have had the privilege of working in three different companies with varying dominant age groups. My first job in an educational institution exposed me to these baby boomers. I agree that at some point, there is a level of close-mindedness in introducing new information to them, but at the end of the day, what matters is how I was able to engage in a meaningful discussion with them, and how we were able to exchange our opinions without shutting down each other’s ideas.
My second job was in a PR company with a predominantly millennial and Gen Z workforce, and surprisingly, I found it harder to come up with a concrete resolution on certain issues because our discussions seemed to be never-ending. The upside of this is that we never ran out of creative ideas and we were rounded as critical thinkers.
My current job in an IT company has diverse age groups, and this is by far the most “relaxed” working environment I have been into. There is a right mix of perspectives from the young and the older age groups. New ideas are presented by the younger workforce, while guidance and wisdom are shared by the older workforce. Having this kind of openness and stability between generations in a workplace is an aspiration to human resources, since it is a challenge to the retention of employees who have differing working condition needs.
A good point raised in the article, “Young People are Going to Save Us All From Office Life,” published by the New York Times, is that everyone is really hoping for the same flexibility in working conditions and presence of work-life balance, but it is only the young people who are brave enough to ask the difficult questions that the older generations just learned to work through.
The younger people are carrying the burden of being judged for raising awareness in the workplace that could later on benefit all employees. In the case of using “OK boomer,” I think what is being highlighted is the connotation of rudeness in using such remark, often overlooking the context on why this is used as a response in the first place.
Unearthing the reason behind this is the frustration of young people against the all-knowing and close-mindedness of older people. Often, when the younger person is sharing new information that is deemed irrelevant by the boomer because the latter knows the absolute fact about it and nothing, not even science or technology, can sway him/her from clinging onto this “knowledge.” In a more professional way of speaking, this phrase translates to “Okay, since you are not open to the insight I am sharing with you, let’s just agree to disagree.”
Generational divide is manifested in some HR issues in the workplace, like communication, flexibility and work-life balance, but looking deeper, one may be able to see that a certain issue is actually warranted by all employees regardless of age group. The challenge is now with the HR professionals to look past these and come up with sustainable solutions that give value to the whole workforce.
Miraquel De Jesus is a Master of Business Administration student at De La Salle University (DLSU). She has gained experiences in executive management, corporate affairs, marketing and sales, and is currently working in a fully Filipino-owned IT solutions consultancy. She welcomes comments at miraquel.dejesus@gmail.com. The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.
