Working views differ by age

Eavesdropping on a lunch table conversation between two midcareer businesswomen ...

Both were dressed conservatively, with blouses and tailored jackets, the longstanding uniform for professional women.

Both were criticizing a new, young hire who wore trendy, low-cut summer tops to work — a cleavage criticism often echoed in workplaces.

Then talk turned from tops to toes.

Remember the national flip-flop hubbub when a few young women on an athletic team visited the White House wearing the ubiquitous rubber sandals? Back when they were called “thongs,” such footwear was worn only to pools and beaches.

As the name evolved, so did the demarcation between where sandals should or shouldn’t be worn — which led one of the women (in low-heel, closed-toe pumps) to sigh and say, “I’m sick of seeing people’s gnarly toes.”

Thinking that flip-flops are inappropriate for the office is one thing. Being repulsed by toes is another.

Whatever you think about feet, the conversation showcased a generational difference in the workplace, a divide that goes beyond wardrobes.

Listen to Max Valiquette, chief executive of Youthography. Valiquette splits time between Los Angeles and Toronto for his business, which does research, consulting and marketing about youth culture.

Valiquette says most under-30 workers would be genuinely shocked that their work performance evaluations can be affected by what they wear.

“They don’t understand the reason for rules that don’t hurt productivity,” Valiquette said.

Today’s 20-something workers also don’t understand why some employers block their access to Internet sites or instant messaging. (Many know how to circumvent the blocks, anyway.)

They don’t understand why they can’t do their work at Starbucks as well as in their cubicles.

They don’t recognize the older generation’s need for face time or meetings. They have Facebook and instant messaging.

Older workers might cringe, but here’s what Valiquette finds:

“There’s a huge gap between how young and older people approach the workplace, partly because of the young people’s comfort with technology and partly because young people feel they’re in control of pretty much everything. They’ve been raised that way.

“Their parents and teachers fed them self-esteem and told them they were awesome all the time. When they get to the workplace and have to report to someone who has a big technology gap, or who has a narrower world view, or who believes in hierarchy, it’s hard for them to respect the boss.”

Reader response indicates there are many boomer-age managers who are appalled at these attitudes. For boomers, “paying your dues” was expected and believed to be the path to career success.

But Valiquette says the work world may never be that way again; young people who chafe against rules or who don’t believe they’re “getting a seat at the table will not wait patiently for their day to come.”

They will move on.

As someone very familiar to the older generation — Walter Cronkite — would say: And that’s the way it is.

X Diane Stafford is the workplace and careers columnist at The Kansas City Star. She can be reached at stafford@kcstar.com.