After years of frequent and passionate discussions about generational differences, including what millennials want at work, why they’re is the most entitled generation in history, and how to instill a sense of belonging in your Gen Z workers, the tide is finally turning. Indeed, the last few weeks alone have seen numerous reports on why generational differences are完全胡说八道，以及为什么您听到的有关该主题的一切都最好被忽略。
As always, the truth is a bit more nuanced than either extreme suggests, so now is a good time to highlight some of the common flaws of popular discussions about generations, and what science actually reveals about the topic.
Let’s start with the problems, which are twofold. The first is that comments are often based on subjective impressions, anecdotes, or common sense; the second is that much of the data reported conflates generational differences with age differences, including many widely publicized surveys. Pick any survey you like, and there’s a 95% chance that they just report cross-sectional (rather than time-lagged) data, meaning they are simply evaluating differences between ages.
Another issue is that even when these problems are addressed, and actual differences in a generation are reported, the effect sizes of generational differences aresmall，科学评论有长期以来得出结论that the differences in generations are generally overhyped and overrated.
不仅有概括，而且是刻板印象的人，这是一个真正的风险。如果您真正关心多样性和包容性，那么您应该真正尝试关注最重要的事情：个人而不是群体差异。这意味着了解什么使每个人成为独特的人，以及他们与其他人的差异。这不需要您否认可能存在群体差异，包括世代差异。毕竟，在人格，价值观，态度等方面，还存在性别，年龄，文化和民族差异。
These limitations aside, we should not ignore the actual science on the subject, which over the past decades does indeed report some group differences between generations, even if they are general and small effects (they are still statistically significant, and perhaps also noticeable). These studies have the advantage of controlling for age while evaluating variability in generations. For example, by examining how people in their 20s felt about something in the 1950s, 70s, 90s, 00s, and so on. Here are some findings to highlight.
Satisfaction quotient
Older generations are slightly更满意with their jobs than younger generations. Since this effect is not driven by age, which is obviously positively correlated with career success (the older you are, the more advanced you are in your career), there are two obvious hypotheses here:
- jobs are less exciting today than in the past
- 年轻人对自己的工作和职业的期望要高得多，这也许可以解释为什么他们更有可能感到失望
毕竟，幸福的秘诀是要有低期望，并感到惊喜。
Quitting quotient
年轻一代也更多可能退出他们的工作。在当前的辞职之前，这是正确的，似乎与工作市场的实际变化相比，与创业的世代变化有关。例如，in the US，25-34岁的人的平均工作任期少于3年，而55岁或55岁以上的人的工作任期差不多10岁。
Work ethic
Genx和千禧一代expressa weaker work ethic, see work as less central to their lives, value leisure, and seek more freedom and work-life balance than their predecessors. Not so long ago, we may have interpreted this as a sign of their laziness. Now we probably see this as common sense, and may even be a little envious of them.
利他主义
与普遍的看法相反，年轻一代are较少的altruistic因此，在一个越来越拥抱ESG，亲社会行为和授权驱动的职业的世界中，年轻一代人比其前任更适合这些原因并不是真的。
自恋
至少在美国，自恋正在上升，从一代人出发到下一个. By today’s standards, a narcissistic personality of the 1930s would be seen as humble, self-critical, and suffering from imposter syndrome. Likewise, in fifty years’ time, we may look back at today’s world and see Donald Trump, Kim Kardashian, and Kanye West as rather modest and low-key unless the trend can be reversed. This sounds both controversial and rather obvious at the same time, but for sure there are important ethical and moral implications to ignoring the rise of narcissism, entitlement, and delusional self-obsessions of grandiosity if we truly want to make the world a better place.
While there are some significant differences between generations, these are rarely represented in popular discussions on the topic, which tend to describe differences不是由任何可靠或可靠的数据支持。这通常会导致几代人毫无根据的刻板印象，这将始终包括代表所有个性，价值观和能力的人的丰富组合。努力了解每个人的身份，并将他们视为个人而不是人口组的成员，这不仅是最公平的方法，而且是与他们互动的最准确的心理方式。