Older bosses can hurt the productivity of Gen Z and millennial workers

• Friction with older managers can hurt the productivity of Gen Zers and millennials, a study found.
• Output can decrease as the age gap between an older boss and a worker grows.

Hey, older bosses. It pays to be considerate of the younger people on your teams.

Gen Z and millennial workers, in particular, are seeing their productivity take a hit partly because of friction with older managers, according to a new report.

While having five generations in the workplace can be an asset, misunderstandings and tensions with older bosses can derail work, according to researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Protiviti, a consulting firm.

“We found that where there are larger age gaps between younger employees and older managers, they're experiencing lower productivity,” Daniel Jolles, told Business Insider, referring to younger workers. Jolles is a research assistant in behavioral science at the Inclusion Initiative at the LSE.

The slump in efficiency is all the more alarming because we’re already seeing a global productivity slowdown, Jolles noted. Age gaps among workers don’t have to crimp output, he said. There are steps companies can take to make age differences an advantage, not a drag.

Gen Zers and millennials feel the slump

The new research draws from a survey of nearly 1,500 workers in fields like finance and tech in the US and the UK. One in four employees reported having low productivity. But the share was higher among younger workers: 37% of Gen Zers and 30% of millennials said they weren’t getting much done. By comparison, only 14% of boomers reported having trouble knocking out their to-do lists. The survey took place in March and April 2023.

Output can slide, Jolles said, as the age gap between the older boss and the worker widens. Employees whose managers were more than 12 years older were almost 1.5 times more likely to say they had low productivity and nearly three times more likely to be “extremely dissatisfied” in their roles.

Older workers who had much younger managers didn't report decreased productivity.

To avoid productivity pitfalls related to age differences, it’s important that leaders remain sensitive to issues of generational diversity and that managers develop skills around overseeing and including people from different generations, Jolles said.

Too often, he said, the discussions around different generations in the workplace fall back on tropes — think the lazy or sensitive younger worker or the oldie who’s resistant to change.

“They’re not particularly true, and they’re not particularly helpful,” Jolles said of generational stereotypes. Instead, managers should recognize that generation can be important to someone's experience and priorities — but also that it’s not everything.

Varied experiences are one reason it can be good to bring on both younger and older workers, he said. The newest employees in the workplace often have fresh ideas and might question stale assumptions.

For their part, older workers are often best at demonstrating what Jolles calls “citizenship behaviors” — things like being supportive and working collaboratively. That way of working, plus decades of experience, is why he thinks it’s often wise to rely on older workers.

Often, longtime workers "don't get enough credit, or they don't a get foot in the door because people are trying to prematurely end their careers or not give them the opportunity,” Jolles said.

Of course, what's considered old often depends on the field. In tech, it might be a worker as young as 30, he noted. In academia, that label might not be applied till someone hits 80.

Missed opportunities for employers

There are indications, Jolles said, that younger leaders and older workers not in management are two groups that don't always get the recognition they deserve. That’s why not focusing solely on someone's age is key, he said.

“Having a commitment to advancing people on merit, as opposed to their age or generation, is really important,” Jolles said.

Getting this right matters for employers because the population is aging, he said. “So we need to create fulfilling work that keeps people in the workforce for longer. That should be an imperative for companies. And we have less younger talent in the pipeline.”

Beyond developing workers based on merit and having managers who are adept at leading across generations, companies can also commit to hiring people across a range of ages.

“People do bring a lot of different perspectives and ideas and understanding. And I think that there is a lot of productivity benefit to be had,” Jolles said.