How To Manage Millennials Vs. Gen Xers

A lot has been written about how to manage Millennials versus Baby Boomers. And that’s valuable information – for many employers, the differences between young employees and those who have been in the workforce since the 1970s are stark.

But in our haste to compare these two often-at-odds generations, we tend to leave out the critical group wedged in the middle: Generation X. Roughly defined as those born between the early 1960s and the early 1980s – give or take a few years, depending on the specific definition you use – Generation X employees only slightly trail Millennials as the largest group in today’s workforce, according to the Pew Research Center.

Generation X may not receive the same media attention as the Millennials or the Baby Boomers, but as these workers likely represent a major portion of your staff, it’s vital that you recognize the nuances in how to manage them relative to younger and older employees.

Here, we’ll break down the differences between these two groups, as well as how you’ll want to manage their various needs.