Gen X,Gen Y,baby boomers in the work place

Nurses General Nursing

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What are your experiences at work with your co-workers from different generations? As a Gen Xer I try very ,very hard to remain energetic and flexible. I really don't want to be labeled "the old fart that needs to quit" I think it's funny that the Gen Yer's expect the work place to bend completely to their will (IMHO) and don't want to do anything that they don't think they should have to do. I have to be very careful offering guidance or I run the risk of being accused of "eating my young" . I do find Gen Y very tech savy but almost dependent and pre-occupied with computer to the exclusion of doing any hands on pt. care.It's too much fun to sit and create documents-not as much fun to actually run around and do treatments or pass meds. My big clash last week was being told that it is now the oncoming nurse's responsibilty to stock the med cart.The rationale is that you may not do it in a way that pleases the on-coming nurse. Really? Isn't it courtesy to clean it up,empty the trash and stock it after you are done? I really want to spend 20 mins scrubbing the dried crud of of the cart that you left -NOT. I guess my getting ticked off at that labels me firmly as an Old Fart nurse.....

Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.

I have seen nurses text during med pass, while doing wound care, and during assessments. How is that doing their job? The facility my husband works at has a "no personal electronic devices" policy in place because of nurses (and radiographers, lab techs, etc) texting/talking on cell phones while on the job. Unfortunately, the facility I work at does not have the same policy.

And how is texting any different than making personal calls on during work hours? You go on break. Period, end of story.

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Boomer here --- I am really enjoying this thread. On behalf of a generation that feels as though it's our fault everything is messed up, and has been on a decades-long collective guilt trip for being unable (thus far) to turn everything into rainbows and unicorns for our progeny . . . THANKS for providing some additional perspective .

Even though we boomers are (collectively) shuffling out of active patient care in increasing numbers, it seems that the generational 'war' is destined to continue. Differences among cultures, genders, and - yes- generations are driven by innate, societal and environmental factors. We can't stop them from happening and ignoring them just flat doesn't work. Recognizing them and dealing with them pro-actively is obviously the best option.

Good luck on that. I am sure you will do better than we did.

Afterthought - anything that shows up as a unique characteristic of the new group (texting?) generally provokes a universally negative response from the old guard because it is seen as a clear sign that the prevailing norms are being eroded. I can remember 'old nurses' fighting to retain all narrative charting because they felt that using checklists was just a lazy documentation shortcut that the 'young' nurses wanted .....

And let the judgements and misunderstandings fly.

It's against most policies in workplaces around the country, hospitals included to stop work to text which is what the person you quoted was talking about. I've been giving a patient a bedbath when the tech helping stopped the bedbath in front of the patient and looked at her phone, and texted back. She was in her early 50's and addicted to her phone. She made her husband leave his job to bring her phone when she forgot it one day. May she rest in peace. Another example was a new grad in her early 20's I was precepting that was constantly would while I was talking/teaching would look at her phone.

I don't think the poster was saying taking extra long breaks was right either. But I do agree that each generation has different values and different strengths and weaknesses.

It's may be a "boomer comment" and I'm not sure what "makes me right" other than decency and respect, but so be it. Texting and working is wrong and I'm right about that. LOL

All that said, nothing wrong with when your not involved in patient care or interacting with other staff, to answer your phone or look at it quickly, such as when your charting or walking down the halls. Just be respectful about it.

Yeah - I thought the same thing. The poster explicitly said she wasn't talking about texting on break.

Texting while at work, caring for our patients is unprofessional and yes, wrong.

That is management's problem - allowing this to happen.

Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I don't believe in stereotypes, and this post is full of them.

I am in nursing school, and I have met immature and unwise older students and then I have met younger students who had an "old soul" and wisdom to them. Some of the older students lacked good judgement (such as the one is taking over 100k in student loans for a freakin' BSN) and the forty-one year old who act like a complete child and complained every step of the way (and he failed). Then I know of 19 year olds who work full-time, pay for everyone AND study their asses off.

You can't box people up like that, and believe it or not, even SOCRATES complained about the younger generation thousands of years ago.

Specializes in critical care, PACU.
I don't think young people get much credit and appreciation. I'm pretty much in awe of the "younger" workers...they work their way through school, but in order to get to school in the first place, they have to have a 4.0 in pre-reqs, wait for years, and really want to be a nurse. They graduate with massive debt, then begin to work, buy homes, get married and have children, while juggling long stressful 12 hour days.

I don't think older nurses get much credit or appreciation either. We've worked for decades under nearly abusive situations, fought long hard battles to make things better for ourselves and the next generation of nurses, we've been flexible to see tremendous changes technologically and we adapt to that technology with ease, in fact embrace it.

We have much to learn from one another.

What a wonderful post.:yelclap:

I think we all need to appreciate each generation's strengths and weaknesses without applying broad generalizations so that we can work together.

I'm a baby boomer. We used to make the same kind of remarks about the work ethic of gen x-ers. When I was growing up, the greatest generation said the same thing about us. It's the circle of life I guess.

I am often amazed at some of the younger posters on this site, their drive and ambition, and how well screwed on their heads are. I can say that at that age I was not even close to being that poised and mature.

I am also amazed at the older nurses. I can't wait to have that kind of wisdom and experience. And I love hearing the stories about the good old days of nursing.

Every generation changes the game and ups the stakes. Every generation has it's boneheads and dopes. I think we need to try and respect the good in each other. And extend a hand and help each other when one is struggling.

Specializes in critical care, PACU.

Yeah that's so true. Every generation was the young generation once and will eventually be the old generation.

Specializes in ICU.

Lazy nurses come in all ages. Regardless of one's age, constant texting is rude and unprofessional. Many of the nurses and techs I work with stay on the phone, yakking and/or texting and/or playing games constantly, and can't even look at you when you are trying to speak to them. They stop whatever they are in the middle of and make a dive to find their phone anytime they hear a buzz. We used to have internet on our computers, but management took it away from us because people couldn't stay off facebook long enough to do any actual charting. I find it extremely rude when I am trying to speak to someone about a patient/problem/labs, etc., and they immediately grab their phone when it buzzes and start reading/texting and ignoring me. If the phone call was an emergency, that I could understand, but when they start smiling or laughing at whatever they are reading, it is obviously not important. I get tired of going into other nurse's rooms to fix their IV's that are dinging, because they ignore it while on their phone. It has nothing whatsoever to do with someone's age; we have baby-boomer nurses who do this also.

Re: texting/cell phone use at work

I agree that texting or making personal calls while on the clock is unacceptable. However, I'm glad that many people carry their personal phones while working. The last shift I worked, a resident fell in the day room where there isn't a call light--the nurse who found the resident on the floor used her cell phone to call the nurse's station and the shift supervisor. At my previous job, an aide was helping a resident to the bathroom and had to lower them to the floor when they got extremely dizzy. The aide ended up pinned against the wall and, again, used her cell phone to call another aide for help. Also, on my smart phone I have a medical dictionary, drug guide, lab reference, dosage calculator, drug interaction lookup tool, and bedside procedure guide. I feel much more confident knowing that I have those resources in my pocket, and can say, "let me look that up for you," when a resident or family member has a question I can't immediately answer.

Specializes in Level II Trauma Center ICU.

We've had a real problem with generational discord on our unit. It has really become a problem. I find that the 20 something nurses, especially those who went straight into nursing school out of high school, really have a problem with working weekends, nights and holidays. There is a serious sense of entitlement going on. I don't know what their nursing instructors are telling them, but my instructors told us to be prepared to work off shifts especially if we were going to work in the hospital. Come on, hospitals are open 24/7 so they must have nurses to care for the patients. We even had some make comments like the director should be trying to accommodate them instead of the older nurses because they have more years left to work. Don't get me wrong, I like to have my weekends off or spend the holidays with my family too, but I have to be reasonable.

There is a level of disrespect or "I already know that" when help or support is offered. I just don't get it. I'm in my 30s but I get attitude when I made changes in assignments to balance the level of experience on each side of the unit. It isn't safe to have the unit staffed with all of the nurses w/experience on one side with all of the new nurses on the other. I know they get along well but it is not in the best interest of the patients, but when I said that I would like to spread the experienced nurses around so they can serve as a resource for them I got attitude all night.

I feel like I'm caught in the middle because I'm not in my 20's but I have close to 8 yrs of experience. I get along with nurses from all age groups but I feel like the older nurses have some valid points. This stuff is really splitting our unit in half.

You can't box people up like that, and believe it or not, even SOCRATES complained about the younger generation thousands of years ago.

Unreal...I actually wrote something similar to this in the PA forum about 3 yrs ago, but I used Aristotle, though.

Specializes in ob.

I have taught classes to people who text constantly and then interrupt to say they didn't get the last point. WTH is wrong with them? I have no issues with a short message from the kid, Mom/dad i got to school and ok back from parent.

Texting is irritating BUT it has just replaced the obnoxious family phone calls of old. Example from 20 or so years ago... sixteen year old called constantly for mom at work. One day he "had to talk" to his mother.' Went and found this woman on a very busy shift. This clueless kid could not get the lid off of peanut butter jar and was hungry!!!!! Mom said poor guy because he was home all alone and no one to help him. Just think he probably has reproduced by now and has a job as he would be mid 30's. He probably texts mom while he is at work.

Truly, when you are at work you are to be working unless it is something urgent or short. We all know many of us wouldn't be at work if the mom, dad, girl/boyfriend gig paid all of the bills. People just need to be polite and use a little common sense. some people are a little dumber and more self absorbed than others and just need a good "reminder" that they are paid to be at work and need to do what keeps the check (or direct deposit) coming!

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