You’ve heard the expression “save the drama for your mama,” right? Well, what if the drama is happening at work between someone you and someone old enough to be your momma? Or you and someone who is young enough that you could be their momma?

Inter generational conflict in the workplace has been intensified by the current economic conditions. Older workers are staying in jobs longer and putting off retirement, and (especially in the nursing field) younger parents who might have stayed home with pre-school age children have gone back to work to prop up decreased family incomes from spouse job loss.

Is a baby boomer-gen y conflict inevitable? Perhaps some, but simple consideration can go a long way, mostly in the form on not making assumptions about co-workers because of their age. Older nurses may indeed be on twitter, younger nurses may not even own–let alone- watch a lot of tv or be into online video gaming. No one on your unit worked with Florence Nightingale (oops, at first I had written Florence Henderson) so it’s not really polite to ask, even if you’re kidding. Some nurses may be perfectly willing to talk about their age, but not everyone, so it’s generally good form to let the other person share that information rather than asking directly…no fair asking what year they graduated nursing school and then doing the math, either!

Although it’s not nursing specific, the jobs portal monster.com has an interesting article up about this very issue. Some of their suggestions include not comparing older or younger co-workers to one’s grandparents/children; not telling younger co-workers “that’s not how the real world works” and not assuming tech savvy-ness (or lack thereof) based on age. You can read more here.