It happened this morning on my way to the office. I passed a car where “Finding Nemo” was playing in the headrest of the passenger seat. I couldn’t tell who was in the back seat but I remember what it was like when I was a kid riding in the back seat.

I’m a baby boomer. We didn’t have DVDs embedded in the seat. We didn’t have iPods or even Walkmans. We didn’t have car seats. We didn’t even wear seat belts! (How did we survive?)

For entertainment we played “find the different state license plates” or “Slug Bug”. If you are younger than 50 years old you might not remember the “slug bug” game. If you are over 50 chances are that your arm still hurts. How you played it is that you looked for VW Beetles. When you saw one you yelled “slug bug” and then punched whoever was sitting next to you in the arm. (Variations including just find red ones or yellow ones when your arm started to bruise)

That is how we passed the time. Oh, yeah, and asking “are we there yet” every five miles which brought threats from our dads that they would pull the car over if we asked one more time.

As baby boomers we have seen change. We have seen man walk on the moon, we have seen fax machines, bag phones – then cell phones, the advent of color TV and the Boston Red Sox win TWO World Series. Talk about amazing stuff.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of reading two books by Eric Chester, founder of www.GenerationWhy.com. One was entitled “Employing Generation Why” and the other “Getting Them to Give a Damn”.

I am in the process of looking at Valpak’s recruiting efforts and am learning everything I can about those who are called a variety of names including Gen Y, Millennials, Echo Baby Boomers, and Chester’s “Gen Why” – those born between 1980 – 1994.

After reading these books it dawned on me what the real problem is as it pertains to hiring and training the Y’s. (Yes, I do mean the “wise”) I looked in the mirror and found the real problem. It is “us” . . . .the boomers. It isn’t “them” . . . the “Y’s”.

It seems to me that boomers walk on the precipice of yesterday and tomorrow. We talk about “work/life balance” – but we don’t do it! We complain about gas costs and then go out and buy a $53,910 Hummer (base price!) that gets 8 – 10 mpg. Then, we load the kids/grandkids in the car and got to a professional sporting event where the tickets costs $50, the beer is $8 (small), the dogs are $5 and the profanity yelled by the fan next to the kids is priceless.

We grew up watching a Philco or Dumont black and white TV that HOPEFULLY got three channels. We dreamed about wearing Red Ball Jets tennis shoes or PF Flyers until we discovered Converse.

Reading Chester’s books I learn these things about Gen Why’s. They are:
• Adaptable
• Innovative
• Efficient
• Resilient
• Bluntly Expressive
• Tolerant
• Committed

So why is that I hear so many boomers yell that “I can’t work with this new generation! They are different. They text message, wants flexibility, dress differently, and communicate on such things as Facebook and MySpace. I just can’t manage them!” We say this as we read/type on our crackberrys and wonder how we are going to overcome the war for good talent.

I learned by my reading that the Calvary has arrived. They might now be wearing the traditional soldier’s uniform. They may be wearing shorts that are just a little longer than some of the “high waters” I wore. They may have an earring. They made us a different code when communicating/texting each other. (Better than our cool “secret language” of pig latin) But they are here and they have solutions.

Our challenge – the mirror. Boomers need to see the solutions. Boomers need to accept change. Boomers need to become better managers, better communicators. We need to get off the “because I said so” mentality while looking at the titles on our business cards and simply get to the basics and explain WHY to the Y’s. That doesn’t seem so hard to me. In fact, it is refreshing.

How we trained yesterday is broken. While we espouse that we embrace change because we have gone from pagers to palm pilots to cell phones to iPhones we fight becoming experts on generational differences in the work place.

It seems to be the Eric Chester might be the voice for the Why Generation. He might be the voice of reason for the boomers because he is one. He’s 50, just like us. I think I’ll reread the books because I have a long way to go.

The good news is that I’m sure his arm still hurts from all the slug bug games he lost.

Valpak Mark