Breaking down generational barriers so we can kick ass and have fun at work

In corporate offices all over the world, multi-generational Corporate Morons© strive to overcome barriers, break down silos, and find creative ways to deal with printer issues. As we try to make meaningful connections and achieve desired business outcomes, I can’t help but wonder, can we skip to the good part?

Thanks to technological advancements, globalization and the speed at which the world is changing, organizations must leverage the skills and experiences of all generational morons to enable high-performing teams.

However, most of us spend an awful lot of time slinging insults about avocado toast, $7 coffees and typing with two fingers, instead of finding ways to connect and optimize performance.

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Skipping to the good part…

So, instead of making assumptions, spreading bias and focusing on our differences, what if we spent that time getting to know one another?

What if we shared a laugh?

I used to smoke in my office

Let’s head over to the break room where Expert Boomer Moron, Ray, is telling a story about how smoking used to be allowed in offices, planes and restaurants in unenclosed smoking ‘sections.’ Occupational health & safety was not much of a thing back then.

“Neither was psychological safety and mental health!” Power GenX Moron, Brian, would exclaim. Back then, no one dared discuss mental health issues in the workplace. No one knew what psychological safety was.

Only now, after participating in the Movember campaign in support of men’s mental health for the past five years at work, was Brian beginning to understand and address his ideas about mental health in the workplace and the value of sharing personal experiences with others.

I typed an embarrassing password into a Teams chat

Next, Brian would remind the multi-generational Corporate Morons© already assembled in the break room about the time he shared his password with 432 colleagues in a Microsoft Teams chat. Not realizing the Teams App opened automatically when you started your computer, Brian had typed ‘ImTooSexyformyCat*95’ into an all-hands Teams chat.

Everyone would agree that that was pretty funny.

Prisha, an Advanced Xennial Moron would admit she did the same thing last week, albeit with a less embarrassing password. A group of Intermediate Millenial Morons would also fess up that they’ve done this. This tech mishap had crossed all generations and spread through the workplace faster than a high-frequency stock trading algorithm!

Basic GenZ Moron, Danielle, would advise that this annoying feature was a global phenomenon, having received several memes from her friends and 8-year-old nephew on the topic.

Danielle would contact the IT Service Desk for the instructions on how to disable the annoying feature to share with the team and we would all head back to our desks to change our passwords to something less embarrassing.

After changing our passwords, Expert Boomer Moron, Ray would start a group chat for the team and admit that he was the cause of the most recent cybersecurity breach. He was trying to watch a TikTok video of workplace trust fall fails and downloaded unauthorized third-party software releasing malware throughout the company’s systems.

Prisha laughed at the blunder and typed, “That was you? You’re behind the latest rounds of TPS Reports we need to complete?” into the chat.

What is a TPS Report?

“What is a TPS Report?” queried Danielle. Incredulous, Prisha swiftly typed, “It’s from the movie Office Space!” Prisha explained in the chat that TPS stood for, ‘Totally Pointless Summary Report.’

As she typed her made-up response for the acronym into the chat she realized she didn’t know what ‘TPS’ actually stood for. A quick Google search led her to Wikipedia and two results:

• Test Procedure Specification, and
• Test Program Set.

Prisha shared her search results with the team and they concluded they liked Prisha’s version best. The other versions were best left for software engineers and movie directors to mull over.

The team agreed that the movie Office Space should be mandatory viewing for all Corporate Morons© and that it would now be part of the unofficial onboarding package.

Wait, where did my desk phone phone go?

After all the talk about Microsoft Teams, group chats, and TPS Reports, Brian suddenly realizes his desk phone is missing. His first-ever question in the Teams chat would be to ask if anyone else was missing their desk phone. Prisha joked that she wasn’t ‘missing’ her phone because she’d never learned to use it anyway.

She forwarded an email from IT. The email was dated 6 months prior and stated that ‘desk phones were being replaced by smartphone technology.’ Had it been that long since he had picked up the phone to call someone?

The Corporate Morons© in the Teams chat would agree that learning new technologies could be challenging, funny and sometimes stressful.

It takes just one person who is brave enough to be vulnerable, to share one story, one experience, that will inspire others to do the same.

The good part

And when that one person does, colleagues across generations will begin sharing funny stories about what we messed up this week so others can avoid making the same mistakes. We will share our challenges, experiences and insights.

We will share a laugh, and before you know it, we will begin to feel like we all belong to something greater than ourselves. We will be working at a place where everyone feels safe sharing their stories. A place where we look out for each other and work together to create meaningful work for all of the Corporate Morons© that work there.

And wouldn’t that be great?

If all else fails, we can bond over our mistrust of printers.

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Are you a Corporate Moron©? Find out here:

The Five Types of Corporate Morons© at Work

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Originally published in Psychology of Workplaces on Medium: Multi-Generational Corporate Morons© Skip to the Good Part on September 28, 2024.