BUSINESS

Don't fit in at work? Father-daughter team helps bridge workplace generation gap

Sarah Hauer
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Mark Burrall and his daughter Carey Burrall lead workshops as a baby boomer millennial team for young people about navigating the workplace.

She's a millennial. He's a baby boomer.

She wants to text message. He initially rejected the technology.

Just in their own father-daughter relationship, Carey and Mark Burrall recognize how generational differences affect how people interact. Together, the father and daughter want to train the next wave of workplace leaders.

The two comprise the Milwaukee contingent of #2020Beyond, a yearlong development program for young workers that started in Chicago. More than 200 people have completed the program in Chicago.

The idea behind it all is that young people desire a different workplace environment than their parents do. They have different expectations, different motivations, different ways of going about their workday. As numerous businesses go through a revolution in how they produce their products and reach the public, they are also facing changes just as revolutionary within their workforce.

The most commonly cited reason for differences is growing up with technology like computers, the internet and cellphones. But Jesse Calloway, a former vice president at Philip Morris who studies workplace leadership, said the differences in the workplace are more layered.

Calloway, a late stage baby boomer, said many employers — and experienced workers — are used to a transactional relationship with employees. Instructions are given, employees work and then get paid.

Contrast that with a transformational workplace — what young people desire. In a transformational workplace, leaders motivate workers by listening to them, providing feedback and developing employees.

"They don't intimidate or criticize," Calloway said. "They make you feel good as an employee."

He also said the two styles are not mutually exclusive.

"Transformational leaders need to set expectations," he said. "But it's how you encourage the employees to achieve those expectations that's different."

Young workers seek to understand how their roles fit into a greater company mission and how it affects their community. They want meaningful, not menial, employment. When applying for jobs, people in the workforce's youngest generation place more emphasis on opportunities to learn and advance.

The need to address these differences is immediate.

Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1997, are now the largest generation in the workforce. Many are on the cusp on taking leadership positions, if they're not already there. And some are creating and operating their own businesses in the collaborative style they prefer.

Carey Burrall views her role as a translator because she’s on the edge of generations at 35. Her dad is 68.

For their program, he draws on his 35-year career in sales and general management. He is a chairman of The Executive Committee, a professional development organization, and also facilitated programs for family business successors. 

"I think that a lot of people in my generation looked at millennials the same way that some of my generation looked at a computer," Mark Burrall said. "They said it's not going to last. We don't have to deal with it. That internet thing — forget it. And I still know people who don't have email. But the fact of the matter is this is the largest generation. They're coming at us like a wave." 

Some companies try to bridge gaps with in-house programs.

Law firm Godfrey & Kahn pairs new associates with experienced lawyers. Meg Kurlinski, 38, mentors Katie Mills, an associate who started working at the firm during her time at Marquette University Law School. Mills, 27, graduated in spring 2015.

Just like Carey Burrall, Kurlinski often acts as a translator between mentees and older upper management. 

Mills counts on Kurlinski, and her 12 years at the firm, to help guide her through the beginnings of practicing law. Mills said she often asks procedural questions about workflow in a pyramid structure like a law firm.

Mills said the questions are ones “you don’t want to ask anyone.”

Kurlinski, who also had a mentor when she joined the firm, said the program encourages retention. 

"Having been so far out from law school, you can see where the cohort went," she said. "I'm one of the few that's still in private practice. I always felt like I was learning and growing at a comfortable pace. I do think that a portion of why I stayed was having a strong mentor."

Other companies are just picking up on those ideas.

Already in the Chicago workshops, the Burralls saw how the program could bring about organizational change.

One participant couldn't say how her work contributed to top goals at her organization. She was sent back to work with a homework assignment: Learn her company's top priorities.

"She went to the CEO and said I don't know the mission of this company," Carey Burrall said. "So now she's being tasked with teaching the entire workforce what the vision is." 

This step was vital to the employer retaining young employees.

The Burralls start the Milwaukee session in October with a dozen participants. Employers sponsor the participants, paying $4,900 per person for the 12-session program. In some ways, the Burralls job is to persuade employers to invest.  

"We have to prepare both generations," he said.