Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences: On working together when you’re generations apart

By In the Loop • May 30, 2019

Mayo Clinic is a unique place: the culture, the values, the people. "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences" explores the experiences of Mayo Clinic staff as they navigate life personally and professionally. Sharing these experiences increases understanding of others and ultimately contributes to finding connections, belonging and inclusion at work.

In this episode of "Mayo Clinic Employee Experiences," you'll hear from Jane Jacobs and Rielyn Campbell as they share their experiences of working together while being generations apart. Jacobs, of Media Support Services, talks about being a baby boomer and the stereotypes that go along with that generation. Campbell, also of Media Support Services, discusses life as a millennial and the perceptions and misperceptions her generation faces.

Read the transcript, edited for length and clarity, below:

CAMPBELL: I strive really hard to get to know each person's story because that will tell you a lot more about that person than any stereotype will.

NARRATOR: In this episode, Jane Jacobs, director of Print and Electronic Publishing, and Rielyn Campbell, an analyst programmer in Intranet Publishing and Technology, discuss working together while being generations apart.

JACOBS: I have worked at Mayo for 21 years. I am right on the dividing line between being a baby boomer and being Generation X.

I think there's a perception that my generation is not receptive to change, slow to move, very much stuck in, "We've always done it this way, so we always have to do it this way." I find it frustrating that it's a broad-brush generalization.

CAMPBELL: I get lumped in with the millennials and that perception that they are entitled or lazy, or not hardworking. I've been treated on occasion in that manner. Sometimes it didn't matter how hard I worked. It was never enough. I just couldn't break past that perception. And that's really been a challenge.

JACOBS: When you start to think about generational differences, one of the things I've observed is you can really start to make a difference in the realm of communication. It's not necessarily that you have somebody who doesn't work hard or somebody who won't change. It's communication style and how you approach someone, and understanding their frame of reference.

CAMPBELL: I completely agree with that. I feel like you should never prejudge somebody on a stereotype anyway. Use it as a way to understand where they are coming from, and maybe find a better way of communicating and working with them.

JACOBS: I think it's easy as a leader to become complacent. I think working with someone who is younger who hasn't been in the space as long brings a really valuable, fresh perspective, and helps us grow and move forward.

CAMPBELL: I appreciate being able to contact you and say: "I'm having this issue. What do you think I should do? What's the best way to approach this person?" Jane has been a wonderful resource for that. She is very open to ideas.

JACOBS: I think one of the challenges is — especially for people in my generation is — you hear a new idea and you think: "That's not how we do things. We've always done it this way." It's to stop yourself before you utter those words. We may not be smarter. We're definitely not younger. But we do have experience that we have gathered over time. It is beneficial to — instead of just shutting it down — engage in the conversation and say: "That's a very interesting idea. Here's been my experience with that." But that doesn't necessarily preclude us from trying something or taking a new approach, or taking a second run at something if we've already done it.

CAMPBELL: Sometimes it's not so much a generation thing as just what age you are, like what point you are in your life in comparison.

JACOBS: I always felt like I needed to apologize for a lot of the issues our generation has not managed to solve. We still have a glass ceiling. We still have gender inequity. You would think by now we would have figured that out, and yet we don't. As women, we don't always support each other generation to generation, as well. You work through your career to get to a certain point, but there are still people coming up behind you. When is the right time for you to move aside and let them take the leadership reins? I think that's an interesting challenge.

CAMPBELL: We came into a job market that was extremely competitive. We were always told when we were growing up, "If you want to get a good paying job, you have to go to college." Now we're burdened with these really high student loan payments, and there are just no jobs available. We're competing against so many people that you have to be a saint and do so much extra work just to get a job and make yourself stand out. I don't think that's a challenge the generations before us had to face.

JACOBS: It's competitive, too, because the older generations are healthier. They're not moving out of the job market and freeing up those jobs. They may have a lot of good reasons that they're not moving into retirement. They may need the health care. They may not have the retirement income. They may have a millennial living in their basement, which I will have in about a month — again trying to get him launched. It's interesting how the exact same set of circumstances in the world can put different generations into conflict with each other.

CAMPBELL: I've known several people who have retired. They either retire and come back, or they retire and move on to another job. They're collecting a retirement but also working a part-time job. After working so many years, I'm sure it a huge change, and they miss that social connection.

JACOBS: When you start to think of generational stereotypes, it's easy to judge by color of someone's hair, or how smooth or how wrinkled their skin is. But it's always comes back to, "We're individuals and everybody has their unique story and their unique set of circumstances." How do you be aware that you may be making a judgment about somebody based on the way they look or the way they move, or the amount of time they've been here without really taking a look below the surface?

I'm sitting here with reddish-brown hair. I've been fully gray since I was in my late 30s. But the perception of being gray at a younger age is not helpful to me in my career in how I want to be treated as a person. So I color my hair.

CAMPBELL: From my generation's perspective, if I had colored my hair purple, or wore a bunch of piercings or tattoos, I think that would make the stereotype of my generation even more challenging for me. It would really bring it to the forefront. All of those stereotypes and perceptions would just be even stronger and even more difficult to overcome.

JACOBS: Our culture, for better or worse — and it will evolve in the future — is really run on relationships. Communication is the key. I have two sons who are both millennials, and we text. I can even Instagram. But they know that if they're going to text me, it had better be properly spelled and punctuated, or they won't get an answer. I don't do the abbreviations and stuff. I'm still kind of one of those holding on to the English language. There is just no way I'm going to compromise. They will, in their generation, do things differently, and that's fine.

CAMPBELL: I've had some experiences where I feel like my generation is a little more laid back, a little more relaxed, a little more casual. I've actually been criticized for how I sit in my seat in my chair when I work. I can kind of lounge and slump. That's sometimes perceived that I'm not working hard. I think there are some times of conflict and sometimes it's just behavior — the image we're projecting.

JACOBS: We boomers have to take responsibility because we raised the Gen X and the millennials, right? If we're looking at behavior from younger generations and going: "This is awful. This is horrible. How did it get to be that way?" we really should go look in the mirror, and say, "What did we raise them to be?" We have responsibility for these generations that are coming behind us. It is a good and healthy thing that they are different then we are.

CAMPBELL: The other thing that's beneficial and advantageous about having the different generations is the millennials grew up with technology. It's entwined in our lives. You don't have to be aware of all the technology. Let us be aware of it because we're so familiar and comfortable with it. As long as you keep an open mind to it, maybe there is a better way. I think we should always try to do better and improve on everything. Isn't that what Mayo's about?

JACOBS: We will learn as we grow together, right?

CAMPBELL: I think the key is just being patient with each other. When I was growing up, my mom would ask me questions about how to do things on the computer. I would get so frustrated because I'm like: "Why is this so difficult for you? It's so obvious to me." I think the key is just being patient, and that goes both ways. As long as we're both willing to learn and listen to each other, I think there's a lot to gain there.

JACOBS: I think willingness to change is on the individual to be open and to be receptive. Transparency is also a great solution — to be able to sit with someone and say: "I feel like we're not communicating together. I feel like I'm not being able to tell you what I want to tell you. I'm not able to hear from you what I'm hoping to hear from you. What could I do differently?" And put the onus on yourself.

CAMPBELL: Inherently, everybody wants the same thing. We all want to get along. We all want to be understood. I think the transparency is extremely important. Just be honest and up front.

JACOBS: I think that's one thing that Mayo's culture does for us. It brings us around to, "The needs of the patient come first." We have our eight RICH TIES values. We're here in large part because we say: "This is how I want to live. This is how I want to work. This is what I believe." It's about how we work together to get that common shared vision.

NARRATOR: Does your work unit represent different generations? Connect with them, and discuss their experiences and communication preferences.

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