Messaging discipline in a multigenerational environment.
Our personal requests and styles often outweigh the needs of others on the team. How can we tailor our communications to increase efficiency, net quicker responses, and lessen the burden to those we rely upon?
Communication is an essential element of professional engagement—if not the most essential—and ensuring the success of messages resonating upon receipt is vital. With four, arguably five, generations working side by side in our contemporary workforce, we continue to find frustration with how our colleagues and peers communicate. Understanding how, and why, differing generations communicate can aid in finding successful channels for collaboration.
A simple statement; perhaps you have said it? But beneath those six words, what is the statement really implying? To those identifying as generation X, millennial, or zoomer, it likely means that my time was just wasted. Srini Rao, CEO of the Unmistakable Creative blog, suggests that time is our most valuable and nonrenewable resource. Rao states that humans have 8,760 hours in a year, and although we all receive the same amount, there never seems to be enough.
The pressure to find a work-life balance is essential to today’s workforce. In 2025, the Guardian published a striking statistic that of 26,000 workers surveyed across 35 different countries, 83 percent stated that a personal-professional balance was what they valued the most—even over compensation. When we offer our employers 35-40 hours of our time per standard work week, it follows that this scarce resource should be used productively.
We have all been called to the 60-minute meeting that yielded eight minutes of actionable outcome. Former Meta (Facebook) CEO Sheryl Sandberg was famous for her agenda-driven meetings. As opposed to arbitrarily waiting for a scheduled hour-long meeting to end, once every item listed in her spiral-bound notebook was addressed, the meeting concluded.
It’s no secret that mature workers prefer meeting face-to-face, but why? Forbes suggests that boomers came of age during an era of formality and hierarchy, and value direct communication. Given that many senior management and C-suite positions are still held by baby boomers, it is easy to see why so many face-to-face meetings still occur. There is certainly value to be gained from this earnest approach to interpersonal collaboration, but keeping meetings organized, timely, and accountable are all ingredients to communication success in the workplace.
The role of texting in the workplace has become somewhat gray, as the expedience of a text message is often mistaken for efficiency. Michael Hyatt, founder and chairman of Full Focus, offers three reasons to “hate” text messages: they interrupt workflow, they cannot be forwarded, and they are easily forgotten.
For many, the proverbial email inbox equates to a “to do” list. Emails are traditionally placed in chronological order within one’s inbox, which can then be addressed as time is afforded between tasks. A text message, however, comes in with a sense of urgency. If it is not immediately responded to, it becomes lost in a lineup of conversations and check-ins. Texts are indeed an interruption, in addition to a distraction that can lead to checking other social sources once the phone is in hand.
As a manager myself, oftentimes people start with me when seeking an answer or deliverable. I make no secret of the fact that I rely heavily on my team. More often than not, I need to forward a message to receive an answer that I can share. Text messages do not easily aid in this effort, as I usually need to cut and paste, along with adding an explanation, to pass on to a colleague. Had the message been sent to me as an email, it would be a three-keystroke forward.
But texting is not just a substitute for emails. What about phone calls? In 2024, the BBC reported on a Uswitch survey outlining the behavior of 2,000 U.K. respondents. The survey showed that 25 percent of people aged 18 to 34 never answer the phone—they simply ignore the ring, search the phone number, or reply via text to avoid direct verbal contact. As far back as 2017, OpenMarket reported that 75 percent of workers in the same 18 to 34 age range would prefer an SMS-only phone to one that was voice-only.
Text messages and the universal accessibility of smart phones have led to more tools in the office. Finding a balance and an appropriate and efficient use for each tool, be it a text, an email, or just picking up the phone, along with consideration for the recipient, would lead to greater workplace satisfaction for all team members.
We make communication about ourselves, meaning that we rarely think about how a message will be received. We prioritize getting a task off our own desk and on to another’s, yet we rarely think of how our need will land on the recipient. Personally, I like to be helpful. That means when someone needs something of me, I will do my best to deliver in a timely manner. But if I have to rewrite something or offer context when seeking to address a simple question, it becomes a waste of my time to aid another person.
Give thought to how a recipient will find an answer to your inquiry. Managers will likely rely upon subordinates to find answers. Just because you outrank someone in the professional workplace does not mean you can capriciously define the terms of your communication channels. If you give thought to how you choose to communicate, you’ll likely receive the answer to your question more swiftly.
The world has become small, creating greater opportunities for a networked, global workplace. As retirements of mature workers are delayed parallel to younger workers skipping degree programs in place of quicker entry into the workforce, we are increasingly tasked to collaborate across preferred and generationally comfortable communication styles.
In the spirit of coming together as a networked team, the next time you reach out to a colleague, pause to consider what modality would best connect with them. Whether it amounts to a place of discomfort in picking up the phone or responding to a department-wide text chain, it will offer an opportunity to grow as a collaborative team member. Additionally, the effort serves as an act of professional respect and will ultimately lead to a quicker and more desirable outcome. And maybe, just maybe, diverse—multigenerational—communication will begin to seem less extraordinary.
