Generation Gap Creates Office Tension

With Generation Y officially surpassing baby boomers in the work force, a new stress has entered the workplace: the office generation gap, especially when you have a boss who is much younger than you.

(ABC News)

"Good Morning America" workplace contributor Tory Johnson visited South Cobb High School in Austell, Ga., which has a 31-year-old principal, to explore the issue.

Some of the teachers at Cobb, which the young principal Grant Riviera runs, started their careers when Riviera was only 8 years old.

"As our work force continues to get older and older, we continue to bring in younger employees," he said. "Those personalities, those values and those beliefs do in fact, clash… It's critically important that we be sensitive to those generational differences."

But Johnson went in to find out how his co-workers really feel about having a younger boss.

"I thought he was [too] inexperienced to handle a school like ours," 55-year-old teacher Beatrice Johnson said.

Nichole Neloms, a 36-year-old teacher, doesn't necessarily agree.

"I don't think that just because someone has been there, or someone's older, or someone has 25, 30 years of experience, that they're guaranteed to be the one that's going to be most effective," she said.

Evie Lewis, who is 60 years old, said, "In my 22 years in this county, we never had a principal that young that I can remember."

Taneesha George, a 24-year-old teacher, said that older teachers may have struggles of their own.

"In my experience, older teachers are generally what they call, 'stuck in their ways,'" she said.

The World of Technology

Possibly the biggest divide between the young and old in the workplace is technology.

"I remember when we had a laptop training, some of the older teachers weren't even sure where, like, the on switches were," George said.

"So, you know, I am… a techno-idiot -- the worst, in my personal opinion," Lewis said. "But I don't think that affects my teaching in a negative way."