by Karen Ridder photos by rachel lock photography
Boomers Marvin Spees, President, Capital City Oil Kathy Clark, Senior Vice President Retail Banking/Marketing, Capital City Bank Marlou Wegener, Chief Operating Officer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas Foundation and Manager of Community Relations, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas John Dietrick, CEO, General Counsel and Co-owner, Creative Business Solutions Chris Grandmontagne, Owner, Warehouse 414 Jerry Ney, CEO, Aldersgate Village X-ers Dusty Gary, Structural Engineer, E.I.T., Vice President, Wolf Construction Gwen Cordero, Director, Topeka Lasik Center Ryan Gigous, Financial Consultant, T&M Financial, Inc. and Vice President, Greenwave Electric, Inc Kristina Dietrick, President & Co-owner, Creative Business Solutions Amber Gentry, Vice President of Sales, Networks Plus Rico Garcia, Owner, The Jet Millennials Alissa Sheley, Director of Social Media, jones huyett Partners Jared Starkey, President & Owner, LAMP Development, LLC Andrea Engstrom, Senior Account Manager, MB Piland Fat Free Advertising Karl Fundenberger, Director of Social Media, FryeAllen, Inc. Jenni Monhollon, Owner, Jenrik Designs
and Topeka workers are feeling the strain. It’s a generation overload. Baby Boomers, Gen-Xers and Millennials are fighting for office space, and struggling to work together. “You’ve got a wider age spread than has ever been seen in the work place before,” says Cynthia Stotlar, Vice President of Training at Creative Business Solutions, a local human resources outsourcing company. Stotlar says the problem has become defined in the last few years as the economy prevented many Boomers from retiring at the same time Millennials were hitting the workplace. That back-up and overlap is friction among co-workers and stress on the job. Each generation has a unique perspective, set of experiences and ideas to bring to the table. They are defined by different values, culture and motivations for work. Companies of all sizes are now looking for tools to help smooth out the new challenge of mixing several generations of workers. Corporate trainer and retired teacher, Larry Beam, leads generational training for Leadership Topeka. Beam believes that communication is the key to making a multi-generational workplace successful. He also says people must first figure out how their own work style is affected by their generation. “You can’t understand other generations until you know where you are. All of us can have characteristics of different generations, particularly those on the cusp,” says Beam. In that spirit, TK Magazine talked to Topeka business leaders about what their generation brings to the table, and the challenges they have working across age lines.
Summer Summer2010 2010
TKTKMagazine Magazine 1515