What is the communication gap between generations?

As someone born in the early 2000s (Generation Z – Gen Z), I grew up in a world shaped by phones, social media, and instant messaging, so I’m naturally more comfortable sending a quick Teams or text messaging, often with emojis and casual punctuation rather than writing a formal email. By comparison Generation X employees might prefer to make a phone call, talk to someone face to face, or send an email as their initial point of contact, and that has been their evolved learned style from previous generations.

But I don’t think it’s all about generations - communication styles can also be different depending on different personalities - some employees would prefer communicating by emails because they prefer to be more formal and want to take a more logical approach, or perhaps they are more introverted. But on the other hand, more extroverted employees love to make a phone call because of the live interaction and the quick response time they get from it.

For Gen Z, the less formal communication style feels more efficient and familiar because they have grown up with it, but it can come across as unprofessional to more experienced co-workers. A short casually written message can seem slack to them in a workplace where formality has been the culture for many years, and is the expectation of longstanding customers.

Closing this gap requires a mutual understanding. Gen Z workers can benefit from learning when a more formal tone is appropriate, especially when communicating with customers or experienced colleagues. At the same time, other generations can try to see the value in quicker, more direct communication tools.

So, if you are starting a new job with a company, ask them what their communication style is, ask them what the expectation is, and don’t presume your communication style is appropriate. In my office colleagues from Gen Y and Gen X concluded that there will always be a generational gap on how people prefer to communicate at work, but it’s about not judging, it's about working together and learning from each other.