Close this window

The following is an excerpt from Robin and my book, Bridging the Generation Gap.  To order our book, click on Announcements on my home page at www.gravett.com and you’ll go directly to the book order page for www.amazon.com.

(Linda)
At a recent conference, Robin and I were invited to speak on the topic of recruiting and retaining the four different generations in today’s workplace, based on our book research.  Conference attendees spanned all four generations, but the average age was early 40’s.

We decided to do something a little different for our presentation.  Robin, in her 30’s, dressed as many of us in this country stereotypically think of a woman in her late 50’s.  She donned a white wig, half glasses, tweed blazer and gray turtleneck, pearls and sensible shoes.  I decided to dress as the stereotypical 20-something:  jeans, flip-flops, pink-streaked spiked hair, cropped top, and denim jacket.

(Robin)
What Linda didn’t mention to you was how hard it was for us to come up with our outfits.  She is a Baby Boomer who set out to dress like a “younger generation”.  To really show a difference, we had to go to the extreme stereotype of a Gen Y.  On the other hand, as a Gen Xer, I attempted to mimic the “older generations” but everything I picked out was nearly something I would wear.  As my 39-year-old husband said, “it’s because we are nearly 50 and many of our friends ARE.”  So, I attempted to become the Radio Baby imposter that Linda described above with multiple pairs of glasses that I constantly pretended to misplace and bright red lipstick.

(Linda)
Although our presentation wasn’t until after lunch, we decided to arrive at the conference location a couple of hours early.  We began by going over our presentation in a corner of the hotel lobby, near where conference attendees were having lunch.  People walking by glanced at Robin without taking much notice.  After all, she was dressed “properly” for a business conference.  When eyes rested on me, however, my appearance was clearly not acceptable!

(Robin)
Believe it or not, I actually made Linda stomp on her shirt in the hotel room to make it a little less “pressed” looking.  But can you imagine her in her outfit relaxed on a couch in the hotel lobby with an iPod in one ear, chomping on a wad of gum, with our presentation slides sprawled out all over the place.

Me, on the other hand, I was feeling very overdressed and extremely hot with a turtleneck AND a wool jacket.  Comfort was definitely not an option as I tried to play my part sitting cross-legged and proper with my notes perfectly stacked on my lap when I’d rather be relaxed, listening to music and tuning out the world.

(Linda)
Part of the reason passers by did a double take was surely because of my youthful attired as a (clearly) 40+ woman.  The looks sent this message:  “why are you at a business conference dressed like we would dress to clean our house or garage?”  This was a new – and uncomfortable – feeling for me, a Baby Boomer who is always well coifed, perfectly groomed, and in a coordinating outfit just to go out to my mailbox!

(Robin)
You would have been amazed at the looks we got – BOTH OF US.  We were facing each other so we could see people coming and going.  We truly were not preparing for our presentation but putting on a show.  Folks didn’t know if we were for real or dressed for Halloween.  When they’d walk by  they’d stare, point, whisper, and even come back a second time to see if they saw what they thought they saw.  It was fun.

(Linda)
We arrived in the room where we were to speak about 30 minutes early, as participants were coming back and settling in from lunch.  We elected to sit in the back of the room for a few minutes to wait for our hostess to finish a conversation so we could greet her and start setting up for our presentation.  As I went to retrieve an empty chair, I found that I was the recipient of cold stares.  One fellow, who looked to be in his 40’s, said incredulously, “are you here to observe our conference?”  I just nodded, smiled, and said that I was observing at the moment.  Robin, in the meantime, found an empty chair with no comments from anyone.

The person who invited us to speak had taken us to dinner the previous evening, so she knew us (and what we planned to do for our presentation).  She finished her conversation, came back to Robin and me, and greeted each of us warmly with a hug and a hello.  I overheard one lady say, “is she a speaker?!”  I’m pretty sure the lady wasn’t referring to Robin.

Robin and I went to the front of the room and began our prep, setting up the laptop, putting handouts on the tables, and preparing a couple of flip charts.  As we passed out handouts, I observed that Robin was met with smiles and hellos.  I was met with a few smiles, but more stares at the pink streaks in my hair and my flip-flops.

(Robin)
Now, those of you that know Linda and have seen her speak at any event know what she is describing is extremely unusual for her.  Whenever we co-present, she is swarmed the minute she walks in the room with individuals wanting to meet her and ask her questions even before the presentation.  While we set up, I got lots of smiles (I thought it must be the wig) but did get questions about what we were presenting and how interesting it was going to be.  If anyone needed anything, they asked me.  I’ve presented with Linda before so this was a different experience for me since she usually gets this attention.

(Linda)
It came time to be introduced.  I was introduced first, beginning with “Dr. Linda Gravett is a nationally-known speaker and author…”  There was an audible gasp from some people in the room – how could someone who looked like me be a “nationally-know speaker?!

(Robin)
Linda didn’t mention that I also had to play Vanna White and show everyone who Dr. Gravett was, since they all assumed it was me.  This was when I noticed the biggest gasp and bit of confusion – “she’s the Doctor and nationally-known speaker; I thought the other gal was.”

(Linda)
The response to Robin and me continued to be different as we went through our program.  We did, of course, let participants know right away that we were each dressed as the “stereotypical notion” of a Radio Baby and a Generation Y employee.  As we presented the researched are shared concepts from our book, people directed most of their questions to Robin.  That is, until we started metamorphosing into our real selves.  As the program started winding down, Robin took off the white wig and shook out her shoulder length blond hair.  She took off the bi-focals and the tweed blazer and turtleneck, revealing a trendy knit top that is what you’d expect to see a person in her 30’s wearing.  I took the removable pink streaks out of my hair, exchanged the flip-flops for low heels, and put on a wood blazer to replace my denim jacket.  One lady sang out, “she’s changing into one of us!”  Towards the end of the program, people started directing questions my way.

(Robin)
Now, the true gasp came when folks realized how old I really am.  Underneath the getup that I had on, you couldn’t tell my true age.  So, when I pulled off the wig, jacket, and turtleneck and they saw I was a “young” woman in a black outfit with a silver belt, everyone’s jaw dropped at least two inches.  It was fun!!!  Truly, what I was wearing, black top, long black skirt, black boots, and a silver chain belt could have quickly been met with a black jacket and looked as professional as needed for a conference presentation, or so any other Gen Xer like myself might say.

(Linda)
Here’s one final interesting piece.  At the end of the presentation, people typically come up to speakers and ask questions or make comments.  The participants that came up to me were in their 20’s.  The people that came up to Robin were in their 40’s and 50’s.  Typically when we co-present, it’s the other way around.  Yet we both wrote the book as equal partners.

I learned that day last October that one’s appearance in the world of business can definitely make a difference.  I learned how 20-somethings with body piercings and streaked hair can be discounted simply because they’re not wearing the Corporate suit.  The people who came up to me asked us to keep sending out the message that great ideas, creativity, and know-how can come from employees in what appears to be strange packaging.  As for myself, I have to say that flip-flops are extremely comfortable.

(Robin)
We all grew up hearing “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but also “dress to impress” and “your first impression will last forever.”  If you met me growing up, you’d have seen me as trendy and even odd.  When I entered the business world, I threw away my Madonna and Cindi Lauper clothes and switched to blue and grey conservative business suits.  Fortunately, styles have become a little more casual and fun.  But looking young for my age and hearing statements like, “I have underwear older than you” or “how could you know anything, you’re younger than my daughter,” I’ve learned you have to dress extremely professional and conform or you won’t gain respect for having any credibility or expertise.  So, you won’t catch me wearing my flip flops at a presentation but I’ll still keep them for the trip to my mailbox or grocery store, and you can be sure they won’t match my outfit!

If you have any comments or questions on this article, feel free to contact me at Linda@gravett.com.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Dr.  Gravett is founder and Senior Partner of Gravett and Associates, an international organization development consulting firm headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Her email address is Linda@gravett.com.

Robin Throckmorton, M.A., SPHR, is a Senior Human Resources Consultant with Strategic Human Resources, Inc., a human resources consulting firm headquartered in Loveland, Ohio.  He e-mail address is Robin@StrategicHRinc.com.

this window)