A Day as a Gen Y Imposter
by Linda Gravett, Ph.D., SPHR

(Commentary by Robin Throckmorton, MA, SPHR
the Radio Baby Imposter)  

Linda:
In October, I had the opportunity to present at a conference on the East coast with my friend and co-author of Bridging the Generations Gap, Robin Throckmorton.  We were invited to speak on the topic of recruiting and retaining the four different generations in today’s workplace, based on my interviews of over 500 people in each of those generations over a 5-year time span.  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 (and I’m in my early 50’s):  jeans, flip-flops, pink-streaked 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 misplaced 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:
Neither of us were really acceptable nor comfortable.  I was feeling very overdressed and extremely hot with turtle necks AND a wool jacket.  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 you do have to picture her in this get up 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, trying 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 attire 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 paint our garage?”  This was a new – and uncomfortable - feeling for me, a Baby Boomer who is always well coifed, perfectly groomed, and in a matching outfit just to go 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 them coming and going.  And, we truly were not preparing for our presentation but putting on a show.  Folks didn’t know if we were 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 was 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-known speaker”?! 

Robin:
Linda didn’t mention that I also had to play Vanna White and show everyone who “Doctor” Gravett was since they all assumed it was me.  This was when I noticed the biggest gasp or 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 Baby Boomer and a Generation Y employee.  As we presented the research and shared excerpts 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 pink streaks out of my hair (they were affixed with bobbi pins), exchanged the flip-flops for low heels, and put on a wool blazer instead of the denim jacket.  One lady sang out, “She’s changing into one of us!”   Towards the end of our program, more people started directing questions my way.

Robin:
Now, the true gasp came when folks realized how old I really was.  Underneath the getup that I had on, you couldn’t tell just how old I might be.  So, when I pulled off the wig, jacket and turtle neck and they saw I was a “young” woman in a black dress 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 might say.

Linda:
Here’s one final interesting piece.  At the end of a 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.

Robin:
We’ve been writing a book to be released in Fall/Winter 2006 that will help guide all individuals (HR, Managers, Co-workers) on how to understand, respect, and communicate with the different generations in the workplace.  And, as our labor market tightens up, the book will be helpful in addressing how to create a workplace that will attract and retain individuals in all generations.  The key is that the book is written from both of our perspectives – Gen Xer and Baby Boomer.

Linda:
I learned on this day in 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 after our presentation asked us to keep sending out the message that great ideas, creativity, and know-how can come from employees in what appears to some to be strange packaging.  As for myself, I have to say that flip-flops are truly 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 seen me very 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 the statements “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 story where I have a chance to be sure I don’t match. J

Linda:
If you have questions or comments about this article, please email me at Linda@gravett.com (or even Robin at Robin@StrategicHRinc.com).