Q: My middle managers complain about Gen Z employees wearing headphones in the office and refusing to pick up the phone. I know such practices might be unfamiliar to them, but they are really annoying me. What can I do?

A: Interesting question, and a topic that’s growing in importance with changing demographics. The fact is, people are working longer and having fewer kids. Old is here to stay. But there are new young people coming into the workforce, bringing different outlooks and behaviours.

Your managers have to learn to lead multi-generational workforces in a way that gets each generation to contribute to their full potential.

Our institute did some research recently showing that managers often have a bias towards hiring younger workers, rather than people over 50. They can view older workers as being averse to technology and having health issues. On the flip side, younger workers can be seen as being “quiet quitters”, who won’t help out beyond their job description.

My first piece of advice is to ask yourself what your expectations are of your workforce? Are your middle managers reacting to criticism from you about younger team members preferring to email or WhatsApp rather than phone a client? Or are they bringing their own definition of what’s acceptable and imposing it on younger colleagues?

Is there an actual problem?

Once you’ve clearly set your expectations, it’s time to think about what you need to achieve for your business and your customers. If you need staff to pick up the phone — regardless of age — because that’s what your customers expect, then that has to be clearly communicated.

If not, then perhaps it’s time to encourage your managers to think less about policing behaviour that is new to them and think positively about the differences between generations; and an opportunity to make your organisation more inclusive, and less subject to that enemy of productivity — groupthink.

Same thing on the headphones. Are your managers telling you that younger staff are not paying attention to the dynamics of the office? Are they missing important conversations?

If so, then it’s time to talk about headphones as a distraction. If not, or if some of them find it easier to focus on their work when they cancel out the noise around them, then managers need to understand that Gen Z is different, not worse or better, just different.

Form teams on the diagonal

The fact is, different generations have different ideas and approaches to their work. The best workplaces will blend the positive bits from each.

Getting them together to solve common problems is what I call “forming teams on the diagonal”. The young people benefit from the others’ experience, build resilience and learn to take on feedback; the older people can get an injection of innovation and energy.

Reverse mentoring programmes are another way to achieve this and work best when people from different departments are teamed up.

Pass the torch

In the end there will be times when one generation is holding the next one back. Just think of the US presidential election campaign recently. Chief executives have talked to me about long-serving middle managers who are stifling innovation. In these situations, you need to train your managers to adapt and be aware of different cultures and values. And sometimes it will simply be the time to let someone else take over.

Ann Francke is chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute