The coming together of different generations in a workplace can be an opportunity for everyone to increase productivity and collaboration in the service of the organization, Fast Company reported.

Technology is one example of an area in which the generations can help one another. Older workers less adept at technology can get help in adapting from Gen Z-ers, while the younger workers can get advice from their elders on how to operate in an analog environment without the latest digital tools.

“We used to be able to work without technology, so there are things we can do,” said Donna Butts, executive director of intergenerational advocacy organization Generations United.

Lindsey Pollak, a career and workplace expert with a focus on generational diversity, noted that different generations have different ways of communicating, so “it’s about understanding and accepting and asking how the other person wants to receive the message.” Younger generations are “used to expressing themselves over technology,” she said, while older workers may not be.

While Gen Z-ers may be branded as “spoiled” or “needy” for not being afraid to ask for what they want from employers, “We’re just doing the things that other generations were too afraid to do, and also probably couldn’t do at those times,” said DeAndre Brown of TikTok.

Brown does fault his cohort for being impatient, and for being quick to leave an imperfect job. “You have to remember, things don’t change overnight,” he said.

The tight labor market may be emboldening Gen Z-ers, Underwood said, who warned that they could learn from previous generations about career loyalty, which could be good for them in the long run.

She also advised against making sweeping generalizations about this generation of workers because they are “still too new to the workplace. We still haven’t been able to measure the strengths and weaknesses that they bring.”