How Each Generation Texts at Work

Ever wonder why your Boomer colleague sends a three-paragraph email about something you could have handled in a two-second Slack? Or why the Gen Z intern replies to a 200-word meeting summary with a single 👍?

It's not rude. It's not lazy. It's just a completely different operating system for professional communication — shaped by whatever technology felt normal during your formative years.

This week's trivia explores workplace communication styles across five generations, as defined by Pew Research Center. Swipe through each card and find your generation — then see how the person at the next desk actually thinks.

Card 1 — The Setup Five generations are sharing offices (and Slack channels) right now. Each one developed its communication defaults from the tools available when it entered the workforce. No generation is wrong. They just ship differently.

Card 2 — Gen Z & Gen Alpha (born 1997–2025) Gen Z normalized lowercase informality, voice notes, and the emoji-as-sentence. Gen Alpha is just starting to enter internships — and yes, "rizz" has appeared in actual status updates. Their quiz: what does a thumbs-up emoji really mean?

Card 3 — Millennials & Gen X (born 1965–1996) Millennials live in Gcal and Slack but still type "Per my last email" when they mean business. Gen X picks up the phone. Unironically. Their quiz: what do you do when a Friday 3pm meeting invite appears?

Card 4 — Boomers + Tips (born 1946–1964) Boomers read the full email thread. They use punctuation in texts. Their voicemails are detailed and sincere. They expect a response. The final card also covers four coexistence tips that work across every generational pairing — because the goal isn't to change each other, it's to stop misreading each other.