There’s a common belief that Baby Boomers and Gen Xers are less tech-savvy than Millennial employees. 

Didn’t we all see in movies the out-of-touch older worker who couldn’t seem to figure out how to turn on his laptop or send an email?

As a result, the bias of age has become one of today’s major challenges in the workplace.

In fact, age-related charges make up a growing number of complaints (between 23,000 to 25,000 a year) filed at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

Yet, things get even worse if you look at the tech field alone. The 2018 Dice Diversity and Inclusion report shows that 76% of US workers believe ageism exists in the tech industry. Another 43% of professionals aged 36–39 think their age would be an issue if they tried to get a new job in tech. 

But—

Don’t let the buzz fool you. Older workers can handle and adapt to new technologies as well as younger people. To prove it, LiveCareer decided to explore how Baby Boomers’ and Gen Xers’ IT skills actually compare to those of Millennials in practical terms.

Below are some of the study’s key findings:

• A full 95% of Millennials, 89% of Gen Xers, and 81% of Baby Boomers consider themselves tech-savvy.
• Only 63% of Baby Boomers grow frustrated with technology, compared to 67% of Gen Xers and 72% of Millennials.
• A full 75% of Baby Boomers use a personal device or application for work, just barely falling behind Gen Xers (82%) and Millennials (86%).
• Nearly 76% of Baby Boomers and 91% of Gen Xers have become more proficient with using tech thanks to the prolonged remote working situation brought on by the pandemic.
• Yet, 56% of employees aged 57–75 haven’t attended any tech-related training in the last year.

Keep scrolling to learn more.

Bio

Max Woolf is a career expert at LiveCareer. His insights, advice, and commentary have been published by Forbes, Inc., MSN, Yahoo, USA Today, Fox News, AOL, The Ladders, TechRepublic, Reader’s Digest, Glassdoor, Stanford, G2, and 200+ other outlets. Max’s mission is to help job seekers from all around the world develop their skills, find good career opportunities, and land jobs quickly and without much effort. You can hit him up on LinkedIn.