When Jason Traynor was a junior HR administrator at Peregrine Incorporated, he faced serious challenges with a workforce of different ages. The reason for many of the issues was that GM had recently sold off the fabrication plant as part of its new business strategy to get out of auto parts manufacturing and focus solely on assembling vehicles. With the sale of the plant came the condition that any GM employee would be allowed to return to the main GM autoplex as positions came open through employee attrition. Once a GM employee left, that person had to be replaced. More times than not, GM would “call out” (recruit) 30 to 40 employees with only two or three days’ notice to Peregrine. With no pool of candidates available, Peregrine had to react quickly so as not to disrupt production at GM. Due to time constraints, prescreening was minimal. There were often no interviews, reference checks, or selection instruments. On several occasions, people would be selected on Friday night for a Monday morning start. The majority of the new hires were young and right out of high school.
These new employees, with limited postsecondary education and little, if any, factory experience, were earning $28 an hour, plus benefits, which equalled approximately $85,000 per year. The job was so lucrative that many opted out of pursuing further education. The biggest challenge came when the 18- to 19-year-olds were thrown into a working environment of preretirement 60-yearold factory workers. There was conflict and complaints about everything from the type of music choice on the shop floor to clothing tastes and inappropriate sexual comments.
One of the greatest challenges began when the senior employees began interacting with the junior employees and the new employees would attempt to “use” the system in the same way that a 25-year employee did. The junior employees learned very quickly how to manipulate the collective agreement to their advantage. Activities such as punch card fraud, not badging in or out, and leaving the facility unauthorized while still on the clock were quickly becoming the norm. According to Jason Traynor, “This is not the kind of behaviour you want in your new hires.” Having new employees acting as though they had put in 20 years of service often created conflict between the two generations as many of the senior employees felt that these “kids” had not paid their dues and were simply riding the coattails of the senior membership. Addiction problems were rampant among the new employees—many having never been exposed to the readily available supply of drugs and alcohol. Linked to this were the increasing levels of casual absenteeism. Many new hires were terminated, and a great deal of time and energy was spent with the union, which fought to reinstate these employees.
An independent third-party consulting company was asked to help manage these issues. Selfdirected workshops were initiated to teach the workers about teamwork and quality. Employee assistance programs were created to help struggling employees. A labour council was started to deal with conflict on the factory floor. The company adopted aptitude testing and joint interviewing with the union in an attempt to select employees who were more qualified. In the end, Peregrine eventually failed and went out of business.

Questions
1. Based on your experiences working with students/colleagues of different ages, do you believe that there are generational differences in attitudes toward work? Do a search to see if there is any evidence for these beliefs.
2. As the demand for autos declined, and GM and Chrysler faced bankruptcy, the benefits given to auto workers were reduced. Check out the compensation packages for new auto workers and decide if the package is attractive enough for young workers to leave school, as these young workers did.