Patterns, not pigeonholes: life stage matters as much as birth year

Alastair Greener FPSA Generational communication expert, author and President of the PSA UK and Ireland 2026 Published 5 November 2026 · 6 min read

Generational patterns are a useful starting point, but life stage and exposure shape behaviour as much as the year someone was born. In our 2024 UK survey, 81% of Gen Z workers aged 18 to 27 want career advancement, against 33% of Gen X and 20% of Baby Boomers, a gap that is likely to reflect career stage as well as generation. AI use tells the same story: an LSE and Protiviti study found trained Gen X workers gaining more from AI than untrained Gen Z.

Life stage shapes how people behave at work as much as the year they were born, which makes generational patterns a good starting point and a poor shortcut. In our Communication Habits and Preferences 2024 survey, 81% of Gen Z workers aged 18 to 27 want career advancement, against 33% of Gen X and 20% of Baby Boomers. Much of that gap is likely to reflect where people are in their working lives.

Who wants career advancementShare of workers in each generation who want career advancement

Gen Z, aged 18 to 2781%
Gen X33%
Baby Boomers20%

Base: UK workers Source: Communication Habits and Preferences 2024

A 22-year-old entering the workplace will approach work differently from a 52-year-old, and their generation is only part of the reason. A new graduate is working out independence and ambition, while someone mid-career may be balancing work with family or caring responsibilities. Forget that, and we end up blaming a generation for a stage of life.

Is it your generation or your stage of life?

Usually both. Pew Research Center distinguishes three forces. Age effects come with the stage of life you have reached: as Kim Parker of Pew put it in May 2023, "each stage of life comes with a unique set of experiences." Period effects hit every age group at once, as a recession or a pandemic does. Cohort effects are the generational ones, left by what was happening in the world during a generation's formative years.

In my book I explore what I call the five circles of generational influence, and how important someone's life stage is. A generation is usually identifiable by the circumstances in which it grew up, such as family life, local influences, education and work, yet each individual has their own traits too.

When I spoke at an HR forum in 2023, I compared the generations to pizzas. They may share common ingredients, a base, tomatoes and cheese, and be cooked in the same way, yet they are far from uniform in flavour and texture. After all, we don't all want the same pizza.

What does life stage look like in the data?

Look again at that ambition gap. Wanting to move up is what you would expect at the start of a career, and what you would expect to fade as retirement comes into view; the youngest Baby Boomers are in their sixties in 2026.

Mid-career shows up too: 48% of Millennial workers manage other people, against 39% of all workers.

Our 2023 study of more than 100 HR managers found the same shape from the employer's side. 52% find commitment easiest to manage in 41 to 60 year olds, and 51% retention, against 13% and 10% for under-25s. That may say as much about the early years of a career as about any generation.

What does AI use tell us about age and exposure?

AI is the clearest current example. In our 2024 survey, 59% of Gen Z have used AI platforms such as ChatGPT, against 48% of Millennials and 13% of Baby Boomers. That looks generational until you ask what people use it for.

Ofcom's Adults' Media Use and Attitudes report, published on 2 April 2026, found 54% of UK adults using tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini, including 79% of 16 to 24 year olds. Among 16 to 24 year old users, 51% use AI for study. That is a life stage talking: students have essays to write.

At work the order changes. Employment Hero's Work That Works research among 1,000 business leaders and 1,200 employees of UK small and medium-sized firms, reported by IT Brief UK in July 2025, found 39% of Millennials using AI daily or several times a week, with Gen Z at 30%, Gen X at 17% and Baby Boomers at 13%.

AI use in UK small and medium-sized firms, by generationShare using AI daily or several times a week

Millennials39%
Gen Z30%
Gen X17%
Baby Boomers13%

Research among 1,000 business leaders and 1,200 employees of UK small and medium-sized firms. Source: Employment Hero, Work That Works, reported by IT Brief UK in July 2025

Training may matter most of all. A global study of nearly 3,000 workers by LSE and Protiviti, published in October 2025, found that a Gen X employee trained in AI in the previous 12 months was getting more productivity benefit from it than an untrained Gen Z employee. 93% of trained employees used AI in their roles, against 57% of those without training, yet 68% had received no AI training in the past year.

Where some older workers lag behind, it is down to context, adoption curves and long-standing habits rather than ability. As I discuss in the book, there are still plenty of older early adopters of technology.

How can you use generational patterns without pigeonholing people?

Change the question. Instead of asking why a particular generation behaves in a certain way (and let's be honest, we are mostly talking about Gen Z here), ask what stage of life someone is in and how that shapes their needs and choices.

Run a three-way check. Before you put a behaviour down to a generation, ask whether it is age, the times or the cohort. If every age group in your organisation has changed in the same way, that is a period effect and no generation is to blame.

Ask about life and career stage. In one-to-ones, find out what stage people are at: starting out, parenting young children, shifting care responsibilities, a mid-career transition or planning retirement. A 45-year-old new parent and a 45-year-old whose children have left home are living very different weeks, so tailor support to the stage, whatever the age.

Train everyone, and mix the methods. Combine formal courses with peer-led learning so good practice spreads in both directions, and draw on younger colleagues' ease with new tools. In January 2026 the government announced free online AI courses open to every UK adult, some taking under 20 minutes.

Read your own data by stage as well as age. If you survey staff, look at results by tenure, role and caring responsibilities alongside age band or generation. The pattern you thought was generational may belong to new starters of every age. It is the practical side of framed by our generation, not defined by it.

So what are you seeing in your organisation? Are you looking for patterns you can learn from, or defaulting back to stereotypes?

Frequently asked questions

Does generation or life stage shape behaviour at work more?

Both, and they are hard to separate. Generation reflects what was happening in the world during someone's formative years; life stage reflects what is happening to them now, such as a first job, young children, caring for a parent or planning retirement. In our 2024 UK survey, 81% of Gen Z workers aged 18 to 27 want career advancement, against 20% of Baby Boomers.

What are age, period and cohort effects?

They are three forces researchers try to separate when comparing generations. Age effects come with a stage of life, period effects come from events that affect every age group at once, and cohort effects are the lasting marks of what a generation lived through when young. In May 2023 Pew said it would only do generational analysis when its data allowed comparison at similar stages of life.

Which generation uses AI the most?

It depends on the question. In our 2024 UK survey, 59% of Gen Z have used AI platforms such as ChatGPT, against 48% of Millennials and 13% of Baby Boomers. At work, Employment Hero's 2025 research in UK small and medium-sized firms found Millennials the most frequent users, with 39% using AI daily or several times a week. Training can matter more than age.

What does "patterns, not pigeonholes" mean?

It means using generational research to spot tendencies across large groups, then checking them against the person in front of you. A generational pattern is a place to start a conversation, because life stage, upbringing, role and experience all shape how someone communicates.

Alastair's book, Generationally Speaking, explores what he calls the five circles of generational influence and why life stage matters.

Find out about the book