Baby boomers think everything revolves around them. Traditionalists are old fashioned. Millennials are never on time. X-gens have no identity.

Stereotypes abound in the study of generations. Labels have created a generalized description of an entire population—some of it based on facts; much of it based on oversimplifications. Regardless of definition, today the U.S. workforce is composed of four major generations, each with members who were influenced by the events and technology common during the eras in which they were born.

FROM TRADITIONALISTS TO ‘EDGERS’

In 2015 the millennials became the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, followed closely ...