When Generations Clash: One Laboratory's Story

Clashes between generations are nothing new. Millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers all grew up in different time periods with different life experiences and often hold dissenting opinions, values and skill sets. 

But what do you do when generations collide right in your own laboratory?

Here, Greg Thayer, CDT, FICOI, President of 47-person Thayer Dental Laboratory in Mechanicsburg, PA, shares his lab’s experience and the steps it took to bridge the generation gap:

“If you come into our lab and look to the right, you’ll see a bunch of younger people running the digital design department. If you look to the left, you see the 50-something ceramists. They’re two totally different worlds.

“Since we got our scanners, there’s been a lot of contention between the two departments. Cases were sometimes inconsistent;...