Letter of the Day: Generation gap

Generation gap

EDITOR: Chris Smith's subject - a parent who objects to the "F--- Somebody" shirt in a store window - is embroiled in a generational difference ("How much is (!) in the window?" Tuesday).

I'm an older, middle-aged clerk working with mostly younger (college-age) coworkers. On occasion, the behavior of older customers that I experienced as opinionated or firm, my coworkers in their 20s considered rude.

Having a customer say, "Where's the manager? This is unacceptable." is typically perceived as rude by millennials, but not by baby boomers (who may consider it unpleasant but not rude).

I'll bet if we showed a real-time video of the encounter between the father and the Punch boutique clerk described in Smith's column to millennials and boomers, the millennials would call the father rude, while the boomers would call the clerk rude.

To draw an overly broad but likely true conclusion: Boomers take strongly worded opinions from strangers in stride, but millennials don't; profanity is OK with millennials, but not with boomers. Thus they were each polite by the standards of their generation but rude by the standards of other generations.

ELLEN SKAGERBERG

Santa Rosa