Q. Your new boss is young enough to be your daughter, and the age difference makes you uncomfortable. How can you overcome these feelings and get on with work?

A. By putting the business first. David Sirota, chairman emeritus of Sirota Survey Intelligence, a consulting firm in Purchase, New York, said the new boss was likely hired on the basis of talent, which means that her age is immaterial.

“Good management is good management,” Sirota said. “Although there may be resentment at first when a young person is appointed to lead older workers, what matters most is the competence of that manager.”

Q. Is it common for employees to work for a younger boss?

A. Increasingly, it is. “Across the board, the work force is getting younger,” said Steven A. Miranda, chief strategic planning and diversity officer for the Society for Human Resource Management, an industry organisation in Alexandria, Virginia. “If you don’t have a younger boss today, you very well might have one tomorrow, next month or next year.”

Q. Why do some employees have trouble reporting to younger bosses?

A. Ego, for one.Bernadette Kenny, senior vice president of Adecco, a Human Resources outsourcing company in Melville, New York, says that many older employees feel that because they have been around longer, they have earned the right to be in charge.

Other problems pertain to perception. Cam Marston, president of Marston Communications, a consulting firm in Charlotte, North Carolina, says younger managers who prefer e-mail and instant messages may seem stand-offish to older employees who have spent their careers communicating in person. Even if a young manager stays late or works at night from home, Marston added, older employees may interpret the boss’s two-hour lunches and midday gym workouts as evidence of a poor work ethic.

Q. What’s the best way for older employees to address their discomfort?

A. Discuss it, but be respectful. Most new managers meet with employees to discuss expectations and goals. Jerald M. Jellison, professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, said employees should approach this meeting with a positive attitude. They should avoid phrases like “youngster” or “old-timer” in addressing the situation, and shouldn’t bring up how things were done in the past, unless the boss asks.

“Remember that it’s your job to adapt to the boss, not the other way around.”

Q. Do younger bosses struggle with age differences, too?

A. The 2004 film In Good Company focused on a young manager’s difficulty in supervising his girlfriend’s father. While this plot was fictitious, in some respects it wasn’t far-fetched. Terry Bacon, president of Lore International Institute, Colorado, says younger bosses who supervise older employees deal with similar struggles all the time. Bacon, author of What People Want: A Manager’s Guide to Building Relationships That Work, says the situation creates a “generational warp” because the roles of parent and child are reversed.

Kenneth Kramm, chief executive of FlavoRx, a company in Bethesda, Maryland, said he found himself in this situation after founding the business at the age of 34. He said he clashed with a 50-something employee about the strategy they should use for an important presentation. “I feel that respect for your elders is a very important ideal, so there was a lot of inner conflict,” said Kramm, who is now 45. Ultimately, he said, he persuaded the employee to accept his approach.

Q. How can employers address age issues before they fester?

A. One way is to raise awareness about things that make each age group unique. At companies like General Motors, Best Buy and Philip Morris, this process revolves around “reverse mentoring” — through which younger employees coach older ones on technological innovations.

Other companies incorporate age sensitivity into more comprehensive diversity training. Dena Wilson, talent manager at Aflac, Georgia, said her organisation offers a training segment on generational differences.

“It’s all about broadening perspective,” she said.