Do you say ‘OK boomer’ at work? Think again — it might get you in trouble, experts say

There’s no shortage of “OK boomer” retorts.

From the 25-year-old lawmaker in New Zealand who put down an older member of parliament heckling her about climate change to the merchandise stamped with “OK boomer, have a terrible day” — the quip is everywhere.

It could be a perilous punchline with unintended consequences, legal experts warn. But some aren’t so sure.

What does “OK boomer” mean?

It’s the catchphrase of a generation coined by Generation Z, which encompasses anyone born after 1997, according to the Pew Research Center. The oldest are now 22 years old.

“OK boomer” started with young people responding to a video of an older man ridiculing Gen Z and Millennials for having Peter Pan Syndrome, according to Vogue.

The phenomenon quickly became a put-down for Baby Boomers, who are defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as people born between mid-1946 and mid-1964.

It’s a retort for “older people who just don’t get it, a rallying cry for millions of fed up kids,” the New York Times reported.

“Teenagers use it to reply to cringey YouTube videos, Donald Trump tweets, and basically any person over 30 who says something condescending about young people — and the issues that matter to them,” New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz wrote in the article.

“OK boomer” is now a viral sensation — complete with sweatshirts, hashtags, memes and maybe even a TV show.

What’s the problem?

Some argue it might be considered discriminatory in the workplace.

Elizabeth C. Tippett, a law professor at the University of Oregon, wrote a column for Business Insider saying the insult is age-related, meaning it could violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

The federal statute protects workers over 40 from discrimination, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Baby Boomers are staying in the workforce at a rate higher than previous generations, the Pew Research Center found — 29 percent of people between 65 and 72 years old were either still working or looking for work last year.

But repeated quips about their age, including the occasional “OK boomer” dig, could constitute harassment under the law, Tippett said.

Employment attorneys at Proskauer Rose LLP agreed.

In an article for the National Law Review, they said employers should warn workers “about the impropriety of this and other age-related phrases, and train their employees to leave the generation wars at the door.”

“Generation Z and Millennial employees understand that using derogatory or dismissive comments related to gender, race, religion, national origin, disability and sexual orientation are inappropriate,” the article states. “Yet, for some reason, some may not have made the leap with regard to insidious/disparaging comments about a co-worker’s age.”

But Elizabeth Vennum, a business and employment attorney in Charlotte at Vennum PLLC, isn’t convinced.

“Typically, isolated comments, even negative age-related comments, will not rise to the level of discrimination,” she told McClatchy news group in an email Thursday. “Courts consider isolated negative comments, or ‘stray remarks’ as part of everyday life, and part of any workplace.”

In other words, it might be “in bad taste,” but it’s not discriminatory, Vennum said.

There are instances where such comments are actionable, she conceded, but they would need to be tied to an adverse employment action — like getting fired, demoted or denied a raise because of a person’s age.

Vennum said a Millennial merely “rolling her eyes and saying ‘OK boomer’ when you insist it’s a pound sign and not a hashtag” doesn’t cut it.