A few months back, one of my friends from Black and Decker asked me about this. Now, one of my fellow board members at C2ER wondered.
Their question: Are Xers being overlooked at work?
From Deidre Myers:
“I just finished taking a class on “Special Issues in Management” and I was really surprised how little attention is paid to Xers growing into management positions and what that means for that generation’s development. I am really interested in knowing more about why organizational/management issues have seemed to jump Gen X. It seems that this generation (X) is moving into positions of power and it is lost between retiring Boomers and emerging Millennials.”
My response:
I think Xers are being overlooked because any or all of these conditions exist:
- Boomers are going to keep their jobs forever. Pew says they’re already pushing back retirement by an average of four years.
- Xers are a smaller generation than the Boomers, making them easy to miss.
- Boomers like Millennials better, just like how grandparents like their grandkids better.
What do you think? Are you an overlooked Xer? Are Boomer and Millennials hoggin’ the workplace love and limelight?
Leave your comments below.
Comments
I think that there could be a management crisis coming up because not enough attention has been paid to Xers and developing their skills. We may be small, but we will stay in the workforce even longer than boomers because Social Security will have to make major changes as we get into our 50s. We have had to deal with the excesses of the boomers and the demands of the millennial, but how do we distinguish ourselves as a generation? What book will be written about us by the next Tom Brokow?
I’m tired of just being known as a latchkey kid.
Our position between the two larger generations and on the cusp of major shifts in technology have made Gen X the truth-tellers of the workplace. Yes, your database sucks. No, your old HR practices won’t work. It’s true, we are going to have to cut back and live within our means. Being the younger executives with the fresh skills and the bad news isn’t a recipe for popularity, especially among baby-boomers whose pride in their work sometimes outpaces its effectiveness.
I’ve spent nearly all of my career cleaning up after other people’s messes and simultaneously holding space for a younger, brighter set to root and take over. The result? I was laid off the first time at 26 and again approaching 40. This last time I was the lowest ranking executive and was replaced by someone I helped groom who is doing double the job at half the price.
As a younger person I strongly resented the slacker label that got slapped on my generation, and I worked much harder to make my place as a result. In my midlife, I’ve begun to embrace that role. I’ve come to see that I did my best work when I encouraged someone to travel or get married or pursue an artistic dream, and there are one or two actions I took to uphold an unfair system that I now truly regret.
Maybe the trick is to embrace that unpopular role, simply accept that it’s our work to power down the broken system, ship everyone off to an uncertain future, and shut off the lights when we’re done. For me, that realization is a lot more comfortable than smiling out of both sides of my mouth and pretending it’s all going to be ok.
