Comments on: Twentysomething: Why I started blogging

By: LRS Classics: The Power of Now: What Sets Gen Y Apart at Personal PR

LRS Classics: The Power of Now: What Sets Gen Y Apart at Personal PR — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:03:19 +0000

[...] It seems like the more I read, the more I see people my age blogging about work, careers and how we'll face the challenges and opportunities we know are coming. As a part of the conversation myself, I've been very interested in how workers in different generations view this topic of our generation. Today, over at Brazen Careerist, Ryan Healy touched on this a bit in his column, TwentySomething. [...]

By: wayne

wayne — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:52:59 +0000

Maureen,
are you seriously going to tell an entire generation of people who rarely saw their fathers because they worked 60+ hours per week and then needed some 'me' time because they work hard all week, that we are confused about what a workaholic, kid ignoring parent is? Or that the person I just described isn't actually a workaholic, kid ignoring parent? Why does everyone at the (fortune 500) company that I work for who makes over 55k work 60 hour weeks? I'm sure their kids are getting some real quality time with their parents. I'm not suggesting that all boomers agree with this mentality, but it was boomers that instituted it, and it is boomers that have imposed it on the rest of us. If you aren't one of 'them', then I want you as an ally. We need to bring balance back to the work/non-work life equation.

By: The Power of Now: What Sets Gen Y Apart « Little Red Suit

The Power of Now: What Sets Gen Y Apart « Little Red Suit — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:00:52 +0000

[...] July 11th, 2007 It seems like the more I read, the more I see people my age blogging about work, careers and how we'll face the challenges and opportunities we know are coming. As a part of the conversation myself, I've been very interested in how workers in different generations view this topic of our generation. Today, over at Brazen Careerist, Ryan Healy touched on this a bit in his column, TwentySomething. [...]

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:24:20 +0000

I love that your column is a conversation starter. It's so valuable to have people from all generations talking about these issues. Keep it up!

By: Maureen Rogers

Maureen Rogers — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:46:59 +0000

Ryan – Thanks for your post – and your call for a truce among the generations. When I read some of the sweeping generational generalizations – Boomers are rapacious, greedy, ladder climbing, kid-ignoring workaholics who've ruined the work world (and the world in general) for everyone else and just refuse to get the hell out of Dodge, well, maybe I'm too dense for the shock of recognition. I just react with a big, "Huh? Who are they talking about?" I'm a bona fide, lifetime Boomer, and as far as I can tell, at the fundamental level we're looking for the same things from our jobs that everyone else is: interesting work, opportunities to learn, decent pay, good colleagues, and balance with their non-work life. This is based on having worked with people who have been everything from 20 years older than I am down to 30 years younger. A few years ago, I was managing a group that had people ranging from 22 up to 60. Yes, people may have wanted different things given their circumstances – a 28 year old new mom needs something different than a 60 year old handling his parents' move to assisted living – but these differences strike me more as stage-in-life rather than particular to a generation.

What differs, of course, are the environments in which we come of age. Gen-Xers may have come of age during a recession, but many Boomers did, too. When I got out of B-School in 1981, I think the unemployment rate in Massachusetts was over 10%. Finding a job – even with a decent MBA – was tough. During my career in high tech, there have been colossal shakeouts and ups and downs. Maybe some folks in my generation have had job security and are looking at nice fat pensions, but for most of us in high tech, our careers have been categorized by lay-offs (I don't know anyone who hasn't been laid off at least once) and options that never materialized. Everyone may want to see our backs, but we're only in our 50's and 40's – not ready to hang it up, and not able to afford it, either. So we're all going to be sharing the workplace for a while longer.

What's also different is the technology, which has created enormous new opportunities for people. It's also created plenty of downside, in terms of outsourcing, etc. Things also move faster these days, so younger folks probably need to be more flexible than the Boomers ever had to be – even though with outsouring, downsizing, m&a's, etc, we had to be more flexible than our parents ever did.

I think it's great that the Gen-Y's have all these opportunities: take advantage of whatever you can. I feel bad for Gen-X'ers who feel they were lost in the shuffle, even if I don't fully understand it.

Again, thanks for your post. Let's hope you get something started here.

By: wayne

wayne — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 18:28:01 +0000

I can't help but feel that the boomers will forever marginalize me and my peeps, so I guess I'm just hoping that Gen Y doesn't do the same once they get the boomers bequeathment. I want to be happy and free too.

By: Pirate Jo

Pirate Jo — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:50:15 +0000

Jennifer, I loved that post, too. Here's a thought, though – maybe we don't NEED 76 million Xers or Yers to replace the Boomers who are retiring. Advances in technology and increases in productivity might mean there is not a need for one-to-one replacement. Like the comment about process improvement from that blog post you linked to – THANK YOU!!! I'm glad someone said that.

By: wayne

wayne — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:46:31 +0000

Ditto Pirate Jo and Jennifer. As Gen X ( and at the front end of that gen), I too feel like I'm just forgotten. To the boomers we were just good-for-very-little, trouble making non conformists. We spent years fighting against the old school mentality, crying out that there is more to life than workaholism, and we were readily dismissed. We waited and waited for them to retire so we could reshape the work environment, and they STILL haven't retired. Now it appears the boomers are ready to accept this new mentality, Gen Y is going to get credit for it, and Gen x isn't even going to get credit for laying the groundwork. We had to protest from within the system; the options available to Gen Y didn't even exist for us. I am TRULY glad that the work environment is finally changing, it has gotten way out of balance. But I still feel like the unwanted stepchild while Gen Y is heralded as the gifted prodigy.

Pirate Jo, everything you said about being given an objective and then just let me do it describes me EXACTLY.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:26:32 +0000

Hi Ryan, Couldn't resist commenting again. I completely get it about the numbers--I know that there are simply more Boomers and Gen Y than we Gen X-ers. What I'm trying to say is that, while many Boomers talk about how there aren't enough X-ers to replace them, I don't think they fully tapped into the Gen X labor pool. Feeding into this, I think many of them (Boomers) are simply more comfortable relating to Gen Y, since many of them have Gen Y kids. They've never been sure what to make of Gen X-ers, and I suppose the reverse is also true. As a result, sometimes Gen X gets passed over. This post (from the incoming blog posts related to yours) sums it up pretty well, in a way that felt true to my experience: "I guess it is with some resentment that I see GenY getting this boomer approval for the same things they dissed GenX about back in the day" (from the Creative Tech Writer blog). I know we don't want to get into generational warfare--it's nasty and unproductive--but this is some food for thought.

By: Pirate Jo

Pirate Jo — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:45:48 +0000

I'm famous! I've been quoted! (The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!) :-)

I agree with Jennifer's point, but want to ask about something Penelope said a couple days ago, too. She said Gen X'ers want to be left alone to figure out how to do things. Like many other observations she has made about Generation X, this particular one fit me to an almost creepy tee. But how is this a generational thing?

Personally, I like to be given an end result to accomplish and then be left alone to figure out my own way to do it. In fact, I can't really work any other way. If you want to drive me crazy, put me in a bunch of unnecessary meetings with too many people. It doesn't take me any time at all to start thinking there are "too many fingers in the cookie jar," and I will sit there fuming the entire time, thinking that with all these people wasting their time in this meeting they could have the freakin' project finished by now.

Or try to delegate the parts of your job that you don't like to someone else. That also really annoys me. Do your own grunt work and quit trying to weasel out of things you think are "beneath you." In the time it takes you to explain what to do to someone else, you could send out that e-mail yourself and be done with it. Don't expect me to delegate my grunt work, either. I'll either delegate an entire project from top to bottom to someone else, or I'll do the whole project myself. If I have ownership of it, I want to see the whole picture. (I guess I have a pretty strong sense of boundaries.)

Or, if you are my boss, micromanage me. Nitpick me over what hours I keep, don't trust me to get things done correctly or on time, and make me spend a lot of time giving you detailed "status reports." I've only had one boss like that, but it was the only time in my life I've ever felt myself to be truly capable of violence. He once commented that he would feel a lot better if I seemed a lot more worried about meeting a deadline. The truth is, I WASN'T worried about the deadline. But I'm supposed to LOOK worried? Outta my hair, dude!

Anyway, those are some examples of my desire to work independently. Are other Gen X'ers the same way? How is Generation Y different? And why? I do sometimes wonder why they want so much "feedback," why they don't feel grateful when they are left alone. Are there any links on this topic? Thanks …