Wally Bock

I always hated products that were blatantly "educational" as it implied that you could not learn things from life and your experience.

We let our kids play too many video games and eat less healthy than we would prefer (though not for lack of trying) but hey - they are kids.

In my view, it was always the boomer parents trying to script every aspect of their kids lives and trying to make sure everything was "educational".

But whatever…

Note - I guess these are the types of questions that I wished I had asked and mayby I would have ended up in a company like Miriam when I was first employed. Thankfully I left that company a long time ago.

Qu - Am I required to be contactable on the weekend? Are there any activities that are conducted as an organisation on a regular basis? Who is my immediate supervisor - can you tell me about them? I would love to see a post on the types of questions that you should ask and the follow up comments. A lot of time we are so focused on just getting a job that we forget the relevent questions that affect our lives. Random thoughts.

My mother was very depressed when I was growing up, and it had a huge impact on me. Facing similar issues in my 20s, I am frightened that I will pass on the same anxiety to my own kids (when I have them). I've found that reading blogs, books, really whatever I can get my hands on, is shaping how I will parent some day.

When I asked my mother why she never thought to research what was happening to her and how her depression could impact me, she said nothing was available back then.

Milena makes a few points about Europeans but neither your observation nor hers about dramatisation applies to ALL Europeans.

There is nothing called a European! There are the Dutch, the French, the Italians, the Germans, the Brits and the Finnish and lately, the Polish, the Czechs and so on. Europe is a continent, a collection of nations (nations being used here as it should be, a group sharing a cultural identity) which are so different amongst them that they had to be separate countries. So I doubt if any such generalisation is apt.

However I must agree that Europeans (by residence or origin) in general appear less Prozac-ed out than some Americans appear to be. There can be drama but also cynicism and not always open, effusive praise. There is the expectation to be better everyday though better does not mean more money.

I make this observation as a non-European (by origin) living in Europe, who has also lived and worked in the US and a few European countries. Yes, if you go by stereotypes, I am a cynical Gen-X. :-)

I just reviewed your article in the Boston Globe and while I agree in principle with some of your statements. I want to stress that in today's employment market everyone should be looking for opportunities that will make them more marketable in the future.

I was also "given" advice by my mentor with this statement, "you learn in your twenties and earn in your thirties." I disliked that comment then as I do now, and it stayed with me my entire working career. But, most of us will not be fortunate enough to work at a Google, Face Book or Microsoft and have single digits in our employee ID badges.

To make the statement "that the best thing that you can do early in your career is move around to find out what you're good at." In principle has merit, but, what does the person want in their life to be successful? And yes, us Gen Xers do worry about the future, because our jobs and their skills change almost yearly.

To conclude, somethings never change and the old dilema of should I stay or go at a company is one that alot of people face in their careers. What, I would strongly suggest is that people realize that the majority of leaders of companies stay at one company the majority of their career. So, depending on what the Gen Y wants from their employment experience, they better think long and hard about the possiblity of being labeled a job hopper.

Sure, it's acceptable to go back so many years on a resume that you send to a company. And YOU may not have to give a full employment history of your career. But, what if you did and you are now in your early thirties and have had many jobs? How do you explain that and compete in a tight market? Skills and abilities will always win out, but, what if those are even between candidates? Then your career changes might be used as deciding factors in you getting a job or not. Good luck and make your choices with your future in mind.

BTW my first ten years of my working career I worked at twelve companies. Some as a fulltime employee and others as a contractor. Until, I found my ideal position-as my own boss!

I am still under the impression that the Y's will not change the way we do work, but simply replace the Boomers' hierachy and structure. It seems that the research supports Gen Y's optimistic "we'll wait our turn" approach (biding their time with education and gadgets) as opposed to the Gen X "I don't want to play your game, so I am going home" philosophy.

Another point about Gen X vs Gen Y and family. Many of the posts seem to infer that Gen X is willing to sacrifice more (debt, career) for family, however I believe is that trends have less to do with values and more to do with cynicism and selecting a game we can win (parenting) with one we seemingly cannot (corner office).

Great post!

I, like a few other posters here, was born in 1968 but identify WAY more with Gen-Y. Not only do I totally agree with what Penelope says in this post, I also think I'm a pretty decent real-life example of the whole have your cake and eat it too lifestyle. Granted, I had to walk through hell to get here–miserable marriage for almost 14 years, 8 of which were even more miserable because being true to what I wanted for my kids–being a stay-home mom–meant sacrificing my own personal happiness on many levels. As bitter as that sounds, I actually really am not; as much as that part of my life sucked, it was worth it to be home with my kids, and I'm more than making up for those empty years now.

I don't know what happened–I guess going back to work?–but suddenly I just changed my mind and realized you only live once and you may as well make the best of it. I got divorced, switched jobs, got remarried and am about to switch jobs again.

Weirdly/coincidentally the reasons I'm switching jobs are the exact ones Penelope gives above–I can't stand working at a place where you have to sit with your mouth shut while people stupider than you run things badly because they are higher on the totem pole; I want to work at a place that values employees and actually offers flexibility instead of just paying lip-service to it; and I want to enjoy the environment I spend half my waking life in. Yes, these places do exist and you can make the same money there as you can in a crappy, depressing place–you just have to trust that you can make it happen.

Anyway, long story short: I will be 40 in 2 months, have two kids who have slept through the night since they were a few weeks old and do more than fine in school in spite of the fact that they never laid eyes on flash cards or Baby Einstein and don't really eat vegetables, am stupid happy with my 2nd husband, and am confident that the interview I had this past week for a job at my dream company will mean that a month from now I'll look forward to going to work every day.