Posted on 11/15/2009 4:55:08 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
CHICAGO -- They're antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too. Sounds like Gen Y, the so-called "entitlement generation," right? Not necessarily, say people who track the generations. In these hard times, they're also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They're the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between baby boomers and their children, often feeling like forgotten middle siblings -- and increasingly restless at work as a result. "All of a sudden, we've gone from being the young upstarts to being the curmudgeons," says Bruce Tulgan, a generational consultant who's written books about various age groups, including his fellow Gen Xers.
This isn't the first time Gen Xers have faced tough times. They came of age during a recession and survived the dot-com bust of 2000. In recent years, though, more members of the generation -- stereotyped early on as jaded individualists -- had families or began settling down in other ways. It was time, they thought, to enjoy the rewards of paying some dues. "We were starting to buy into the system, at least to some extent," Tulgan says, "and then we got the rug pulled out from under us." Now, in this latest recession, nearly two-thirds of baby boomer workers, ages 50 to 61, say they might have to push back their retirement, according to a recent survey from Pew Research.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the age spectrum are Gen Yers, who are often cheaper to hire and heralded for their coveted high-tech knowledge, even though many Gen Xers consider themselves just as technologically savvy. "It's so annoying," says Lisa Chamberlain, another Gen Xer who wrote the book "Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age of Creative Destruction." ''First, it was always the baby boomers overshadowing everything. Then there was this brief period in the mid-'90s where Gen X was cool. "Now it's, 'What are the new kids doing?' It's like 'Yo, hello, the Google guys are Gen Xers.'"
They can sound a little whiny. But there's also some evidence that Gen Xers really are being taken for granted at work. One survey done this year for Deloitte Consulting LLP, for instance, found that nearly two-thirds of executives at large companies were most concerned about losing Gen Y employees, while less than half of them had similar concerns about losing Gen Xers. The assumption is often that Gen Yers are the least loyal and most mobile, says Robin Erickson, a manager with Deloitte's human capital division.
However, she points out that a companion survey of employees found that only about 37 percent of Gen Xers said they planned to stay in their current jobs after the recession ends, compared with 44 percent of Gen Yers, 50 percent of baby boomers and 52 percent of senior citizen workers who said the same. Everyone surveyed worried about job security. Gen X and Gen Y were most likely to complain about pay. But a "lack of career progress," was by far the biggest gripe from Gen Xers, with 40 percent giving that as a reason for their restlessness, compared with 30 percent of Gen Yers, 20 percent of baby boomers and 14 percent of senior workers. Gen Yers, meanwhile, were more likely than the other generations to cite "lack of challenges in the job" as a reason they would leave, while baby boomers more often chose "poor employee treatment during the downturn" and a "lack of trust in leadership." The Deloitte study warns of a "resume' tsunami" once economic recovery begins, especially among Gen Xers, and notes that many executives were largely unaware of employee complaints unrelated to money.
Such findings don't surprise Rich Yudhishthu, a 37-year-old Gen Xer who's a business development consultant from Minneapolis. "The lack of promotional opportunities has pretty much killed job loyalty within a generation," he says. Liza Potts, a 35-year-old professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., agrees, but also notes that the disillusionment took hold for many of her peers as far back as childhood. "Many of my friends had hoped to have jobs like their parents -- places they would stay forever that would take care of them like they did their parents. But then we saw that start to crumble for our folks," she says, recalling friends whose fathers and mothers got laid off from companies such as IBM or had to relocate.
Now worried about their own foreclosures, debt and unemployment, her generation is left to do the soul-searching their parents did. "Is there still time to become something different? Must we just accept where we are? Is there time to innovate elsewhere?" asks Potts who left her own career in the software and Internet industry for a life in academia. It's meant less money, she says, but also more freedom to choose her work hours and projects. In Chicago, 40-year-old real estate agent Adon Navarette has taken on extra jobs to make it, from consultant for an energy supply company to starting his own health and wellness business. He's heard his peers sniping about other generations, but also thinks their experience with other rough economic patches makes them resilient, too. It's a pivotal moment, he says. "What's going to define me as a Gen Xer is how I come out of this. What's going to define me is, 'What have I done to allow myself to take advantage of the market when the market turns around?'" he says.
Sometimes, it means working for less money.
Jon Anne Willow, co-publisher of ThirdCoastDigest.com, an online arts and culture site in Milwaukee, is among employers who've recently been able to hire more experienced candidates for jobs traditionally filled by 20somethings. They're hungry to work, she says. And as she sees it, that gives her fellow Gen Xers and the baby boomers she's hired a distinct advantage over a lot of the Gen Yers she's come across. "When the dust settles, they'll be exactly as they were before and we'll just have to sift through them and take the ones that actually get it and hope the rest find employment in fast food," she quips. Spoken like a truly jaded Gen Xer.
I don't think it's just Gen Xers who feel this way. A lot of employers are in for a rude awakening when - and it will - the economy eventually turns around.
Xer Ping
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
On behalf of all my fellow Generation Xers I want to thank the self-proclaimed Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers for leaving us a country in such a strong moral, economic, and political position.
For my fellow Generation Xers and upcoming Yers, enjoy the illusion cast upon you by American Idol while you can. In the meantime, pick up “Atlas Shrugged” and go through a few pages during commercial breaks.
Yeah right. I would not be betting on any economic turn around unless a judge will hear the Hussein BC issue. If he stays in until 2012 he will do incredible damage.
I don’t see much of a chance at an economic turn around as long as the democrat and rhinos wield power.
We are going to need to fundamentally transform America. Vast cuts in government agencies and government spending. Punitive corporate taxes and taxes on small businesses must go if we are to succeed in transforming our economy. Entitlement programs need to be cut off for future generations.
More generational generalizing. There has always been a lack of promotion possibilities. “promotional possibilities” are always there for self-promoters.
I think this likely describes the majority of Gen Xers like I was Maynard Krebs.
Gen X and Yers if you want to preserve your jobs and have a chance for higher pay, establish an American management system that understands that if America keeps her high tech secrets, she keeps her high standard of living. The boomers blew it by accepting the notion of globalism that everything and everyone can be outsourced without thinking what is the impact on the people of the United States. I remember an old saying, if we give everything the unions want, we will have no trade, but if we give corporate America everything they want we will have no good paying jobs. I think we swung too much to corporate America (just look at what the Wall Street lead, government enablement did to our economy and finances). Somewhere between the two extreme viewpoints is the answer. I think that will be the challenge our new generation of leaders must resolve.
Just as an example, China and the emerging world is a good example where the stable concepts of socialism and the freedom of capitalism are mixed together that meets the unique characteristics of the country. These nations are emerging and prospering. Europe sticks to pure socialism and they stagnate, the US sticks to free for all capitalism and they just destroyed themselves with one gigantic financial bubble and believe it or not are trying to inflate an even larger one. Europe and the US style of economics is not the answer.
Perfectly, perfectly stated!!!
“Entitlement programs need to be cut off for future generations.”
No. They need to be cut off now.
And now we will hear from “conservatives” who have all kinds of reasons why their particular form of welfare is special and shouldn’t cut off.
The United States in not Captilistic, it is Corportist. The small and middle sized businesses pay for the subsidizations of the Too Big Too Fails and Unionized Manufacturing. If we were a Capitalistic country we would have less big banks, more small banks. Not a Big 3, but the small 30 auto makers. People would have more skill sets, because being a local technical expert in your community would give you greater wealth and social standing. There would be an incentive to achieve, instead of dropping out of school and trying to be an NBA star for your one small chance. Being a Capatilist Republic should be our goal, but instead we are a Corportist Oligarchy. Don’t let the Oligarchs use Crony Capatilism and tell you that we now need Socialism. Socialism is just another scam that keeps the powers that be in power. Look at Al Gore for an example. He can go from a Socialist Environmentalist to a Corportist power player with his own Congressionally-backed firm depending on the audience and setting.
I’d settle for them returning all the money I’ve dumped into Social Security over my last 20 years. Then at least I can let my kids inherit it to help pay their future draconian tax burden.
— Class of 84
You are going to need to have a cut off age. If we have to sell national assets to meet obligations to those that have given significant chunks of money expecting some day to benefit from that investment, we should sell the national assets. Add means testing to SS and medicare, medicaid.
Get rid of the IRS and transition to a flat tax, git rid of onerous regulations and we will grow our way out of our current predicament.
git = get
Ping!
Yeah, we'll they may have resumes, but the Baby-Boomers will still have the jobs. I am a well paid Boomer manager. I am 63. Why should I "fire myself" and retire at 66??! We'll, I won't. I am healthy and fit and maybe at 70 I'll consider retirement. But just maybe. And the X'ers waiting..will just have to wait. That's life. Get over it. And the comment, "once economic recovery begins" is a joke. That may take 10 years! Sorry Xer's, you may be out of luck. Poor timing on when you were born. Lot's of luck.
Yeah, we'll they may have resumes, but the Baby-Boomers will still have the jobs. I am a well paid Boomer manager. I am 63. Why should I "fire myself" and retire at 66??! We'll, I won't. I am healthy and fit and maybe at 70 I'll consider retirement. But just maybe. And the X'ers waiting..will just have to wait. That's life. Get over it. And the comment, "once economic recovery begins" is a joke. That may take 10 years! Sorry Xer's, you may be out of luck. Poor timing on when you were born. Lot's of luck.
My GF learned the phrase "curmudgeon" by trying to figure out a good English word for my "critical grouchiness." In this sense, I guess I am a typical GenXer.
BTW: What's orange and looks good on a Millennial/Gen Yer?
Fire, of course...
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