Understanding Generation X
This post is meant to give the reader more understanding into the psyche of Generation X. It should be read in conjunction with my previous post on Baby Boomers. If you haven't read the baby boomer post yet please do so before reading on.
Born in the 60's and 70's, Generation X grew up in two decades of turmoil. The early Xer's were kids during the Vietnam war. We didn't understand much because they were too young to understand war. But we heard about people dying and not coming home on the news. We saw people protesting our government. We were told our government did bad things. As teenagers we heard about Watergate and how the highest elected official in our land was a crook and a liar. In the late 70's we experienced the energy crisis, a tanking economy, and the hostage crisis. We saw Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter leave office in shame. We were told we were locked in a Cold War that would probably never end without the complete destruction of the earth. We learned at an early age you can't count on the government.
Our parents worked hard to give us the things we needed, and even things we didn't need. Unfortunately sometimes all we wanted was their time. Mom and dad both worked and didn't have time to help us with our homework or come to the little league games. Many of our parents were divorced. We felt like orphans. We were the original "latch-key-kids". We grew up realizing we couldn't count on our parents to be there for us. We learned to cherish our friends and look out for ourselves.
In school we became disgusted with things that didn't make sense to us. If Generation X had a motto, it would be "Is this going to be on the test?" Our distrust of adults and those put in charge of us lead us to ask "why?" Save us the fluff and just give us the essentials. If we didn't see a need for math, we weren't interested. If we didn't see a need for science, no thanks. We rebelled against our parents. We rebelled against our teachers. We rebelled against any authority, a trait we would carry into the workplace as adults. All we cared about was doing things that interested us and hanging out with our friends.
Our loneliness lead us to invent new sports. We gravitated toward individual activities. Our parents started little league and pop warner football. We invented the X Games: skateboarding, freestyle biking, roller blading, skiing, and snowboarding exploded onto the public scene. Our parents invented video games for us, and we still play them to this day. And where our parents were apprehensive about computers and technology, we took to it like ducks in water.
When we started coming of age in the 80's, we were told the Japanese were soon taking over. Corporations started laying off like crazy to compete. The baby boomers muscled us out of the workplace. Layoffs were rampant. X-er's couldn't get jobs. College graduates with business and engineering degrees were working at the Gap and living with mom and dad. Those that could get jobs didn't want to work the long hours our parents worked. Our job became a means to get the money we needed to do the things we wanted. And we had no loyalty to our company. And why should we when they had no loyalty to us? Many of us changed jobs frequently working for the highest bidder. We dispised meaningless tasks. "Is this going to be on the test?" we asked ourselves. We wanted freedom from the baby boomer military style of the workplace. Working with boomers became a chore. Boomers preferred to work in teams. We preferred to work by ourselves. We detested dress codes. We didn't see the need to work 50 hours a week if we could get our work done in 35. Our new motto bacame, "Judge me on my performance, not on my appearance and how I act." Our boomer bosses valued equality, so we gave it to them. We questioned authority. It wasn't enough to know what you wanted us to do, we had to know why you wanted us to do it. And if we didn't see the need for it, we weren't motivated.
In the 90's the boomers started to realize our skills with technology. We became a wanted commodity. Some Xer's started to make it into management. Corporations started tailoring their workplace towards us. Casual dress days were instituted. Salaries went through the roof to attract technically skilled Xer's. Companies started offering flex time to appeal to Gen X (although part of this was also due to boomers burning out after 25 years of being work-a-holics.) The word "telecommuting" was invented.
In our social lives, many Xer's still haven't married. Many of us grew up with divorced parents and disfunctional families and don't see the appeal of the family life. We value our friends and have made them our defacto families. When we did get married and have kids, we swore we were going to be different from our parents. While our parents devoted their lives to their careers, we devoted our lives to our kids. We promised they wouldn't be denied anything. We signed them up for swim team, soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, band, piano, ballet, and karate. We promised to protect them from the cruel world we were exposed to as kids. Since we were called failures as young adults, we were determined to boost our kids' self esteme. Nobody kept score in little league games, nobody got failing grades in school, everyone passed and everyone got a trophy just for participating. We told our kids, "It's the effort that counts."
Now in 2005 Generation X has finally established ourselves. Many of us are working hard and proving ourselves every day in society. Some of us have managed to claw up the corporate ladder. Our influence on our companies is evident. We work hard, but we're laid back. We have rewritten corporate etiquette rules and don't expect everyone to put in 50 hours per week. We still hold no political power. From our distrust of the government as youths, we had little interest in politics growing up. Now we're beginning to see how government affects us and we're becoming more active. But we hold no power. Baby boomers outnumber us and continue to elect baby boomer officials. They will continue to do so for probably the next 20 years. We're disgusted by the politics, the pompousness, the double-talk, and the ineffectiveness of government and our baby boomer officials. We still don't trust them. We wish things were different.
My hope in writing this is if you are an Xer you can read some part of this and say "Yeah, that's exactly how I feel but I never knew why." Or if you aren't an Xer, hopefully you've read this and say "Now I understand why Xer's are the way they are." If you're a Gen Xer and you can relate to this, let me know. If you're not a Gen Xer and you agree or disagree with this, I want to hear it.
Born in the 60's and 70's, Generation X grew up in two decades of turmoil. The early Xer's were kids during the Vietnam war. We didn't understand much because they were too young to understand war. But we heard about people dying and not coming home on the news. We saw people protesting our government. We were told our government did bad things. As teenagers we heard about Watergate and how the highest elected official in our land was a crook and a liar. In the late 70's we experienced the energy crisis, a tanking economy, and the hostage crisis. We saw Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter leave office in shame. We were told we were locked in a Cold War that would probably never end without the complete destruction of the earth. We learned at an early age you can't count on the government.
Our parents worked hard to give us the things we needed, and even things we didn't need. Unfortunately sometimes all we wanted was their time. Mom and dad both worked and didn't have time to help us with our homework or come to the little league games. Many of our parents were divorced. We felt like orphans. We were the original "latch-key-kids". We grew up realizing we couldn't count on our parents to be there for us. We learned to cherish our friends and look out for ourselves.
In school we became disgusted with things that didn't make sense to us. If Generation X had a motto, it would be "Is this going to be on the test?" Our distrust of adults and those put in charge of us lead us to ask "why?" Save us the fluff and just give us the essentials. If we didn't see a need for math, we weren't interested. If we didn't see a need for science, no thanks. We rebelled against our parents. We rebelled against our teachers. We rebelled against any authority, a trait we would carry into the workplace as adults. All we cared about was doing things that interested us and hanging out with our friends.
Our loneliness lead us to invent new sports. We gravitated toward individual activities. Our parents started little league and pop warner football. We invented the X Games: skateboarding, freestyle biking, roller blading, skiing, and snowboarding exploded onto the public scene. Our parents invented video games for us, and we still play them to this day. And where our parents were apprehensive about computers and technology, we took to it like ducks in water.
When we started coming of age in the 80's, we were told the Japanese were soon taking over. Corporations started laying off like crazy to compete. The baby boomers muscled us out of the workplace. Layoffs were rampant. X-er's couldn't get jobs. College graduates with business and engineering degrees were working at the Gap and living with mom and dad. Those that could get jobs didn't want to work the long hours our parents worked. Our job became a means to get the money we needed to do the things we wanted. And we had no loyalty to our company. And why should we when they had no loyalty to us? Many of us changed jobs frequently working for the highest bidder. We dispised meaningless tasks. "Is this going to be on the test?" we asked ourselves. We wanted freedom from the baby boomer military style of the workplace. Working with boomers became a chore. Boomers preferred to work in teams. We preferred to work by ourselves. We detested dress codes. We didn't see the need to work 50 hours a week if we could get our work done in 35. Our new motto bacame, "Judge me on my performance, not on my appearance and how I act." Our boomer bosses valued equality, so we gave it to them. We questioned authority. It wasn't enough to know what you wanted us to do, we had to know why you wanted us to do it. And if we didn't see the need for it, we weren't motivated.
In the 90's the boomers started to realize our skills with technology. We became a wanted commodity. Some Xer's started to make it into management. Corporations started tailoring their workplace towards us. Casual dress days were instituted. Salaries went through the roof to attract technically skilled Xer's. Companies started offering flex time to appeal to Gen X (although part of this was also due to boomers burning out after 25 years of being work-a-holics.) The word "telecommuting" was invented.
In our social lives, many Xer's still haven't married. Many of us grew up with divorced parents and disfunctional families and don't see the appeal of the family life. We value our friends and have made them our defacto families. When we did get married and have kids, we swore we were going to be different from our parents. While our parents devoted their lives to their careers, we devoted our lives to our kids. We promised they wouldn't be denied anything. We signed them up for swim team, soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, band, piano, ballet, and karate. We promised to protect them from the cruel world we were exposed to as kids. Since we were called failures as young adults, we were determined to boost our kids' self esteme. Nobody kept score in little league games, nobody got failing grades in school, everyone passed and everyone got a trophy just for participating. We told our kids, "It's the effort that counts."
Now in 2005 Generation X has finally established ourselves. Many of us are working hard and proving ourselves every day in society. Some of us have managed to claw up the corporate ladder. Our influence on our companies is evident. We work hard, but we're laid back. We have rewritten corporate etiquette rules and don't expect everyone to put in 50 hours per week. We still hold no political power. From our distrust of the government as youths, we had little interest in politics growing up. Now we're beginning to see how government affects us and we're becoming more active. But we hold no power. Baby boomers outnumber us and continue to elect baby boomer officials. They will continue to do so for probably the next 20 years. We're disgusted by the politics, the pompousness, the double-talk, and the ineffectiveness of government and our baby boomer officials. We still don't trust them. We wish things were different.
My hope in writing this is if you are an Xer you can read some part of this and say "Yeah, that's exactly how I feel but I never knew why." Or if you aren't an Xer, hopefully you've read this and say "Now I understand why Xer's are the way they are." If you're a Gen Xer and you can relate to this, let me know. If you're not a Gen Xer and you agree or disagree with this, I want to hear it.
posted by Mike at 6:03 PM
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