Generation Text

Balancing Work and Home Life: WHOLE Life

2005-05-10T09:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing that great of a job of keeping up with this blog...guess I'm not balancing work and home (and for me, Graduate school) very well... Here's a link to an article on MSN I found interesting...I'll check in later...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7774625/

Where does the Baby Boom end and GenX begin?

2005-04-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

Not sure if you have seen the articles on the new Gap concept store- the one focused on "Baby Boomers" (40 to 50 year olds.)- these articles have gotten me thinking. At first I was sure that there was no such thing as a 40 year old Boomer because I have 40 year old friends and that just didn't make sense. But alas, though math-challenged as I am, I did finally realize that the last of the Baby Boomers was born in 1964- which would make them about 40 now (41 actually).

The mystery is that my 40 year old friends have the same attitudes as I do (I am 33)--they are not like the "Me Generation" Boomers I have worked with, and, in some cases, am related to. They are honest, straight-forward, conflicted, loyal, disaffected, intelligent, driven worriers- more like me, than my uncle for example. Turns out that the official "start date" of Generation X is 1965.

So 40 year olds through 21 year olds fall into the GenX category- does that mean that "typical" GenX behaviors apply to all these folks. I would say no- and here's why: if GenXers were (and perhaps are) shaped by their environment (economically, socially, politically, culturally) then the difference between a 40 year old and a 21 year old is huge. 21 year olds were not around during the Energy Crisis, or the hostages in Iran, they were in 10 when the Berlin Wall fell, 8 on Black Monday.

If these things impacted their behavior today, then we have to say that the end of Vietnam, the fall of Nixon, disco and Studio 54 impacted mine and I'm just not so sure that's the case. Though GenX is small, I think of it in even smaller terms: 28 to 40 year olds seems about right. Now, maybe this is a question of maturity instead of "behaviors" but I don't feel that I have ANYthing in common with someone 12 years younger than I am (I have a hard time relating to the 23, 24 and 25 year olds in my Master's classes in business school!)

I'm not sure who decided on the particular demarcation between these generations or why but I think it is interesting that there are groups of people who sort of straddle two generations--and act accordingly. I'm sure that is relevant to marketers and advertisers-how do you target a certain group if the group doesn't know who they are?

Generation X: slackers or just environmentally challenged?

2005-04-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

Ever since I can remember, someone or other, the ubiquitous "they", have been calling us Gen-Xers "slackers." I'd like to know who came up with this lovely sobriquet and why. It, seems to me this naming convention was coined somewhere around the early 1990's- when I graduated from college (1993 to be exact).

I remember graduating college with my fancy liberal arts degree in hand. I zipped down to that mecca of young professional careers, Atlanta, primed with the zeal of youth and the self-confidence that comes with never actually holding a real job. And then came the interviews, the waiting, the mountain of "don't call us, we'll call you" letters, the offers of unpaid internships, the credit card bills to pay for food and gas. 1993 was what we now call a "recession"- say it with me "RECESSION." This means that there weren't many jobs for all of us recent grads- especially with liberal arts degrees (I mean really what is a $20,000 piece of paper worth to an employer anyhow) and the jobs that were out there weren't exactly pro-salary.

This meant for me and many of my friends, there were three choices: 1) stay in school, rack up more debt but at least you don't have to deal with the "real world" just yet-- it was still on TV then and frightening enough! 2) move home, save money, hope to God that you would happen to meet a sugar-daddy (or mama as the case may have been) or 3) my choice: try your damndest to "prove" to everyone that you WERE independent, that you COULD be an adult and that you were GOOD at it too! This meant in real terms charging up credit cards to promote a lifestyle that was truly unaffordable on less than $20,000 a year, living in a fancy-on-the-outside, falling-apart-on-the-inside apartment, and generally praying that "you were good enough, smart enough and gosh-darn-it people liked you" . The early 90's fostered in me and several of my very smart, very funny, very beautiful friends a tendency towards low self esteem, depression, and other sad behavior. We were not inherently "slackers"- we were just trying to do what we thought we were supposed to do and not being very successful.

I'm not saying that I'm completely a product of my environment; I certainly had choices and chose to follow a certain path both personally and professionally. But I think I made those choices based on the information that I had at the time and my understanding of my reality (ie. the political,economic, and social climate of the time). I'm interested now in understanding more about life: the way it was, the way it is, and the way it could be in the future...

I started this site with the intention of cataloging my insights on life as a 30-something professional woman, especially about the world of work. You'll probably see postings on: the "glass ceiling", the so-called "work/life balance" issue, tying people to process and technology and "virtual organizations" and the future of the employee/employer relationship.

I'm also interested in other Xer's views on these issues--long ago, soon after I that graduation day, I started a book but (in true slacker form) I never finished it. At that time, I collected questionnaires from my peers asking about the state of their worlds. It'd be interesting to get an update now, after close to 15 years out in the world as a "grown up".

Also, if you are not an Xer, feel free to comment on this stuff. My current mentor/boss and I often have lively conversations (read arguments) about workplace GenX vs. Baby Boomer issues (career paths or lack of, benefits changes, assumption-based decision making (driven by the sheer numbers of Baby Boomers in the workforce, etc. etc). There are, in fact, lots of implications: possible problems/possible solutions--maybe together we can all come up with something that works better than what we've got going now.