When were you born? Does it matter? Yes, and for many reasons. One of those is the reality of who you are and the characteristics you display based on the generation you now represent. More on how I exactly feel about this later.
In the workplace today we have at a maximum, four generations interacting with one another. For sure, three. Before I get started, you must embrace something that drives me crazy (part one of my rant). As you research and read about the generations, you will find very quickly, no one has the same dates for the generations. You can read one person who says the Baby Boom starts in 1943 and another says 1946. Generation X has a start date from 1959 to 1965. I have found no consistent date for the generations.
Therefore, I look at the socioeconomic placards as my differentiators. In other words, I look at benchmarks in time to define some of the behavioral choices made by a certain age group. The big question mark is a variable much harder to isolate and this is the familial influence; a.k.a. the family influence into one’s decision making machine. That is the secret, illusive hinge…the family influence – mom and dad. You can be part of specific part of time with the events being exposed to all, but what you decide to do based on what you embrace from your family may change the data, at least from the perspective of trying to correlate similarities between similar birth dates. In other words, if you are one of ten people born in 1945 and experienced the Vietnam era, you may have a preconceived notion that you were obviously a “hippie” engaged in free love and were anti-war. Not so. How did your parents raise you? What if you were raised in rural America and the flag mattered and honor in serving your country trumped all? What if you were raised in a open spirited family were you were taught to challenge authority and express yourself accordingly? Same birth date, same generation and yet different decision making machine. Do you sense where I may go with this rant later?
The Veterans Generation is essentially everyone born prior to 1943-1945. I have recently researched that there are two groups within this generation. Those born from 1900 to 1925 are considered a sub-group. These are the men and women who experienced America’s Golden Era as children and faced both the depression and served in some way in World War Two as teenagers and adults. They are referred to as the Greatest Generation (most notably by Tom Brokaw). Then there are the ones born after 1925 to 1940-something; children during the depression and World War Two. The only question I have is how someone might look at the world fighting in Normandy or Tarawa versus a five year old listening to news on the radio? Does that matter? Yes.
The Baby Boom happened by most accounts after World War Two (1945) to about the early Sixties (say 1960 to 1964). These are the children of men and women who saw the worst of the war and depression and vowed to make better. As far as the veterans of World War Two, they had the GI Bill and they went to college. Women became the workforce (approximately seven million got a taste of being out of the kitchen) and they liked it. Can you see how the catalyst, however devastating it was with 20 million dead, impacted choice? They became a group of people deciding to do something different. Life was possible and at your grasp. And so they flocked to work – it defined them, they contributed to a greater good (albeit not their own – more on this later). By the way, did you notice, I wasn’t talking about the baby boomers, but rather their influences… the veterans. I believe that to be the important part of this series.
Generation X was born from about 1960 to 1980. You can debate is it 3 to 5 years here or there and that is my point. The years do not matter. It is the point of reference and what influenced it. I had both parents working, so I was the ubiquitous latch-key kid. I came home alone and watched Gilligan’s Island. Can you imagine how that shaped my “being managed” mindset? This is not about the TV series. I came of age really in the 1980’s. If you are keeping track that is when the next generation is being placed into a box. Does that matter? Yes, wait for it.
The next generation is called “Y” or “Millennials” or “Nexters”; depending on who you read. They are the ones taking on jobs as we speak. They are unique, just like we were and are. My goal is go into more specific particulars, not now.
Here is my rant. I think putting people into a generational box is wrong. It is like saying all Generation X’ers are cynical. Not true. You do not know all the facts. They have been raised by Jim and Linda and that is a serious variable that messes with the formula. Stop saying all Gen “whatevers” is like this. That is inaccurate to the individual. I have always believed the context of the situation dictates the next step, not the generalization about what the formula may dictate. This implies, as a manager and leader, we must get to know our team. Sorry, it is hard work.
Here are my generalizations for consideration:
Veterans are awesome and have more in common with Gen Y then you know (more to follow). If they are in the workplace, they are mostly strategically placed in the business; i.e, advisory or specific job function.
Baby Boomers are retiring out of senior leadership positions. They are opening up their knowledge to Gen X. They are the biggest generational scale, which means when they leave, they leave a huge hole. They have been the entrepreneurs. Who takes up the slack?
Gen X is finding its ownership type of mindset. They are entrepreneurs, but under different circumstances. They face a down economy and fierce competition. They are looking at what makes “comfortable”. This is the group with more of an antagonistic role with Gen Y. We are competing for place. Gen X is, umm…”cynical” and Gen Y is figuring out what they need to figure because of our reaction to them. We can’t figure them out – that is the issue.
Gen Y is born from about 1980 to 2000. That is the only date which seems the most consistent. They are either in the workforce or finishing their degrees right now. We will go deeper with each blog.
For now, more of my rant. I feel we are who we are based on many things. It is exposure to education, events, personal and professional experiences, and, quite frankly, some of these things are quite outside the realm of our generational prescribed characteristics. We are who we are based on we have faced, not what a sociologist says our generation is defined by. I am more a Baby Boomer than Gen X. Is this because I was born in 1964 or because I had a certain child rearing? It has been said Gen Y’ers are all optimistic. What about the slackers? You see, I have found, regardless of generation, there are the “exceptional”, the “average” and “slacker”. Is that generational or just human nature? If the former, we should be able to make a utopia. If the latter, then we have to get to know what makes “Skippy”, “Skippy”. More work, but worth it? You tell me…
Cheers