As a millennial, how can I understand and work with a Gen X-er?

Fortune ^ | April 22, 2015 | Answer by Mira Zaslove on Quora

[C19fan]

As an Xer, I’ve worked with and managed many millennials. And as Michael O. Church writes, people are people. Yet, there are times when knowing a little about each generation has helped me understand a colleague.

When generalizing about any group, it’s first necessary to recognize that not everybody in any particular group acts like everyone else. There is often just as much variation within each group, as there is between groups.

[Lexinom]

I guess my views are a bit odd: I'm an Xer who as a manager makes a point to praise good behavior and who appreciates this in other managers. Frankly, I have zero tolerance for those, at all levels of the hierarchy from CEO down to floor level, who never bother to say "thank you" on the grounds that it's "expected". Rudeness has no place in a successful company, and needs to be purged for success... Negativity breeds and festers... Employees who are not praised need to walk out and find another job, and perhaps another skill if their position is easily filled...

"Employees who feel good about themselves produce good results." - Dr. Kenneth Blanchard

[cripplecreek]

I suspect Mears is a female.

[VanDeKoik]

We X’ers are overly analytical and exhibit an almost emotionless personality, that’s why we were seen as slackers and having a “whatever” attitude. Millennials are almost all emotion and demand that everything cater to their “feels”.

Best way to work with us is to keep your damn drama to yourself and not look for milk and cookies everywhere. Nothing personal, we just don’t care, and don’t walk around expecting rainbows to shoot out of everyone’s rear.

[C19fan]

I wonder what effect growing up watching Star Trek in syndication has to do with that. Spock is a great role model.

[AppyPappy]

We are rewriting a system and someone asked me when I implemented it. When I responded ‘1998’, one of the programmers said “I was in elementary school”.
Grrr.....

[Mamzelle]

left hand, not right—

[dirtboy]

I do remember a narrower and less frequent term used years ago called “Tweeners” that was meant more for those born around 1960-1965 if I recall correctly.

I was born in 1960. We are wedged between two nariccistic generations, the Boomers and Gen-X. Call us 'wedgies'.

[qam1]

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.  

[Army Air Corps]

Bump.

[SunkenCiv]

The best way to understand each other is to get to know people as individuals and on a one on one basis, and quit worrying about it. The Baby Boom has a large minority that are radical anti-American ___holes, but most of us aren't radical or anti-American. ;')

[Huntress]

My advice to millennials, for what it’s worth: Do your job, think before you speak, and leave your personal problems at home.

[Marie]

I’m wondering if the differences you cite are actually a result of ‘youth’. Seriously, you’d expect a 24 year old to be less ‘with it’ than a 40 year old. Maybe that’s why we always see the younger generation as awful. (Just a thought)

My son is a good example of your second paragraph. (millennial) He was suddenly offered a ton of extra hours at his last job. That meant a ton more money. Another millennial challenged the manager in front of the entire workforce, saying that it wasn’t fair that my son was getting three times more hours than anyone else.

The manager (a Gen-Xer) blew up. “What is he doing RIGHT NOW?! He’s working! He never sits down! He’ll scrub toilets if he can’t find something else to do! The rest of you are lazing around the kitchen, playing on your f*cking phones!! You want to know why he’s got the hours?! Because he f*cking WORKS!!”

Why does he work?

Because he had a Gen-X FATHER who didn’t accept excuses and who made him work. The Gen-X mom (me) was the helicopter parent, but the dad offset that.

If the kid is raised with one overprotective parent, without the balance of the tough one, you get your average millennial.

[familyop]

LOL! Little experiment there. Only older women have said something like that to me. Thought I’d give some sass while out of slapping range.

;-)

[Ronniesque]

:-D

I just like that the definitions have changed from the less accurate/too broad “Baby Boomer” moniker.

Tweeners was a term from the 1990s that wasn’t official (so to speak) but was already identifying the problems with the Baby Boomers term for the time frame being discussed.

[Impy]

I prefer Gen Y for myself (1983)

[BuckeyeTexan]

Participation Trophy generation indeed.

About five years ago, my son’s elementary school had Western Day, which is a Texas version of Track & Field Day. The kids wore their cowboy/cowgirl attire and participated in western-themed athletic events. They had this one relay event where a rodeo clown ran onto the track to block a certain runner from advancing but did so in a comedic way. Without fail, the best runners were always the victims. I commented on it to a teacher who was standing nearby. She grinned proudly and whispered in conspiratorial fashion that they had orchestrated it so the kids who did not perform well were not “made to feel inferior” but especially so the best athletes “did not feel superior” because, “we’re all created equal.” (Wink, wink.)

I was stunned.

[Personal Responsibility]

Stunned wouldn’t have been the word I would use. The word I’d use would get me banned.

We’re all created equal but we don’t all die equal. In between, our strengths and weaknesses create the difference.

[Mama Shawna]

Exactly. I’m one of the very very first X’ers....born Jan 1965.

[To Hell With Poverty]

Oh my!! I take it she has never read Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron.” Then again maybe she did and thought it sounded like a great way to live.