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 got called a dusty old fart by one of those younger gems... at 29.
Young people in today’s America haven’t a chance for the most part...
They’re screwed, as our government and politicians completely sold them and the rest of us out.
I agree with you.
Skilled trades would be a good future choice for some but just like most other screwed up aspects of our country, it is not run by capitalism but by the government. The corupt government gets to decide who gets licensed, what the test is about, how much money it costs and who gets to bid on jobs. If it were truly capitalism the best skilled tradsman would get the job.
These spoiled brats will whine no matter what shape the economy is in. They just plain don’t want to work!
I wish I had a particular form of welfare. I’ve never received anything. Not even a student loan.
But I can see that some things need to continue.SS benefits need to continue if only for the reason that so many people have already paid into them their whole life.
Ran into you before...not personaly...but your type of employee...I sat in a room with 100 of you...we’d all been laid off...DOn’t think you’re immune...and We(gen-x) do know what you think of us...Thanks for the confirmation of intent.
Appreciate it bud.
Perhaps if their "boomer" parents had not spent so much on them giving them everything they wanted, including paying for them to go to college, then those "boomers" would have had enough money to retire long ago.
Perhaps if the "boomers" had not bought into the psychobabble school of raising children where "everyone is a winner" and all the other overprotective crap then perhaps these "Gen X & Y'er's" would know the universal truth that life is hard-there is no such thing as a free lunch and no one gives a damn about your "self esteem".
I have to laugh at these "Gen X & Y'er's" who apply for employment where I work and expect 100k to start, to write their own hours, have weekends and every holiday off and get a company car. Needless to say their resume's hit the trash after their interviews.
I have to laugh at my nephew's girlfriend who racked up 179k in student loans to go through law school and party and when she graduated decided she wanted to be a massage therapist. She fully expects her parents to sell their house to pay off her loans and buy her a car. They finally wised up and told her the harsh truth that she is an adult now. She is the one who got the loans, she is the one who signed the papers and she is responsible for paying them back. Taking responsibility for her own actions is something she does not want to do.
So "Gen X & Y'er's"...
You are adults now-get out of your parents basements and wean yourself off your parents wallets. You are responsible for yourselves and your actions. Only children blame everyone but themselves for their own problems.
So after I paid for forty some years into the governmental Ponzi schemes, if I was frugal and managed to actually put aside something for a rainy day and maybe even enjoy a private pension or perhaps a 401K 0r 403B, now you want to add a means test? Fine, just pay back what the government extorted from my salary before I even got to see the checks along with the time value of the money they stole. Otherwise shove your means test where the sun don't shine.
I had no choice as to participation in their shaky scams so don't try and change the rules now.
we will grow our way out of our current predicament.
Yeah, like that's gona' happen! It case you haven't noticed the Fed is busy printing money and the plan is rather obvious. They intend to inflate their way out of the hole they've dug. God help us all.
Regards,
GtG
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.
TRUELY SAD TO BE SO JADED!~
I agree but we need to speak this view clearly. This is not a failure of free markets because we don’t have a free market. This is a failure of government run economics.
They can go to hell with him as far as I'm concerned.
How is that “hope and change” working for those who foolishly and irresponsibly executed their right to vote for an inexperienced Democrat who is undermining the foundations of this country.
Um...Pres. Obama is not Gen-X. He's a baby boomer/Generation Jones (born 1961). Gen-X didn't come along until 1965.
Medical debt saw to that for us, but I'm not complaining. God gave us beautiful babies and they had a rough entry into this world. Doctors, hospitals, nurses are skilled service providers who earned every penny we paid them.
What medical debt didn't wipe out, this latest down turn is eating away. Our nest eggs are shrinking despite choosing "safe" options.
I plan to live life now and hopefully drop dead right around the time my children need money for college. I'm worth substantially more dead than alive!
Not bad, but as to the tax, tax everybody. If you are not paying, you have no investment in fiscal responsibility.
They didn’t “pay into” anything. Payroll taxes are just taxes. There is no lockbox, trust account or anything else. The money is simply spent as it comes in - just like the money from income taxes, tariffs, etc. I am no more entitled to something because I have paid payroll tax all my life than I am entitled to something because I have paid sales taxes or income taxes. The idea that paying payroll taxes is somehow “special” is just another government engendered delusion. Social security is just another income transfre program - welfare without much of a means test.
SS is full of IOUs.
Do you understand what that means? It means there is a huge surplus that was borrowed for other purposes.
Think about that.
Probably half of my generation had Silents for parents, not Boomers. They were kids during the Great Depression and learned to be frugal and work hard and passed that on to their children.
I look around and see the half raised by Boomers (of my own friends or childhood friends) all voted for Obama. The half raised by Silents held their nose and voted for McCain. None of them live in their parent’s basement.
It was a tough decision with a lot of risk. I was unemployed for 10 months and drew on unemployment benefits for a month before getting a contract position in the same industry, but a much smaller and friendly company. During those months of unemployment, I panicked a few times, especially at the thought of possibly losing my house.
But I never regretted the decision to leave. It was the right thing to do for me. Now, I'm going to be offered a full time position at this new company in January, doing things I'd never be able to do at the old place.
I’ve thought about for 30+ years. It is just a scam. The IOUs are not marketable government securities. All social security promises, when you cut through the lies, is to transfer massive amounts of income from younger generations to older generations through taxation. It has never ever been anything else.
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