>>“You missed eight out of ten questions on your exam, but I’m giving you an ‘A’ anyway, because I don’t want to hurt your self esteem!” Is there any better way to hurt the self esteem of everyone in class?<<
And yet, your entire generation felt that self-esteem was more important than hard work and were shocked SHOCKED to find that it was work that was the coin of the realm — not good thoughts about yourself.
>>While the Boomers were willing to “play the game” of 9 to 5 jobs, most of which was time wasting memo pushing, the Generation X’ers developed an “intelligent work ethic”, that was not appreciated.<<
Yes, stereotyping hard work that created real results is certainly “memo pushing” to people who coined the term “intelligent work ethic” — meaning “pay me for what I think about myself and not what I do.”
>>“I’ll work, and I’ll do good work with efficiency. But when the work is done, don’t demand that I sit around playing with myself.”<<
Translation: “I will sullenly put up with these silly restrictions of dress and working enough hours to get the job done and then do booboo lips because you can’t see I am as great as my parents say I am. Which surprises us because many of us had our parents call you when we were hired and have them call you when we are unhappy.”
>>This bizarre idea, that life is more than make-work, was innovated by the Gen-X’ers.<<
Are you kidding? The Boomers said “turn on, tune in, drop out.” It was later when they realized that wasn’t a really good success strategy in the long run. But they carried the idea that a man is more than his work into corporate America. It was Boomers who came up with the idea of “work/life balance.” Gen-X gave us “life/life balance.”
>>And right when they belatedly entered the work force, after the Boomers had finally been promoted higher than entry level, Jimmy Carter rewarded them with double digit inflation. So guess what, kid? You get only half the wage they got.<<
Yes, we had to work harder than our parents, since the same class of idiots as the GEN-Xers who elected the TOTUS-reader gave us the peanut-farmer. Try living through stagflation and thriving. You have no idea how good you have it.
>>Up the career ladder, it was always the case of too many bosses and too few workers. And bless the Boomers, they were always in it for themselves, and to heck with everyone else. Crappy bosses.<<
That has been the way of life since Corporate America existed. And are you suggesting Gen-X isn’t spouting “the heck with everyone else?” A more self-centered group of narcissists has never been seen on Earth. The difference is your generation grumbles “we were promised riches just for being ‘special!’ Why won’t those who have worked for all these years recognize us for being ‘special?’”
>>”The next innovation of the Gen X’ers was to be deprived of the American dream. Work hard, save your money, and there is no way you can ever be as prosperous as your parents, even if you do things just like they did.” <<
Not with your attitude, no. Thank God we have Gen Y/Millenials — they are trainable, I hope.
>>Yep, I can see how they could become bitter about that. Now entering middle age, they still have to watch the rear end of the Baby Boomers ahead of them, who always managed to get pretty much what they wanted, and knowing that they, the Gen X’ers, aren’t.<<
Excellence always wins in Corporate America. Excellence is what you do, what you produce, how you move the bottom line. It isn’t what your mommy and daddy tell you.
>>The gleaners.<<
Says a spokesperson for The Whiners.
“Says a spokesperson for The Whiners.”
Spokesman, maybe, but I’m a Boomer, not a Gen-X’er. Yet you seem to be both incredibly bitter about X’ers, yet utterly forgiving of both Boomers and Y’ers, so maybe you’ll give me a pass, too.
I’m almost a “cusper”, like Obama, coming in between the two groups, yet I am more solidly on the Boomer side. So I got to see everything crumble behind me, in time for the X’ers to lose out. Students so depressed with declining school standards that they dropped out and educated themselves.
My group even missed Sesame Street, that vapid crap targeting lead paint chip inner city youths instead of classroom studies. My group still got to enjoy all the bells and whistles of school before they were ended due to declining enrollment.
Those who stayed in school really appreciated the ennui that comes with obvious time wasting. This was their motivation to not want jobs like that.
And please don’t pretend that in most jobs you don’t spend most of your time idling instead of working. Even the US military is happy to get 1 hour of work per day per individual, though they rarely do.
This is why Gen X’ers were so happy with Reagan. Because he didn’t come across as a patronizing time waster. That republicanism was fractured with H.W. Bush however, when he broke his promise, something which X’ers take personally.
It is not whining to want efficiency and honesty. The X’ers I’ve known have been hard workers, but have been consistently screwed out of the profits of their labor. In truth, the Y’ers now have it so bad they can hardly see how bad it has become. So they are completely boned.
So, to the end, we Boomers will gobble up as much as we can, leaving the scraps for the X’ers, and the bills for the Y’ers, which there is no conceivable way they can pay.