- Work to live: national turnover - 36 months
- 61% Text Message everyday
- 40% touched by divorce growing up
- Priorities: family and social values over work
- Raised in a culture of media questioning authority figures
- Lack of trust in corporations and government, grew up in 1980s, decade of layoffs
More on Gen X
These quick sound bytes of information are not intended to persecute nor to defend Gen Xers. But the facts are clear. The childhood environment of the Gen Xers, was radically different than the environment that the Boomers experienced as children. This is not an editorial on better or worse, just different.
To understand the reasons for the differences, I encourage you to just read a few excerpts from the book...
Gen Xers never use the terms to describe themselves. Can you blame them?
Generation X
The Twenty-Something Generation
The Me Generation
The Lost Generation
The Generation Without a Conscience
The Thirteenth Generation
Yuppies With a Conscience, but Without Fat Paychecks
Baby Buster Generation
The Free Generation (G.Holz)
Can you remember the happy days of elementary school? When you were in, say, fifth grade, and just getting off the bus. How would you have felt if you had come home to a dark and empty house? Doors locked; nobody home. Talk about panic. Well, this generation was the first generation that was raised, by design, to come home from school to an empty house. Difference Number One.
They came from either single parent households or homes in which the father and mother both worked during the day. They were enrolled in after-school programs until reaching the age of 10 or 11, when they were encouraged to begin their independence.
More often than not, the family schedules required an air-traffic control plan, and the concept of a family dinner was something that showed up every few weeks on The Cosby Show. On those rare occasions when the family did gather together, the conversation might have been about Uncle Jack or even Dad being laid off due to something called an LBO, and their favorite baseball hero going to another city due to something called free agency. Talk about loyalty. Difference Number Two.
What if I told you that in this generation, 40% were raised in single parent households, and Gen Exers were four to five times more likely to have experienced divorce in their families than their Boomer predecessors. Difference Number Three.
The nightly news always had a new feature story about a television evangelist or politician playing by a new set of rules, both morally as well as legally. But it really did not seem to matter to anybody. Maybe they were not real people anyway or maybe new rules were becoming the new norm. Difference Number Four.
For Boomers...
The Beatles were singing, "Here comes the sun, little darlin …" and authority figures, well, they were authority figures and were obeyed out of fear and respect. It was the culture of the day and it was tradition. It was what we were taught and what we knew to be true. You see, I am a Baby Boomer, and maybe you are too.
For Gen Xers
The radio played lyrics from songs like Chapin's: "When you coming home Dad, I don't know when, but we'll get together then…" The same guy that was President also appeared on black and white movies occasionally, at Notre Dame of all places. What is a Gipper anyway?
You and I watched and cheered as John Wayne ate apple pie and conquered the enemy in sensationalized war movies. The Gen Exers watched television shows like "M*A*S*H" represent war in a much different light and questioned a government that was seemingly insensitive to the brutalities of human conflicts.
Generation X | General Statistics |
Born: | Early to mid 1960s through mid to late 1970s |
Married: | 55% with an additional 7% living together (7) |
Children: | 65% of Gen X women have children (7) |
Technology: | They learn four to five new software titles each year (8) |
Job Stability: | Many change jobs every 18 - 36 months (9) |
Ethnicity: | 32% are non-white (24% for Boomers) (10) |
Childhood: | 40% from divorced parent households (11) |
Religion: | 40% attend church twice a month
(Boomers 43%) (12) |
| 25% have confidence in religion
(Boomers 22%) (12) |
| 47% said church teachings were important for personal decisions
(Boomers 41%) (12) |
Were there any surprises in there for you? Probably not what you expected?
Trust and Loyalty...lack of...where does it come from?
When describing Gen X, there is an issue of perceived lack of loyalty or trust to their corporate allegiances…certainly not the blind trust of the Boomers... Why?...
"Loyalty is dead. Corporations killed it. In the 1980s GM, IBM, AT&T, US West, and others cut 3.4 million jobs in the United States. Call it 'downsizing, right-sizing or re-engineering;' whatever you call it the massive layoffs of the 1980s and subsequent recession cut a deep gash in America's security blanket. The millions who lost their jobs weren't just 'unnecessary overhead;' they were Gen Xers parents." (Author, Rebecca Ryan July 31, 2002 Entrepreneur Magazine) Now let me ask you this. In the eyes of a child, who is right? The corporation claiming the parent was no longer needed anymore, or the heart of the child that still sees the parent as a trustworthy superhero?
Generally
- Independent
- Transient
- Process Information in Sound Bytes quickly
- Lightening fast learners
- Function well in Peer Team Groups
- Benevolent (Read below, it may surprise you…)
According to data compiled by the Independent Sector, one of the country's leading resources on charitable contributions, the giving trends for Gen Xers are statistically equivalent to those of the Boomers. In the survey under the category of "All Households," those who contributed in the age bracket 30-39 contributed an average of 2.4% of the household income to charities and volunteered an average of 7.4 hours per month. For those surveyed in the age bracket 40-49, the figures were 2.5% and 7.4 hours per month. And in the age bracket 50-64, the figures were 2.8% of income and 6.1 hours per month. (20)
Do the results indicate that this "aloof" generation, this "aimless self-centered generation" actually has a heart or even passion? And, perhaps more importantly, puts its money where its mouth is? As a manager you cannot channel what does not exist, but the surveys reflect there is energy or passion there, and we need to find ways to tap into this resource to make our companies more effective.
Bowden Story
Let me close this section with one last metaphor. I recently saw a television interview with the legendary football coach Bobby Bowden. Coach Bowden has had a tremendous career, and when he chooses to retire, he could well finish with more victories than any other coach in the history of college football. And I apologize up front to him and to you for paraphrasing as best as my memory will allow.
When asked to describe the major differences between the young college players of 20 years ago and the players he is recruiting today, he responded that 20 years ago, when they were told to run through the wall, they simply ran through the wall. For the athletes of today, usually bigger, faster and stronger than those in the past, when asked to run through the wall, they want to know why. Do you see the difference? After he successfully explains why it is important for them to run through the wall, they simply run through the wall.
The concept of blind trust in corporate America or even our government is gone forever. Please do not interpret the lack of trust as insubordination; it just is not true. So deal with it. Deal with it in the way you manage the Gen X Manager or Employee, or be left behind. I suggest you deal with it, and in the final section of the book, we will help with some suggestions. You OK with that?