Gen X vs. Gen Y - Who's Better?

When's the last time you read an article about the collective situation of Gen X? 

Right - because no one cares.  Nirvana, Eddie Vedder, the grunge thing, maybe a little bit of angst  thrown in - that was about it.  Then Gen X went to work.  No blogs talking about how much work is intolerable, no helicopter parents questioning our rejections - just plugging into working America and figuring it out. 

By the time everyone started talking about the Boomers retiring and how self-absorbed Gen Y was, we were part of the machine.  Looking a little bit like boomers, and ultimately a bit like Gen Y.

We're the middle children of history man... We are Jan Brady.. Compliant and serviceable, but not featured on the cover of the brochure... It's always Marcia, Marcia, Marcia....

What's got me thinking about that?  Ryan Healy has a post up called "A Message to Gen X" at Employee Evolution.  From Ryan's riff:

"Most of the questions I get from Human Resources and Recruiting professionals about Generation Y are the same. They are all about why this generation expects to get so much so fast, why we feel entitled to flexibility, why we think we deserve high pay immediately, and so forth. The thing that surprises me every time is that it’s not the Baby Boomers who are so upset with Gen Y, it’s the Gen Xers. The more I pay attention, the more obvious it is that it’s the Gen Xers who think we’re just lazy, entitled Millennials.

The problem is that Generation X did not get what they asked for, and Generation Y is seemingly being catered to like we are owed something."

Ryan's take includes the opinion that Gen Y is better positioned to take the reigns from the Boomers than Gen X - due to the following factors - 1) better demographics (raw numbers), 2) better use of technology, and 3) better teamwork.  It's an interesting read, worth your time.

Here's my take - numbers are numbers, so if Gen Y has more people, that's cool.  But I honestly don't know a Gen X professional who is upset about the attitude of Gen Y.   The coolest thing for me as a Gen X'er is that the Y's are focused on work/life balance, and that has a spillover effect to everyone in the workforce.  As for the technology piece, if an X is in trouble because they haven't kept up with technology or marketing trends that follow, that's an individual limitation you can't pin on our entire generation.

I'll leave the teamwork evaluation for another day.

When it comes to stereotypes about generations, see this post by John Hollon of Workforce.  It may have been obvious to you, but amidst all the talk about the Millennial, I forgot one very important fact.  Some of them aren't going to be very good.  Some will be great, some will be average, some are going to stink. 

The workplace sorts it all out on an individual level.  Big box stereotypes about entire generations are marketing hype.

Now - back to my Nirvana/Pearl Jam collector's business on eBay....

Comments

[chris]

Kris,
no STP in your ebay collection? They got a raw deal coming onto the scene behind Nirvana and PJ, but they are (arguably) just as good and their music holds up just as well today. Plus, they continued to be relevant long after Cobain's suicide and Eddie's recoil from mainstream fame.

[Alan]

Kris,

Great comments. I agree that you can't pin anything down on one generation. Although I've probably fed into the hype about millenials expecting too much, I would agree that no matter what generation you refer to, there are going to be winners as well as losers, motivators as well as procrastinators, people with vision as well as those who are lazy, etc.

We must take the best that every generation has to offer and meet the challenges that lie ahead if we are going to be a great nation once again. It is often these times of economic uncertainty that we have the ability to focus on how to once again achieve greatness for our country.

We must all work together in the spirit of teamwork so that we can transition our Boomers out to eventual retirement and move our Gen X and Gen Y counterparts into leading us into the next decade or two.

[Miss Cybernaut]

I have finally revealed whats this crap about Gen X and Gen Y about.
Someone noticed "Its strange how Gen Y is fully convinced that we actually care about what they think and keep posting us ...?? "
For me, its enough :)