Gen Xers: More Millennial Than Millennials

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vnewman2,
User Rank: Ninja
3/4/2015 | 2:00:13 PM

Reality Bites

Excerpted from Training & Development magazine "Taking Care and Feeding Generation X" by Shari Caudron (1997):

Gen X Likes:

•Honesty—they don't like being lied to •Feedback—they want it about their performance •A lot of visuals—they like to see pictures •Speaking their language—they don't like corporate jargon •Ongoing development—they want continuous development •Fun—self-explanatory (I think)

Gen X Dislikes:

•Hearing about the past—they don't want to hear your old, boring war stories •Inflexibility—they want to control their own schedule •Being over-managed and over-watched—they don't like being micro- managed •Disparaging comments—putting down their tastes and styles •Feeling Disrespected—they don't like having their time wasted •Focusing on techniques—they want to focus on results •Being called Xers—they don't want to be labeled slackers

I dug this out from an old Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology publication. Couldn't this be said for every person on the planet though? Could it be the Baby Boomers felt the same, but no one bothered to study or ask them when they were young minons in the workforce?

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David Wagner,
User Rank: Strategist
3/4/2015 | 2:21:46 PM

Re: Reality Bites

@vnewman2- Wow, that could have just as easily been written about Millennials in the last year. Yup, I think that's the thing. We've got young people enteroing the work place. They haven't been beaten down by "the man." So the older generations decide they're going to haze them and beat them down. It is a sad and ridiculous ritual.

Thanks for digging that book out. That's awesome.

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vnewman2,
User Rank: Ninja
3/4/2015 | 2:32:17 PM

Re: Reality Bites

@David - You're welcome! As a Gen Xer, this is one of my favorite topics.

"Boomers gave Gen Xers flak for coming in and changing their enterprise. Now Gen Xers are reflecting that flak onto Millennials."

Very eloquently said.

"Pay your dues." "Nothing comes for free." "When I was kid we didn't have x, y, or z."

Age gives you a sense of entitlement. You to want others to suffer like you had to. You see the injustice in people taking the easy road and succeeding when you didn't even know where the easy road was - I think.

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Kelly22,
User Rank: Strategist
3/4/2015 | 5:02:35 PM

Re: Reality Bites

That's so interesting, just swap Gen X with Millennials and that could be written today! Sad that this is reality, but it's kind of a comfort to know that Millennials aren't the only ones getting picked on.

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Michelle,
User Rank: Ninja
3/4/2015 | 6:02:16 PM

We're always wrong

These findings aren't all that surprising. I remember when GenX was considered a complete loss for society. I disagreed with the sentiment then (as a GenX-er).

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danielcawrey,
User Rank: Ninja
3/5/2015 | 11:17:30 PM

Re: Reality Bites

Interesting information, although I am not overly surprised.

This is because I think it is Gen X that is seeing the digital lifestyle as a way to get ahead in business.

That makes sense, because they are in more senior positions and are opportunistic to capture market share related to the migration to the internet and mobile phones.

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