Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Generation X -- you forgot about them, didn't you? -- is in trouble. Again.
If you were born between 1965 and 1978 (that's me!) you've been saddled with the "Gen X" label for a long time. We've been immortalized in movies, books, and television shows. We've been called slackers, hipsters, and detached.
Now most of us are in our forties, and we're in trouble. From Bloomberg Businessweek:
In Tiffany Spaulding’s 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry, she’s worked for three companies, two of which no longer exist, and relocated to four states.
Now 39 and living in Brookfield, Connecticut, she hasn’t had a promotion in five years and says she sees no chance to advance, stuck behind a wall of baby boomers. She would quit and turn her hobby of jewelry design into a business, she says, if not for the home and school loans that eat up half her salary.
Spaulding, according to a new report, is a typical member of the relatively small group called Generation X, 46 million Americans born between 1965 and 1978: They’re ambitious, squeezed by debt and frustrated by people who aren’t retiring on schedule. More than a third hope to leave their jobs in three years, a survey of more than 1,100 members of Generation X by the Center for Work-Life Policy found.
Twenty-eight percent say they are working longer hours, an average of 10 more a week than three years ago, and credit card debt helps dictate career choices for 74 percent, according to the center’s report, based on research including interviews with Spaulding and 200 others.
The Boomers aren't retiring, which makes it hard for the Gen X'ers to move up. Remember the cast of characters on NBC's hit 1990's sitcom, "Friends?" By now, they're all in their mid-forties. And probably broke. Most likely stressed out. Certainly fatter.
And they're facing bleak prospects:
“When boomers were in middle management, they didn’t have pressure from Generation X leapfrogging them because it’s not a huge group,” says [Sylvia Ann] Hewlett, who is the director of the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. “We think that Generation X is certainly feeling this more strongly because the boomers are delaying retirement.”
Todd England, an air traffic controller, says he’s “stuck in the middle,” unable to become a supervisor because older managers need him to train younger controllers.
“We’re like the layer in between the cookies,” says England, 46, who works in Los Angeles. “Unless we actually step up to the plate and take management and leadership roles, we will be the forgotten generation.”
At least some things don't change. My generation is still whining, just like we did when we were in our twenties:
The Generation X survey found that 70 percent would prefer to be their own bosses. They want the flexibility that will allow them to devote time to outside pursuits and family obligations. Less rigid hours and less time spent in the office are very important to 66 percent of women and 55 percent of men in the study, though 43 percent of women and 32 percent of men surveyed do not have children.
Less rigid hours. More flexibility. Room for promotion. As usual, Generation X leads the way in self-pitying monotony. Boy, are we going to be irritating when we all hit sixty.
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Dec '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
So that's why I'm such a whiner. It's not me, it's my generation.
Aug '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
"The Generation X survey found that 70 percent would prefer to be their own bosses. They want the flexibility that will allow them to devote time to outside pursuits and family obligations.
I read that as saying "I want to create jobs and innovate, while still promoting the well being of the family" rather than whining.
GenX, we just made the internet awesome, created the video game industry (now larger than Hollywood), were filled with entrepreneurs, and did everything we were told we weren't going to be able to do. Oh, and we used fewer drugs than our parents and have had more stable marriages, but...we're whiners.
Jul '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
As you mentioned, we're irritating now.
The boomers haven't retired yet? I just saw data that show people are retiring earlier. I wish I could find the link.
On the other hand, I find no quarrel with the idea that many would like to be their own bosses. Doesn't that mean they'd like to start their own business? Is that not something to be desired? Besides her capital problem, she hasn't even seen any of the regulations and tax law that covers her proposed business.
As an aside, if you're paying your student loans at 40, perhaps you should be better at managing your money.
Jul '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
"...and credit card debt helps dictate career choices..."
Why don't They simply increase Their debt limit as demonstrated by Their government?
May '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
I've been working for myself most of my adult life, it is great, you get to work half days!!!
You can even choose which half......... the FIRST 12 hours or the LAST...... :)
I was born in 1964, so I guess I'm a "Boomer" but I feel much more like a Gen X, so that make me a "Boom-X" ?
I have a buddy who is ex-Navy now DOD and he says that in his work the Gen-X crowd are all waiting for the Boomer to retire, the only way he has found to leapfrog the Boomers is to go and spend time in places like Iraq (he is on his second assignment there right now!) he said that the Boomers above him will not go.
At least the Gen X crowd are still not living in their parent's basements!
Nov '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
As Michael Tee hints above, my biggest beef with my generation, currently, is that they don't save for retirement.(Or if they do, it's not nearly enough.) If you're an X-er and are relying on Social Security, please don't expect my sympathy.
I've also noticed that even among my peers who give at church or to charity, they give in a scattered, limited way. Perhaps because they have drunk the Kool-Aid deeply and the government really is their church.
At the same time, never forget that we're the generation of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the cultural high-water mark of Generation X. So there's an upside! ;)
Jul '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Layla:
At the same time, never forget that we're the generation of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, the cultural high-water mark of Generation X. So there's an upside! ;) · Sep 15 at 8:38am
I beg to differ.
May '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Yeah, maybe. But, we boomers were there first and we wrote the book.
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
These generational definitions are too broad. I'm a boomer, technically, and feel absolutely no sympathy or interest in the standard boomer obsessions. Rob doesn't strike me as a Generation Xer, because I can't imagine him in a flannel shirt nodding along to Nirvana.
Someone born in 1965 was 15 during the Reagan-Carter election; someone born in 1978 would have little memory of the Reagan years today. I don't know what's supposed to glue this group together.
Dec '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Stu In Tokyo
I was born in 1964, so I guess I'm a "Boomer" but I feel much more like a Gen X, so that make me a "Boom-X" ?
Sep 15 at 8:38am
I was born at the tail end of 1959, and the "Boomer" tag has always kind of grated on me. There is a pretty vast generational difference between someone born in 1946 and one born in 1960. They had Vietnam, by the time we came along the big deal on that front was re-instating registration for the draft. Not being drafted, but having to register. Their college experience was the hippie movement and war protests. Ours was Animal House.
And why is it that the Boomer generation is generally figured as those born from 1946 through 1964 (18 years) whereas Gen X is 1965 to 1978 (13 years)? I think they missed a group from say 1955 to 1964.
Feb '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Rob Long:
The Boomers aren't retiring, which makes it hard for the Gen X'ers to move up.
... Less rigid hours. More flexibility. Room for promotion.
There are many downsides lurking behind those somber calls for working till seventy or later. A young person can't advance if the next level positions don't open up. The result is stagnation at all levels. The military, and many corporations, have long recognized this by instituting up or out policies. This is all but impossible to implement on a national level because of the disastrous implications for unemployment on the out side of the equation. Barring massive job creation, extending the retirement age is a disastrous lose-lose proposition.
Which brings us to less rigid hours etc. Don't like 9 to 5 (or before I retired 5 AM to 8 PM plus 24/7 call and you can forget lunch)? Start your own business. Join up with someone else who is starting a business. Build up a company that creates jobs instead of standing bovinely in line waiting for the next eventual opening. The hours are longer, the demands greater, but you might find it more rewarding.
Edited on Sep 15, 2011 at 9:58amMay '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Snow Bird
Rob Long:
The Boomers aren't retiring, which makes it hard for the Gen X'ers to move up.
... Less rigid hours. More flexibility. Room for promotion.
There are many downsides lurking behind those somber calls for working till seventy or later. A young person can't advance if the next level positions don't open up. The result is stagnation at all levels. The military, and many corporations, have long recognized this by instituting up or out policies. This is all but impossible to implement on a national level because of the disastrous implications for unemployment on the out side of the equation. Barring massive job creation, extending the retirement age is a disastrous lose-lose proposition.
This statement is right on. Like it or not, every proposed solution to SS and Medicare involves delaying retirement, but every company's solution to cost-cutting is to toss out the old geezers (e.g., people my age). People over 50 are the least employable int he population.
We need a social compact that scales back salaries and responsibilities after age 50 but retains the worker. Saves money, makes room, but no way to implement in free markets.
Mar '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Millenials are a generation that has come of age in a time of war and recession.
Can Gen X'ers look there for solace?
Apr '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Which brings us to less rigid hours etc. Don't like 9 to 5 (or before I retired 5 AM to 8 PM plus 24/7 call and you can forget lunch)? Start your own business. Join up with someone else who is starting a business. Build up a company that creates jobs instead of standing bovinely in line waiting for the next eventual opening. The hours are longer, the demands greater, but you might find it more rewarding. · Sep 15 at 9:53am
Edited on Sep 15 at 09:58 am
But Snow Bird, just think of all those corporate jets you are going to own....
Feb '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Duane Oyen
We need a social compact that scales back salaries and responsibilities after age 50 but retains the worker. Saves money, makes room, but no way to implement in free markets.
Not easy to implement as it requires a major attitudinal adjustment by both the employer and the employed, but can be well worth the effort. A great deal of knowledge and expertise is currently squandered. Unfortunately, there is also plenty of truly dead wood being pruned that is of no earthly economic or organizational value. I do not know the solution, except that sweeping government diktats are not part of it.
Feb '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Cper
But Snow Bird, just think of all those corporate jets you are going to own....
Anything to avoid having to go through TSA security.
Jul '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
This would be reasonable if the problem were Gen X profligacy. If not, you're begging the question.
If you're stuck in a relatively low-paying job with limited opportunity for advancement where are you supposed to get the surplus income to save?
Edited on Sep 15, 2011 at 10:54amJul '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Snow Bird
Which brings us to less rigid hours etc. Don't like 9 to 5 (or before I retired 5 AM to 8 PM plus 24/7 call and you can forget lunch)? Start your own business. Join up with someone else who is starting a business. Build up a company that creates jobs instead of standing bovinely in line waiting for the next eventual opening. The hours are longer, the demands greater, but you might find it more rewarding. · Sep 15 at 9:53am.
Edited on Sep 15 at 09:58 am
Would that it were so easy. Will and hard work are necessary but not sufficient, as you are surely aware. You also need capital and luck to start a successful business. Oh, and you have to produce something at lower cost to yourself than someone else is willing to pay for it. There are an awful lot of failures, too.
Feb '11
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
grotiushug
Would that it were so easy.
True. I don't recall including the word easy. Very little worth doing is easy.
Jul '10
Re: Gen X vs the Baby Boomers
Duane Oyen
We need a social compact that scales back salaries and responsibilities after age 50 but retains the worker. Saves money, makes room, but no way to implement in free markets.
The first part is exactly wrong. People build up skills, ability, and acumen during their experience at their respective careers. The reason that most get paid more for their efforts is because they are worth it. Here's a great example: All else being equal, do you want your surgeon to just have matriculated from his residency or one who has a decade or two of experience? (He might even be over 50!) Seldom is the case that someone young acquires a position within a company that gives them a lot of responsibility without having to prove his mettle.
There is no issue with a company giving their employees an incentive to retire because of their salary, benefits, etc. But the company has to realize there's a tradeoff in doing so. And, more importantly, it is not such an issue if the person retiring still wants to be a productive member of society.