Recession intensifies GenX discontent at work

[marmar]

AP, via Detroit Free Press:



Posted: Nov. 16, 2009
Recession intensifies GenX discontent at work

By MARTHA IRVINE
ASSOCIATED PRESS


They're antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too.

Sounds like Gen Y, the so-called "entitlement generation," right?

Not necessarily, say people who track the generations. In these hard times, they're also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They're the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between baby boomers and their children, often feeling like forgotten middle siblings — and increasingly restless at work as a result.

"All of a sudden, we've gone from being the young upstarts to being the curmudgeons," says Bruce Tulgan, a generational consultant who's written books about various age groups, including his fellow Gen Xers. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.freep.com/article/20091116/BUSINESS07/91115024/1320/Recession-intensifies-GenX-discontent-at-work

[Greyhound]

1. I think many are realizing what an awful deal this system is and they are understandably

looking for alternatives to wasting their lives doing something they hate just to make some asshole they wouldn't talk to IRL rich.

Change is coming, that is inevitable, but ramping up the status quo may well result in changes that the PTB won't like.

[phantom power]

2. Economy aside, this is also called "entering middle age"

Of course you've gone from being young upstarts to curmudgeons -- you're fucking 40. This is a mystery?

:rofl:

[marmar]

5. "entering middle age"

As a 37-year-old GenXer, I refuse to accept that. 37 is the new 27......I'm just a baby!!! :P

[phantom power]

6. Heh. I just turned "the new 30" this year...

I keep trying to tell myself I'm "the new 30" but it's not working. I've been experiencing this weird urge to tell kids to get off my lawn. Kids don't even hang out on my lawn.

But seriously, at some point, you look around and realize your generation is simply no longer the young turks. Not a bad thing, but that phase of life is now somebody else's gig. You need no longer apply.

I'm a forty year old while male yuppie. Demographically speaking, I am The Man.

:hide:

[MattBaggins]

11. I just turned "30" this year

but I've been a curmudgeon for years.

[Kalyke]

8. Some of us look and act fabulous for 40.

I'm neither an upstart nor a curmudgeon.

I'm a seasoned, spicy curry, rich with the heated sprouts of youth and tempered with the healthy fibers of Dal.

[Kalyke]

9. Dupe

[Romulox]

3. Interesting concept for an article, but the article itself was a dissappointment

Just a few anecdotes strung together...

[Bonobo]

4. Well many of us graduated in the mid 80's when the job situation was as bad as it is now.

1980~1984 was a crappy time. We discovered sex would kill us and education wouldn't get us a job.

Also there were Members Only jackets to contend with.

[Kalyke]

10. This much is True.

[Romulox]

14. Actually, there was some damn good music from that era, too.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ZNPLfbw0gtg/SNdmg6rrJhI/AAAAAAAABh4/xvFueu3BNhI/s320/Keene,-Songs.jpg

[AwakeAtLast]

37. And 1988 wasn't a whole lot better.

We've been waiting for the good times our whole adult lives.

[Sinti]

7. I find it disturbing the way they pit generations against each other

I've seen it here, too. This generation gap is a total crock and distraction.

As a top end Gen Xer (43 now) I can promise you it's about money, treatment of employees as if they are machinery, and a feeling that you work for the murder machine and grinds up souls before sending them to hell. Yes, we are a little unhappy in our work lives. Many boomers are also unhappy in their work lives and Gen Y is unhappy everywhere I go unless they're still in college.

Oh, and they want work-life balance, too. - Yes, being on-call 24/7/365 as many of us are is ridiculous, especially when it's for reasons that don't make sense we are not doctors or emergency responders, we do clerical work. We watched our parents get destroyed by the greedy parasite class, and now we're trying to figure out how we shrug off this disease.

"What's going to define me as a Gen Xer is how I come out of this. What's going to define me is, 'What have I done to allow myself to take advantage of the market when the market turns around?'" he says.

Sometimes, it means working for less money.

That last line in this excerpt is the kicker. They want us all to expect less money. The "new normal" is definitely being sold as normal - less money, fewer jobs, if you're not special in their eyes and if you're lucky you might get a job in fast food.

edited to add the word "if"

[blogslut]

12. Good

X is the generation that allowed employers to ignore 40-hour weeks and benefits in sacrifice to "productivity". It's about time they realized they were getting screwed.

[Romulox]

13. I read the most bizarre theories here on DU. This is up there with

"Gen Xers put Reagan into power!" You aren't the person who keeps posting that, are you? :shrug:

[blogslut]

17. Disagree with me all you want

While I've never said a thing about Reagan and GenX, I stand by my claim about that generation and the degradation of standards in work hours and benefits. I read article after article, in the 90's, that detailed how GenX peeps were perfectly happy to work 14-hour days and trade benefits for stock options in companies that eventually tanked.

[Romulox]

18. You read an article in the '90s, did you?

:rofl:

[blogslut]

19. No

I read several articles, primarily concerning various Internet startups and their GenX employees. But you go ahead and reconfigure my words to suit your need to feel superior. I hope that serves you well.

[Romulox]

20. I think we've given your theory (and your faded magazine clippings from the '90s) all the attention

you deserve. I read a few magazine articles in the '90s, myself, after all. :eyes:

[Electric Monk]

22. Read much Douglas Coupland? didn't think so.

[blogslut]

24. I'm one year older than Mr. Coupland

I prefer to associate myself with Generation Jones - too young to be a Boomer, too old to be a GenXer.

[Xithras]

26. Most of us viewed that as a gamble, not as a meaningful career.

And a 14 hour day was SHORT. I regularly put in 16-20 hour days at startups in the 90's, and was one of those infamous people who had a cot in his cubicle. It wasn't uncommon for my wife to only see me on weekends.

It was an opt-in gamble. You jumped into a company with the promise of options, and then worked yourself to near-death building the value of the company. Why? Because the more the company was worth, the more YOU were worth (money wise, anyway). The benefits, and even the hourly rate, were largely unimportant. The goal was to get the company value up enough to sell those shares and bail wealthy.

For most of us, it never panned out. I was personally making about $125k a year, so I was doing well financially, but at one point I actually had about $1.1 million in various stocks, all of which tanked before I could actually exercise them. The total payout on those stocks was just under $240k by the time all was said and done.

While it didn't work for me, I know many people who it DID work for. An ex-cubemate of mine went to work at a startup in 1998 that was bought out by Yahoo. He became a multi-millionaire at 26. The last time I heard from him, he was building a home in the Italian Alps. Not bad for someone who grew up on wrong side of the 101 in Palo Alto.

Standardized work hours and benefits are for people trying to build long term careers. We weren't looking for a career. We wanted to retire before we hit 30.

[nickinSTL]

40. I'll disagree with you

I have never done anything of the kind, nor anyone I know of my age bracket (I'm 36).

In the 90s, I was in college, followed by a year of unemployment, followed by a couple years making rather a low amount of money working 40hrs a week, followed by another year of unemployment, before getting another job that didn't pay much working 37.5 hours a week.

I've never had a stock option in my life, and no, I wouldn't trade work time for them. And I wouldn't have then, either. I needed to eat.

Like so many generalizations, you take a few examples and paint the rest of the group with the same brush. :eyes:

[jenniferj]

27. As a Gen X'er I wasn't old enough to vote when Reagan or Thatcher

were elected, I was still to young to vote when they both left office...it was the parents of Gen X that put Reagan and Thatcher into office... The parents of the kids I was at school with who voted for Thatcher were not Gen X we are the children of the war generation and baby boomers..

[marmar]

28. Agreed.....

The first presidential election I was eligible to vote in was Clinton-Bush 1992

[Odin2005]

34. It's a popular myth held by Boomer "Progressives".

[grace0418]

15. I'm Gen X and I "allowed" no such thing. In fact, I got out of the insanity and started

working for myself. At least any long hours I work are all for my own benefit.

[TwilightGardener]

21. Well, no--young employees do not dictate company policy. Had to be baby boomer bosses

coming up with THAT shit. (almost 40, still defending my generation).

[Electric Monk]

23. bingo

[Touchdown]

29. That's stupid. Who offered us the 65 hours or the door?

Boomers.

Who told us over and over again that the "free Market" is the way to go, and a we society is bunk? The older folks.

It's the cycle of conservative trends that we came of age in that is to blame. Xers had no power in the workplace in the 90s. We were barely above gopher status. The bosses gave us an offer "we can't refuse". And in the Era of "Big Government is over", what were we supposed to do? Starve?

At 44 I'm at the top of the Xers. I was too young to vote for Reagan in the first. I was in the Army basic training and not given a chance to vote in the second.

[juno jones]

30. They didn't exactly give us a choice.

"Allowed"???

PS: 1963 and I have no idea if I'm X or Jones. I call it the 'blank generation' ala Mr Hell. We exist so others can write their own version of our history on our backs. I graduated in '81 to no jobs. I have been struggling ever since, roaming this fair land, trying to get an even break.

[Statistical]

31. You are aware that Gen X can be as young as 32.

32-18 = 14.
2009 - 14 = 1995 (age turned 18)

First National election they could vote for was 1996.

[Johonny]

39. good call

I'm smack in the middle of the gen age span. I didn't even join the normal work force until 1999. You have to figure into your calculation that the high tech jobs he's talking about were for people with 4 year college degrees and even 4-5 years graduate school. So not just 32-18 but 44-22 or 44-27. A lot of the Gen X generation he's referring to weren't around in the 1990s to do what he claims they were doing. They were still in school.

[Odin2005]

32. Oh great, another Boomer bashing Gen-X.

Gen-X were the fucking VICTIMS of that BS. It was the Boomers that went ga-ga for St. Ronnie. :eyes:

[ArbustoBuster]

36. You have no idea what you're talking about.

We didn't work 14-hour days in the 90s because we wanted to. We did it because if we didn't, we would be fired.

I like eating and having a roof over my head. Those things require a job. And that requires not being fired.

So take your misconceptions and blow them out your ass. Right after you pull your head out of it.

And I say this as someone who DIDN'T work for a dot-com in the 90s. But my Boomer-age bosses in the corporate IT world still expected me to work at least 12 hours a day without any extra compensation. That was what "salary" meant to them - I work until I drop, but don't get paid any more than if I worked 40 hours per week.

[Blue_Tires]

16. me discontented? at the fact that

i've maybe made decent money 1-2 years out of my career? talk about stating the obvious!

[liberal_at_heart]

25. Alot of us want to do work that is meaningful and that makes us happy

But we have to remember that sometimes when times are hard just feeding our family can be meaningful and can make us happy. That doesn't mean that once things improve we can't try to find work that fulfills us. It just means that while times are hard we need to try to shift our priorities, think about things a little differently. We can do our job well so we can be proud of the work we do. Look at our children's smiles when we fix a delicious meal for them or play a simple game with them. Sometimes doing things outside of work can make us happy. Volunteering, finding a hobby we enjoy, or just visiting with friends. Believe me I know it's not easy putting dreams on hold. My dream has been on hold for 15 yrs now. I've tried to go back to school while raising my kids but sometimes it is just too hard to do both at the same time. But now I look forward to helping my children fulfill their dreams. I know I can't live vicariously through them. Their dreams are not my dreams but it is nice to see them succeed and I want to help them succeed. Hopefully someday I'll get to live my dream or maybe my dream will simply change a little. But just because it changes a little doesn't neccassarily mean it will be bad, just different than what I exptected. What is it they say about life? Life is what happens while you're making plans. I know one thing I've learned as I've gotten older. To find joy where I can find it.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Quantess]

35. They're tired of being fry-cooks.

They thought their Bachelor's degree would get them a better job than that.

[cmf]

38. I'm bitter and discontent about this article

:P

Tee hee. Anyway, it seems like they gathered up a bunch of cliches about Gen Xers from the 90's and applied it to 40 year olds. But I have noticed that it is a common sentiment among me and the other Gen Xers at my office.

[Fleshdancer]

41. WHO is content with work right now? Tell me what generation is happy.

The economy sucks and we're all expected to be more productive with less employees, less resources, crappy (if any) insurance and other benefits, and somehow it's only the GenXers that are cranky about it? Either this article is wrong, or all the other generations are high on happy pills.