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Generation X at 50 – Career Crossroads

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Career Crossroads

career crossroadsThe oldest of Generation X are turning 50 years of age, and many of them are at career crossroads!

I am encountering many older Gen Xers who are questioning their career path (just like baby boomers who started doing this 10 years ago).

In facing career crossroads, they are asking the same questions that baby boomers did, but for different reasons.

Generation X Characteristics

Those who I see encountering these career crossroads have the following characteristics:

  • Raised in single-parent households – Almost half of generation X were raised in single-parent households. Among those who are at career crossroads, there are almost as many who were raised by their fathers as by their mothers.
  • Education was seen as a gateway to success and happiness – Almost all thought that, when they completed their degrees, they would get great jobs and achieve happiness. Many achieved the first goal but not the second.
  • Single, unhappily married or divorced – Because they were career driven, many delayed marriage. This is almost equally true of men and women. Those that are married, reaching a career crossroads is hazardous to their marriages.

(More: Gen X and Y – Like Oil and Water?

Why are Career Crossroads Appearing Now?

Most baby boomers can relate to why now. Whether you call it a mid-life crisis or just reaching your 40s, it is about expectations of what could or should have been.

After working for 15 or 20 years, there was a certain expectation of success and happiness. Many who have been coming to me have the success, but not the happiness.

Others have had success, got married late, had children late, and now have obligations that put serious constraints on their career. Do they continue to climb the corporate ladder or jump off and experience life?

Career Crossroads Example

I had one female client who was an executive in her 40s—brilliant, successful and single. She stated that she needed a non-working husband to take care of life chores, just as her male counterparts had non-working wives. Her work demanded 60 plus hours every week. She was exhausted from the politics.

Instead, she decided to find a job that was more fulfilling and less demanding. She found that climbing the corporate ladder did not bring happiness.

Sound familiar?

(More: Knowing When Your Career Tank is on Empty)

Generation X versus Baby Boomers Career Crossroads

These older Gen Xers entered the workforce in the late 1980s or early 1990s. This was when the idea of working for one employer was ending (I was at IBM in 1993 when they ended the no-layoff policy). They had no illusion that their employer would take care of them. Therefore, many drove for career success in lieu of having a personal life. They delayed marriage and children. They thought that, if they worked hard, success and happiness would come. After they were successful and happy, they would get married and have kids.

I was like most baby boomers. I went to college, got a job with a large father-like company (IBM), got married, had children, and would work until I retired. Work was not supposed to bring happiness. What I earned was supposed to bring happiness. In other words, stuff was supposed to bring happiness!

Approaching Career Crossroads

The great recession and the new economy has caused many in all generations to approach career crossroads. Do you:

    1. Blindly follow a career path to earn a living and hope happiness will follow?
    2. Pursue monetary success and think happiness will flow from that success?
    3. Follow your passion to attain happiness and the monetary success that will follow?

Baby boomers followed path #1.

Generation Xers followed path #2.

Generation Y, who happen to be baby boomers kids, are following path #3.

All three paths are flawed.

These are my observations? What do you see?

Marc Miller  

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The Generational Fault Line – Quake or Tremor

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The Generational Fault Line

Why the differences between generations will reshape your workplace

generational fault lineThere is a definite Generational Fault Line that was clearly denoted in a new report I was asked to review. The report, The Great Generational Shift –Why the differences between generations will reshape your workplace was developed by Hudson, a leading provider of specialized recruitment, talent management, and recruitment process outsourcing services in the Americas and worldwide.

This is by far the most comprehensive study of generational issues in the workplace that has given psychographic assessments to a large audience (28,000) and was multicultural (22 languages).

I have written extensively on the Multi-Generational Workplace on this blog. This report largely supports many of the conclusions that I have written but is backed with a comprehensive study of thousands of workers.

Generational Fault Line in Leadership Style

Baby boomers were trained in traditional leadership traits based on leading, decisive, motivating, and persuasive. Baby boomers scored significantly higher in these leadership traits than Gen X and Gen Y.  However, the report states:

Today’s workforce does not need to be persuaded of the facts (they can check Google) but instead seeks leaders who can sift through mounds of data and translate it into meaningful insights.

Gen Y has been raised in the era of big data. It is more about being able to analyze data and translate that into business results.

Baby boomer leaders were trained to be strategic in their leadership style. Gen Yers have entered the job market at a time of tremendous change and uncertainty. The report states:

Generation Y is much less ‘strategic’ than Boomers, which may reflect today’s increasingly volatile and uncertain
business environment. It is harder than it was in the past to develop long-term business strategies, and leaders need to be nimble to deal with frequent changes to the competitive landscape.

Long term strategy is far less important in a world where you have to be able to pivot…and pivot quickly.

Do you see the generational fault line pressure building?

Boomers Will Have to Adjust Expectations

The generational fault line is going to shift. If you are a baby boomer, you have to accept it is going to happen! With many baby boomers unable to retire, baby boomers will have to adjust their expectations.

The study finds that baby boomers are less ambitious and altruistic than Gen Y. I cannot speak for everyone, but I am far less ambitious now in my late 50s than I was in my 20s and 30s.

There is no question in my mind that Gen Y is far more altruistic than baby boomers.

The report states:

As new leadership traits creep into the workplace, Boomers will need to be aware of the key drivers behind the visibly different behavior. Avoiding judgment and embracing Boomers have a great deal still to contribute to the workforce in the coming two decades, not only in their own skills but in passing on these skills and mentoring younger generations. Yet they are less ambitious and altruistic than younger people so will need to be motivated to share those skills in other ways.

I previously wrote that it is highly likely you will work for someone who looks like your kid!

Are you ready to mentor the next generation to be leaders? I have expressed concern in the past on where Gen Y will acquire and learn leadership skills given the demise of long term corporate employment.

There is a definite generational fault line between Baby Boomer and Gen Y expectations in the workplace.

Generation Y May Not Be Entitled and Impatient, Just Misunderstood

I have said over and over that:

Gen Y is the way they are because—we made them that way!

Gen Y was raised in an environment where everyone wins. Everyone gets a trophy or blue ribbon. These expectations need to be managed. At the same time, they were raised in a connected world. They are used to constant communications and, therefore, feedback.

I hear complaints that Gen Y do not have interpersonal skills. They have very different interpersonal and communications styles than baby boomers or Gen X. 

The report states:

Raised in a connected world, they will also prefer to communicate through non-traditional channels and may need more regular feedback and reinforcement than other generations think necessary.

Organizations need to ensure they are aware of the benefits of a well-rounded individual and provide opportunities for Generation Y to see and experience other traits such as motivation and persuasion in action.

What About Gen X

Lori Hock, Hudson CEO Americas stated:

Generation X will have to become the diplomats in this great generational shift. They will have to learn traditional leadership skills from baby boomers and adapt them to the new workplace. They will need to learn to lead but share with baby boomer leadership and up and coming Gen Y leaders.

Every generation is necessary going forward in to keep the generation fault line from creating an earthquake.

Every generation will need to be making adjustments and accommodations to create a stronger and more united collective.

This is just in time, especially in the USA, as we have much new and re-building to do ahead. Business, as usual, is changing much faster than any new way is replacing it.

Take the time to download and read this report, The Great Generational Shift –Why the differences between generations will reshape your workplace.

What are you doing to keep the generational fault line slowly shifting and preventing a major earthquake?

Marc Miller  

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Entrepreneur to Employee Transition

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Entrepreneur to Employee

EntrepreneurToEmployeeThe entrepreneur to employee transition is something I am seeing over and over again. There are a number of reasons this is happening:

  1. Baby Boomer business owner who is tired of running their own business. They want to sell but want to continue to work.
  2. Baby Boomer business owner or a family member of a family owned business that has gone out of business or has been sold. As you can imagine, there were a lot of small businesses that went out of business during the great recession.
  3. Gen Xer who had the entrepreneurial bug started their own business but were not successful. I am currently working with a couple of clients are now in their 30s and need to find their first real job to be able to support their family.

The commonality in all three situations is the expectation that, after a short while. the former entrepreneur will want to return to running their own business.

The entrepreneur to employee transition will require a relationship to take you across.

Baby Boomer Business Owner

Let me tell you about Dan. Dan was a business owner who had bought and sold several businesses. After selling his last business in his early 50s, Dan was tired. He did not want to retire but wanted to go back to work for someone else.

He worked his network and got a number of interviews with a large tech employer in the area. It went nowhere.

I explained to him that he scared the heck out these middle managers who could hire him.

Dan had:

  • Hired and fired people
  • Run payroll
  • Managed marketing campaigns
  • Run successful sales campaigns
  • Managed inventory and logistics

Over the 30+ years of owning his own business, he had done it all. He had far more expertise than any of the hiring managers and could do their job and do it better. They were scared of him.

He needed to find a close relationship who truly valued his expertise and would take a chance on him.

Dan eventually became a car salesman and traded options on the side. Did he become a real employee?

NO! He was still working for himself, just not as a business owner.

Family Owned Businesses

I have worked with several family members of family owned businesses that have been sold or went out of business. After having worked in a family owned business most of their lives, they do not fit the classical employee mold. There is nothing wrong with them, but they do not fit the mold.

In the next couple of weeks, I will tell the story of one who became a necessity entrepreneur, Bob Butler and Blue Spot Pets. This story is about how a close relationship allowed him to start his own business.

When the business his grandfather started was sold, he was asked could he be an employee? He thought he could. Several years later and now in his 60s he was let go.

He just could not see himself as an employee, again.

Gen X Entrepreneur to Employee

Gen Xers started to enter the job market in the last 1980s when the concept of a “job for life” with one company was coming to an end. They were far more likely to be entrepreneurs than my generation—baby boomer.

This is a very similar story to the first example of a baby boomer business owner. The difference is that many are now in their late 30s or early 40s and have started a family. They need a paycheck.

I am currently working with a gentleman who took a job that he hates. He hates it because the mission of the company is at odds with his own values. We focused on:

  • Defining his values. He is a cause-driven individual
  • Clearly defining his brand
  • Developing a target list of companies that align with his values
  • Developing the right relationships at those companies

He was just given an offer of employment from a company that aligns with his values. It is not a perfect fit, but is far better than where he is today. It is just one part of his career pivot.

The key is that it was a close relationship that got him into this company.

The transition from entrepreneur to employee is a difficult one most will fail at, but for those that do succeed, it will almost always require a close relationship.

You will not do this alone!

 

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Baby Boomers, Gen X and Y – Feedback

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Baby Boomers, Gen X and Y

Baby Boomers, Gen X and YI have been blogging on Baby Boomers, Gen X and Y in the Mult-Generational Workplace for the last month. Several of these posts have generated a lot of feedback.

If you have not already read some of the series, this is a good time to review: Multi-Generational Workplace Series.

As you might expect, a lot of the comments I received centered around Gen Y and their lack of conforming to workplace rules.

Paying their dues

There were several comments that new Gen Y employees expect to come into the workplace and rapidly move up, but that they should have to pay their dues before being able to move up.

Hmm… Pay their dues. My first reaction was why?

The world is changing at a phenomenal pace. If someone can do the job better than someone else, why should they have to wait in line? What difference does their age or years on the job make?

With the workplace rapidly moving to a more nimble place, why does anyone need to pay their dues?

Why do we have to label people?

There were quite a few comments about using the labels Baby Boomer, Gen X, and Gen Y!

These are not homogeneous groups. They are very heterogeneous with a lot of variation, especially when people are born at the edges of each generation. These labels were created by sociologists and others to understand the characteristics of groups of individuals who had common experiences. For example, Baby Boomers were uniquely shaped by having lived through the Vietnam War and Watergate eras.

In addition, the years that define Gen X and Y can be quite different!

I think the labels are good when used properly to help discuss our differences. The challenge is that each generation looks at the others through their own lenses. Each generation is different, and it is wonderful when we can discuss each in a multi-generational setting.

Gen Y Managers

There were multiple comments that Gen Y managers can be capable of managing multiple generations. My personal observation is they are more socially aware of the differences in their employees.  On the other side of the equation is who will be training them in leadership and management skills? In the good old days, large companies had management training programs, and many of today’s managers went through those programs.

The good old days as we knew it are gone. The workplace will shift to a Gen Y-dominated environment over the next ten years and this concerns me. Who is going to train them?

Gen X and Y

As I wrote in my last post, Gen X and Y are very different. The real issue going forward will be – are there enough Gen Xers to replace retiring Baby Boomers?

One of the big reasons that there are predictions that Gen Y will make up 50% of the workplace by 2020 (by the way, the SHRM article I link to defines Gen Y starting in 1975 through 1994) is because there are so few Gen Xers. Generation X is a very small generation, at approximately 50 million. Compared to the Baby Boomer Generation’s 79 million and Generation Y at over 80 million, Generation X is tiny. There are lot reasons for this:

  • Silent Generation was also tiny due to low birth rates during the depression and WW II
  • Birth Control became available in the mid-1960’s and birth rates flattened out
  • Vietnam war drove millions of Baby Boomers to college to avoid the draft and therefore, delaying household creation and having children
  • High divorce rates among the silent generation

The issue we have not discussed here is the effect of immigration. There are significantly more people in this country who fit into Gen X age range who were not born here. They do not classically fit into the Gen X experience. What do you think this means?

What do you think is going to happen?

Please read the rest of the Multi-Generational Workplace Series.

Marc Miller  

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Gen X and Y – Like Oil and Water?

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Gen X and Y – Do they get along?

Gen X and YAs a baby boomer, I would assume that an office full of employees from Gen X and Y would work together harmoniously.

WOW, is that a bad assumption!

Gen X and Y are cut from very different cloth.

Gen X

Gen X (born 1965-1982) were the children of the Silent Generation (born 1925-1945).  I was talking with a client yesterday who told me that her parents divorced in her early teens.  She said when she was in middle school it was common to hear from her friends that their parents were divorcing.

Generation X were the first latchkey kids. Their parents divorced in record numbers. To a large extent, they raised themselves. Many went to work in their teens to help support themselves and their family.

The generational echo effect is that Gen X has the lowest divorce rates. This is primarily because they have waited to get married. I currently know quite a few Gen Xers who are 40 and getting married for the first time.

I spoke at a recruiting conference a few months ago, and I was talking about how Gen Xers wait to get married. A female Gen Xer offered up that she told her parents she was gay in order to get them off her back about getting married!!

When these kids left home, many had to put themselves through college.

They also entered the workforce starting in the mid-1980s—about the time that companies were discontinuing jobs for life. The concept of loyalty to a company was disappearing.

Gen Xers created the concept of “work-life balance.”

Gen Y

Let’s contrast this to Gen Y (born 1983-2000). They are the children of baby boomers. Until recently, baby boomers have had stable marriages. Gen Y grew up in relatively stable homes when compared to Gen X.  As a baby boomer parent, we raised our child to build a college resume. We did not want him to work so that he could focus on his studies. Therefore, often their first work experience was in college—and that may have been an unpaid internship.

Gen Y entered the workforce when at the beginning of the worst recession since the great depression. Many stayed in college because they could not get a job. Therefore, this is rapidly becoming the most educated generation ever. It is also the most in debt generation ever due to student loans.

Gen Y grew up in an age of organized sports where everyone got a blue ribbon or trophy. Some will tell you they grew up entitled.

Gen Y has entered the workplace with a thud. We baby boomer parents encouraged our children to ask for what they want.

Gen Y will ask for the promotion or pay raise.

We wanted our children to study and not have to work.

Gen Y is entering the workforce with less experience as an employee than any other generation.

Today’s Workplace

As Gen Y enters the workplace, they have either baby boomer or Gen X bosses. Over and over, I have seen the mix of a Gen X boss and Gen Y employee become toxic.

These Gen X and Y grew up in very different environments.

The challenge is both baby boomers and Gen X bosses look at Gen Y employees through their own lenses expecting them to be like them.

They are not!

When Gen Y employees enter the workforce, they need far more coaching to become employees than previous generations. They do not have work experience.

If Gen Y employees do not get the experience they want in the workplace, they will leave and go somewhere else. Why?

Because we raised them to ask for what they want!

Do Gen X and Y get along?

Not really. They do not mix well, just like oil and water!

What is your experience? I want to hear your Gen X and Y story!

Please read the rest of the Multi-Generational Workplace Series.

Marc Miller  

Be sure to check out the Career Pivot Client Testimonials Page

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