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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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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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 Job Search  Career Pivot/Change Career Success Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
Social Media Multi-Generational Workplace Networking Entrepreneurship

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