Gen X: What GenX'ers Want

To celebrate the launch of this New Year, 2010, this week I will review What’s Next, Gen X? (Tamara Erickson, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2010). This is the THIRD post:

Erickson lays out some simple X’er wants: Self reliance, money (mainly for self reliance and sense of security), being good parents, having good friends, free to choose how to spend their time, and meaningful, rewarding and engaging work.

She observes that due to being sandwiched between the Boomers, who it appears will only retire kicking and screaming and the Y’s who want to be executives on the third or fourth day at work—many X’ers suffer from “middlescence” or being stuck in the middle. Thus, she notes many X’ers can at times suffer from the 3 B’s (my term, not hers): Burned out, Bottlenecked and Bored.

Gen X: A Distinct Generation

To celebrate the launch of this New Year, 2010, this week I will review What’s Next, Gen X? (by Tamara Erickson, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2010). This is the SECOND post:

Erickson discusses what constitutes a “generation,” how they’re programmed, and how specifically X’ers can move forward in their lives, given their “sandwiched” position.

A generation, according to Erickson, is “…a group of people, who, based on their age, share not only a chronological location in history but also the experiences that accompany it.” She argues that who people are now/today is a direct corollary of what they have collectively experienced personally and culturally as teens. She bases her opinions on Swiss biologist and psychologist Jean Piaget, known widely for his theories and research on child development. So, she concludes on this basis with some observations about X’ers, who have:

• A gift for detecting rhetoric (BS)
• A healthy distrust of organizations
• Strong survival skills
  
• Great personal networks
• A way of operating globally and digitally
• Are looking for alternative roads forward
• A tendency to be free agents
• Are entrepreneurial, yet pragmatic
• Are dedicated to being good parents

Here’s her take on when the various generations were born:

Traditionalists: 1928-45

Boomers: 1946-1964

X’ers: 1965-1979

Y’s: 1980-1995

Re-Generations: 1996

GenX and the New Year

To celebrate the launch of the New Year, 2010, this week I will review What’s Next, Gen X? (by Tamara Erickson, Harvard Business School Publishing, 2010).

This is an excellent primer for GenX’ers (ages 30-44 in 2009). I strongly recommend purchasing this book. I’m giving a copy to my Gen X daughter!

Sandwiched between the hyper-competitive Boomer generation and the idealistic Y generation, sit the GenX’ers, those folks between 30-44 years old. I guess one reason I like X'ers so much is that a) I have a GenX daughter, and b) they’re the ones who will be picking out the nursing homes for us Boomers! Beyond that, I’ve found X’ers to be creative, technically savvy, and entrepreneurial. And, most are unwilling to wait for Boomers—many of whom will seemingly NEVER retire.