Gen X is starting to feel the squeeze. They’re stuck between the Boomers and Gen Y and lately, it seems that companies are passing them over for the younger generation.
Gen X is starting to whine because a recent survey done this year for Deloitte Consulting LLP, found that nearly two-thirds of executives at large companies are most concerned about losing Gen Y employees, while less than half of them have similar concerns about losing Gen Xers.
According to a recent article on MSNBC Generation X is increasingly ‘whatever’ at work. Their disappointment with their companies grow, especially in light of the fact that they were just beginning to buy into how the system works. They were finally ready to adapt to the process and integrate their work/life balance needs with the corporate needs. Just then, Gen Y joined in huge numbers and now seem more poised to reap the harvest that Gen X planned for themselves.
It’s sad, I know. But now, Gen X, you know how the Baby Boomers felt when you entered the workforce and pushed them out of their jobs. To you, Boomers are old. In fact I once had an attendee at one of my seminars say, out loud, in a group of other attendees, “I wish they would just get the hell out of the way already. How am I supposed to get my promotion, if they won’t leave?” She was a Gen Xer and she was committed and passionate about her job. She was also frustrated at not getting ahead in her career according to her schedule.
So what if, now Gen Y feels the same way about Gen X?
What if Gen Y, the most highly educated group the country has ever known, is ready for Gen X to ‘get the hell out of the way?”
Remember that Gen Y is the group with ‘helicopter’ parents who told them they deserve the corner office and don’t have to start at the bottom. They enter the workforce expecting to call the CEO by first name on day one and to start at the top. Well there’s only one way that can happen and that’s if Gen X get’s passed over when the Boomers retire.
Oh yeah, with the economy in the toilet, Boomers are opting to retire later. So I guess the next group we can expect to complain is the Gen Yers, when they are passed over for the Millenials, who have already entered the workforce.