Baby Boomers, GEN X, GEN Y...

[Master slacker]

I dislike the whole generational labeling in the first place. Is there really a break between generations on January 1 of any given year? No. And to generalize the behavior of any particular generation between given years is, in my opinion, stupid. How about this for generational breakdowns?

Grandparents (or great, etc...)

Parents

Young adults

School age

Diaper destroyers

 

[frazil]

^ hmm, you sound pretty critical. Let me guess, gen x?

. I agree that there's a lot of generalizing going on, but there are some big differences between people born at different times. Our work has started offering generational training to management to help bridge communication gaps between the groups.

 

[YMZ PE]

^ Agreed. The intent isn't to deny people their individuality, it's to identify trends in each generation that help us to understand ourselves and each other better.

I take it MS doesn't take those "Are you Good-Girl Hot or Bad-Girl Hot?" quizzes in Cosmo too often.

 

[engineergurl]

I dislike the whole generational labeling in the first place. Is there really a break between generations on January 1 of any given year? No. And to generalize the behavior of any particular generation between given years is, in my opinion, stupid. How about this for generational breakdowns?

Grandparents (or great, etc...)

Parents

Young adults

School age

Diaper destroyers

Doesn't make sense, I'm definitly not a young adult (imo) but not a parent...

 

[Krakosky]

83

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

^In a row?

 

[engineergurl]

back in high school, I was so in love with a guy that 83 as his football number ... or maybe it was 84... college boyfriend was number 57 I def remember that...

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

back in high school, I was so in love with a guy that 83 as his football number

Took me until my mid 20s to appreciate #83.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

^^^ I thought you preferred 12...

 

[engineergurl]

leave it to me and VT to twist a thread, sometimes I think only JR or Fudgey could top our mad skilz..... are those two off making sweet man love or I am a Gigantic *********

 

[RIP - VTEnviro]

It's a gift, what I can I say.

 

[mudpuppy]

I think only JR or Fudgey could top our mad skilz..... are those two off making sweet man love or what?

Eww, that sounds messy.

 

[Supe]

Somewhat on the cusp between X and Y, though I think their "Y" description characterizes the later years of Y, more so than the early ones. Today's teenager's may as well be aliens to me, even though I was born in the 80's.

 

[csb]

^ Agreed. The intent isn't to deny people their individuality, it's to identify trends in each generation that help us to understand ourselves and each other better.

I take it MS doesn't take those "Are you Good-Girl Hot or Bad-Girl Hot?" quizzes in Cosmo too often.

:Locolaugh:

Our work also has generational training. It was mostly because the old timers thought the whippersnappers were lazy...or something like that. Actually, the struggle was that Gen X and GenY both don't buy into working at the same place for 30 years and getting the gold watch. The Veterans and the Baby Boomers (to a certain degree) felt working at more than one place showed you weren't trustworthy. It's interesting to see how generational events shape a group of people. No one nowadays would pledge lifelong allegiance to a workplace, because companies don't stick around the same way they used to nor to they provide the same benefits. I save for retirement, but just this morning I really truly had the moment of, "I'm going to work forever." I don't that retirement is a sure thing anymore.

 

[YMZ PE]

Echo Boomers:

• Want to be part of a crowd, think of a phone as a person and believe that staying connected is important
  

Some random stay-at-home mom asked for my number at the big box store last week, then texted me to ask if I wanted to set up a playdate for our kids. I didn't respond because I'm not interested in making new friends...yet I spend hours on this board every week reading the musings of complete strangers. That made me think of this description of Gen Y.

 

[YMZ PE]

Actually, the struggle was that Gen X and GenY both don't buy into working at the same place for 30 years and getting the gold watch. The Veterans and the Baby Boomers (to a certain degree) felt working at more than one place showed you weren't trustworthy.

So true!

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I save for retirement, but just this morning I really truly had the moment of, "I'm going to work forever." I don't that retirement is a sure thing anymore.

I realized that I would work til I died at a really young age. I save for retirement, too, but will probably end up using it as an income supplement. SS will be nonexistent by the time I'm slated to reire.

Retirement is a historical anomoly that started sometime after WWII and will end shortly.

 

[Flyer_PE]

I've always figured I would work until I died. The job is pretty good at keeping my interest. If I get bored, time to find something new to do. Boredom is a worse sentence than working well into my "Golden" years.

 

[Wolverine]

Just now getting to this and I have something important to say: The Gen X description is complete crap.

Generation X by definition is anyone who ever rocked out to Billy Idol's 1980's hit Rebel Yell.

You see, before he was the king of the spiked hair and heir-apparent of the Elvis-Sneer, young William was in a band called Generation X. So anyone who compulsively (often autonomously) performs the head bob to Rebel Yell (and you know who you are) is a Gen X'er.

Now as with anything, the category gets fuzzy around the edges since there are people born in 1960 and 1980 who do not rock to RY and there are some who do. What's clear is that most people born in 1968-1972 do rock out to RY.

From this, we can define the the other two classes reducto ad-absurdum, defining something by what it is not. Baby Boomers are old people who do not know how to rock out to Rebel Yell and find the lyrics incomprehensible. Gen Y'ers are young people who also do not know how to rock out to Rebel Yell and equally do not comprehend the lyrics though for different reasons.

The erroneous descriptions of the classes were obviously created by some researcher who is clearly of the Gen X age demographic, but not Gen X. This unique class is known as "Nerd" [aka "square" in Boomer or "noob" in Geny.]

I'm just glad I had the opportunity to clear this up.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Wasn't Rebel Yell post Gen-X? I thought he was solo at that point.