GenXwords

Archive for March, 2010|Monthly archive page

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Why are we meeting-take two. Engaging Generation X in your coalition or group.

In Work Values on March 25, 2010 at 9:34 am

It is no secret that I spend much of my life in meetings, which means I spend a great deal of time asking myself why am I here.   I am not the lone GenX’er with this sentiment.

It is well established that GenerationX values results. The words why, purpose, meaning, end result and outcome often float around in my head, especially when I find myself (once again) sitting in an uncomfortable chair in a small hot room surrounded by people who seem to have only shown up for free lunch and to chat about American Idol.

Just yesterday I found myself there-with my familiar inside voice asking myself “why am I here?” and “what outcome does this group serve?”.   As I contemplated the answers, I notice two things happening….1) two participants of my generation jumping in to ask the questions “what does this group want to accomplish, what outcome does it serve” and 2) push back from boomers stating that the value of the group was just meeting like we always have, having a defined purpose, outcome or result wasn’t entirely necessary.  One well-meaning and passionate boomer is quoted saying “I don’t feel like we’re spinning our wheels by just meeting like we always have, I get a lot out of just showing up.”

Comments like this,  although well-intentioned and honest, are the kiss of death to my commitment to a group. Meeting just for the sake of meeting is squandering valuable human resources.  A group or coalition without a clear purpose is unlikely to yield valuable end results.  Where there is no purpose, there is no team, no group, no true coalition ready to change the community. It turns into a meeting that is merely a social hour with free food.

Does this mean I’m not a team player? No.  To engage me in a group or coalition, there must be clarity with purpose and discussion of end results.  Better yet, involve me (and other X’ers) in the development of that mission, purpose and end product.  Better still, understand that my desire for results doesn’t equate to me not wanting to be part of process.  I want to be part of change.  I believe group process (and coalitions in this instance) provide opportunity for positive change in my community and a chance for me to learn and grow professionally.

And for the record, free lunch at meetings is good, but not enough to draw me to a meeting just for the sake of meeting.  I chose the non-profit field because I want positive change, not just be social.  Want a formula for engagement?  Food AND purpose, I’ll be there ready to jump right in.

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Headline: GenX breaks out of the 9 to 5 box

In GenX Pop Culture, Technology, Uncategorized, Work Values on March 18, 2010 at 9:29 am

Remember the Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda movie from 1980 ” 9 to 5″…I can still hear Dolly blasting out the chorus….

Workin 9 to 5
What a way to make a livin
Barely gettin by
Its all takin
And no givin
They just use your mind
And they never give you credit
Its enough to drive you
Crazy if you let it

I will certainly not admit in public that Dolly Parton has had any influence on my work life but the idea of questioning the traditional 9 to 5 work schedule certainly started in my little kid brain when I saw this movie years ago.  Even then, I asked myself from where did this idea of working in a confined space for a specified time of day come?  Whose idea was this anyhow? And why do I have to do it this way?

Well..in post WWII where typical office work consisted of controlling and manipulating information to the masses (like a Mad Men episode) and meetings required face to face contact, having a specified time of day and place to do it made sense.  Naturally, boomers being the competitive lot that they are, upped the ante in the seventies and eighties by supporting and practicing the value that the longer you work, the more dedicated and better work you were doing.  Work was life, work defined you.  The “so what do you do?” party conversation opener was born.

Enter Generation X…add in a healthy mix of telecommuting options, video & online conferencing, email, smart phones, personal computers, social networking and voilà, the 9 to 5 idea just doesn’t seem as hot as it used to.  Many industries have caught on and adapted, offering flextime, telecommuting and utilizing internet based programs like wiki to create work spaces that are not dependent on a specific time or place to participate.

The non-profit and public sectors, not so much. Some are still working from the perspective that more time spent IN your office means you are more dedicated, more loyal, a better public worker, a better non-profit executive.   The perspective breeds the idea that NFP Executives must be on beck and call 24/7, because if you aren’t, you somehow aren’t dedicated to your cause. You are a slacker, you are apathetic, you are not “dedicated to the work”.

As a GenXer who appreciates her freedom to set her own schedule, juggle more than one career at a time AND have a life outside of my work, this aggravates me.   I join my GenX colleagues in their desire to balance work with many other roles & responsibilities and the idea of utilizing technology to make me more efficient and produce higher quality work doesn’t intimidate me.  If I want to answer work emails in my robe at my kitchen counter at 5 am, go to the gym between meetings in the middle of the day or blog in the middle of the night-it’s my prerogative (and no, I’m not quoting Bobby Brown), it doesn’t equate to being a slacker, apathetic or any less dedicated.

Before this turns into a giant vent, I will wrap it up with a challenge.  It is up to GenerationX leaders to continue to challenge the old school ways of confining work and placing value on time instead of the quality of our work.  Meanwhile, I challenge the boomers out there to take a day off, go take your shoes off and walk in the grass, find something that has meaning in your life other than the time you work and…next time somebody asks you what you do make up something crazy.

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John Hughes and GenX

In Defining Events, GenX Pop Culture, Work Values on March 9, 2010 at 10:40 am

A blog about GenX just isn’t complete without mentioning John Hughes films.

Love him or hate him, Hughes was a film maker that successfully captured the hearts and spirits of many Generation X’ers.  Even the most anti establishment cliché hating of my group, still manage to be stopped in their tracks when Ferris Bueller or the Breakfast Club comes on TV on a Saturday morning.  The recent Oscar tribute (skip to 2:05 for the actual tribute) to Hughes was admittedly awkward, but the emotion it evoked in this X’er has had me reminiscing all week. It has also had me thinking about how quintessential X characters like Ferris Bueller frame how we work and live today.

The famous line from Ferris Bueller’s Day off   “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”   articulates our deep desire to balance life and work.  Meanwhile, Ferris tapped into our wish to stop playing by the rules and captured our value for cool misbehavior.   And who hasn’t sat in a meeting listening to someone drone on and on and recognize some familiarity in Ben Stein’s monotone voice saying “Bueller…Bueller..”  and asked yourself, why didn’t I just pull a Ferris today?

Our fear of abandoning our values, ideals and falling into conformity is emotionally spoken by Ally Sheedy in the Breakfast Club…. “When you get older your heart dies”.   Not just a romantic Peter Pan moment but a verbalization of fear that someday,  we will do what our parents did and just work for the man.  Ally’s character also depicts my generations hidden hope to change the world, in a quiet and unassuming way.

So for all you die-hard Hughes fans who can’t get enough….a movie montage for you….    

And in case you need my permission to pull a Ferris day, I say do it.

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Baby boomer values

In Generation demographics, Work Values on March 5, 2010 at 10:06 am

I am not a baby boomer…I don’t even play one on tv.  I do claim to know quite a few, some are even my closest friends.  In case this was lost on you with the title of this blog…I’ll state it again, I am a dyed-in-the-wool GenX’er.  However, in typical Generation X fashion, I enjoy going to school on subjects that fascinate me.  In this instance….baby boomers and their collective values.

There have been reams, and I do mean REAMS written about boomer ideals and values.  There are conferences, spiritual guidance weekends, personal effectiveness seminars, leadership and management workshops, books, newsletters, blogs…all about baby boomers.  I bet you could throw a rock in the sociology, business or self-help section of Borders and be sure to hit a book on baby boomers.  So…there is obviously NO need to rehash it all here.

However….in the spirit of the previous blog post about X’ers and key events that shaped our value system, and in an effort to set context to further discuss differences between generations,  I thought it best to add a post on boomers as well. So here it goes…

Academics propose the following key events for boomers:  assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King and Malcom X, children in the spotlight, television, suburbia, assassinations, Vietnam, civil rights, the Cold War, women’s liberation, and the space race.  Their formative teen years were filled with causes, revolution and efforts to change the world.

This generation has been described as the rat going thru the stomach of a snake…a strange visual but one that describes the sheer size of their generation compared to those that came before and after. Some propose that their sheer size and a struggle for limited society resources created a competitive spirit, a desire that has shaped their prevalent philosophy of win or lose. They value personal achievement, which according to some, is the reason this generation abandoned many of their idealistic values as teens to fall into the corporate structure, being sucked into the never ending desire to attain more money.   Because of the long time focus on this generation and its size, they are accustomed to being the center of attention-in fact, they bask in it.   One of the several reason’s they are dubbed as the “me generation”.

In addition to competition, recognition and being focused on their careers, boomers are often optimistic about change, value endless youth, carry a sense of entitlement (I didn’t make that up folks…several academics cite this value of boomers).  Boomers value structure, hierarchy, process and experience.

Only a summary…but some good meat to chew on while you consider how this differs from the X’ers.  More to come in a future post about the boomers children…the millenials.  For my boomer friends…do any of these ring true?  And those X’ers out there…any sound familiar, any notable differences?

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Generation X values…a bit more context

In Defining Events, Generation demographics, Work Values on March 2, 2010 at 2:16 pm

There is much written about key events that have shaped the values of different generations.  Before I start a big rant about how being a latchkey kid changed my perception of who I am and how I work, I thought it would be good to give a little context and list a few important events that have shaped Generation X.

As for the rant…I will deliver, just not yet.

A  few events that have influenced  my generation include:  challenger explosion, AIDS, Reaganomics, rising divorce rates, Berlin Wall,  Watergate, the end of the cold war and of course, the creation of MTV.

Dates defining the Gen X’ers vary, but tend to start somewhere in the early 1960′s and run until the late 70′s.  We generally value independence, self-reliance, informality, information, fun and non-conformity. We are the original latchkey kids which made us value balance between family and work, not letting ourselves be defined only by the work we do but the authentic relationships we develop and the change we create in our communities. We saw the old adage  “if you work hard enough you will be successful” get turned upside down.  We witnessed our parents work day and night, choosing their work over family in the hope it would pay off and then still have “the man” push them down.  We saw rules change, rugs pulled out from under you and the lemmings fall off the cliff.

It is no wonder we are cynical and pragmatic by nature, always preparing for the next rule change, longing for stability while still investing in ourselves and always seeking information that will help us negotiate the next big rule change.  GenX is the generation with the highest education levels and the generation that uses online technology the most for obtaining information…a likely response to the constant changing of rules that has defined our development.

If you are a boomer and reading this you may say “but we saw lots of rules change, Vietnam, civil rights, women’s lib…” The difference between the X’ers and the boomers when it comes to changing rules is that boomers were involved and instrumental in changing rules-they were the rebels who made it happen.   Reganomics, watergate, space shuttle challenger, AIDS, safe sex etc.  were all changes that happened to us, creating a generation of people who must react and choose to adapt to survive. The idealism of the generation before us is not lost on us, we just chalk it up to romantic notions and senior moments not rooted in today’s reality.

In an effort not to write a book here (that has already been done and I’m really not into recreating the wheel)…I will write an additional post about key events for boomers and millenials, the two other generations predominately in the workforce today.   Stay tuned….

In the meantime…please share world or national events that helped shape you.  And hold on for that rant, I’m working up to it.

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