Is there discontentment in Generation X ?

Generation X is defined as the generation that were born , and grew up during the later years of, and in the decade following the Cold War. This is the generation whose ages , now, are in the range 30s - 40s. Baby boomers are the ones who were born after second world war and in most cases the parents of the Generation X.

When I look around, I see that the Gen-X have accomplished a lot more professionally than the baby boomers as they have had more opportunities. However, they are more discontent in life than the baby boomers. The discontenment is high in people, who are in profession that is well paying, like the IT folks. I spent time thinking about the reason behind this discontentment. This blog captures my views that I bounced off, a few of my friends. They seem to agree with this perspective, even if some of you may disagree, there is some truth to what I am about to say. So sit back and let my mouth run off :-) .

Baby boomers had to work harder than the Generation X as there were fewer opportunities. Most of the baby boomers used to work for the Government or Public Sector company. The salaries were not high. On an average the baby boomers had more mouths to feed than the Gen-X. They were loyal to their employers. Rat-race was not a term they were used to. Most of them had a single employer for their whole life. They had more or less fixed working times. Most of them were back at home by 6.00 in the evening and would devote more time to their families. They had life beyond work. Some were active participants in their cooperative society, some were regular temple goers, some were regular visitors at their society clubs. There was no cell phone or late evening conference calls to disturb them at home. Goods like TV, fridge, motorcycle, washing machine etc., were a luxury to them. They had to plan finances to buy them. Then there was the biggest goal of all - building one's own house. It took almost 15+ years of service before they could contemplate buying a house. By the time they felt comfortable managing the loan payments for the house, they had to plan to finance for the higher education of their eldest kid. Then the not so further milestone was the marriage of the daughter. Planning for the daughter's marriage was a big milestone and nothing else in life was as critical. Given these financial commitment to be met, the baby boomer had to put up with career dissatisfaction, if any. Their priority in life was very clear, to fulfill the personal commitment even at the expense of their career growth. Some of them had gone to the extent of giving up promotions in their career if it involved relocation to a different city. They felt it would affect the family. They were loyal, not only to their employer but to their family.

With not so great salaries, with more children to feed and educate, with the many financial commitments that were spaced out all through their career life, they could not afford to be discontent with their work/career. At every point of their career they had to plan to meet one or the other financial commitment and hence could not afford to worry about whether they were happy with their career or not. For them work was a means of livelihood and hence they were more tolerant to any inadequacies in their career. With the number of career opportunities being lower they could not risk their job.

So the baby boomers were quite happy and content as their priorities in life was much clearer. The work-life balance was more tilted towards life. They had many personal financial milestones to meet that kept them chugging along in life.

Now coming to the Gen-X. They have more opportunities and in the quest for the perfect career they keep hopping from one job to the other, and their expected job satisfaction eludes them. Even with more opportunites, they are more discontent.

The money comes very easily to Gen-X , they do not need to work very hard for it. The Gen-X
in Information Technology are over paid compared to the other disciplines. What took a decade for their parents to buy luxury goods, they get within the first year of employment. With the salaries increasing year on year, the Gen-X er can afford to buy a home, a lot earlier than the baby-boomers. Many of them have a house, car and other luxuries even before they get married. The financial milestones that were evenly spaced out for the baby-boomers are collapsed into a short window of a decade for the Gen-X. So when Gen-Xer is in his early 30's, he is already financially well accomplished and sees a big vacuum in what he should look forward to for accomplishing. Unlike the baby boomers, the Gen-X er lives in a nuclear family. Their life is centered around work, few good friends and their immediate family - wife and kids. Their involvement in society is limited. Their work-life balance is more tilted towards work, to the extent that even during their vacation, they are mentally at work. Even in their career they progress so fast that a few of them become senior managers by mid 30s. Like the Samsung ad "What's Next" constantly bothers them. This is the source of their discontentment. With 20 odd professional years left, with no strong purpose in life, Gen-X is confused.

By taking a leaf out of baby-boomer's book, Gen-X can find contentment. They can create virtual milestones spaced apart that they have to achieve. They can volunteer to do more for society. They can go beyond their immediate nuclear family and reach out to distant relatives and friends. They can work towards a better work-life balance. They can take risks to try out new career options and eventually see if it can lead them to finding their purpose of life.

An anonymous quote to end this blog ..

"When you can think of yesterday without regret and tomorrow without fear, you are near contentment."

Change

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future - John F Kennedy

The current downturn has brought about very many changes in everybody's life. For those, who have been laid-off, the changes they are going through is enormous. However the people who still have a job are also subjected to many changes. The uncertainty of when the markets would turn-around, job insecurity if the company does not do well in this downturn , all impact them.

With the reduced workforce, the expectation from the existing employees is higher. Employees may be expected to put in longer hours. Organisations are going through many restructuring changes. The workplace is not what it used to be. These restructuring steps may move you to different groups. You may have to report to a new boss. The new boss could be your peer or a person who has less experience.Your peer-group will change. Long term visionary activities take a back seat. You are expected to deliver to the short term goals. The team size is becoming smaller and the clout of being a manager for a big group no longer holds any glamour in the new order. You should get used to leading smaller teams. Many cost containment initiatives will be undertaken by the management. You will be asked to justify every expense you or your team makes. You will be asked to give repeated forecasts that shows cutbacks in the spending, to the point that you may get extremely frustrated. The management may come up with new metrics to measure the progress. You may have to go through the extra overhead of generating these metrics, eventhough some of them may sound ridiculous and waste of time. Reduction in force, in the support organisations, affects the efficiency of your team. The cutbacks in IT infrastructure / hardware would affect the throughput of your team. The decision process could slow down. On the personal front, some of you would have seen your wealth eroding. As you can see, there are many changes that will happen and you, being the centre of all this maelstorm, have to be prepared to face it through.

Change is inevitable and also painful. The butterfly goes through extreme pain when it metamorphoses from caterpillar into a butterfly.The caterpillar begins to feed and grow. The joints between its body segment distend and this activates hormones.The caterpillar huffs and puffs as its skin splits and the worm-like insect steps out of the skin. It begins eating again, non-stop, until the process is repeated, in all, five times.The animal puts on an enormous amount of weight during these 'feasting' sessions. The caterpillar's cells and tissues rearrange themselves to form the adult butterfly. Such is the painful change the caterpillar has to go through to become a butterfly. The changes we go through during these tough times are miniscule compared to what the butterfly goes through.

Change is a huge mindset issue; it is human nature to want transformation without suffering. And though you can resist that change and potentially be swept away by it, you can also choose to cooperate with it, adapt to it, and benefit from it.

There are a few ways you can prepare yourself to lessen the pain caused by change. Many of these changes call for behavioral changes in you.

ACCEPT Change : The first and foremost thing you should do is "NOT" resist the change. Many of these changes are beyond your control. The only control you have is how you "REACT" to these changes. Accept that the new world is different from one you are used to.

ADAPT to Change : You need to adapt to the changes. Develop mental strength to accept and adapt to changes brought about due to restructuring. Understand the new norms and expectation in the changed world. Equip yourself with new skills needed in the new world.

BE POSITIVE : This recession is deeper and longer and it is easy to get distracted and feel demotivated. On the contrary it is during these times that you have to tap into the hidden potential of yours and strive to be "POSITIVE" day in day out. Shy away from the peer circles that are dull and low on energy.

WORK HARDER: These are the times when you should work harder to exceed the goals. You should work harder to make your team and manager successful. Working harder also keeps your mind occupied and will not have room for any negative thoughts that may creep in, because of the recession.

BE PATIENT : You have to be more patient during this time. With economy slowing down, there will be fewer products produced. The pace of work, the decision process could be on the slower side. You need to be patient. Some of the cost containment actions taken by the management may seem riduculous, but you need to be patient and put up with it.You may also have to put up with extra overheads required by the management.

Introspect - Use the change as an opportunity to self introspect. Take stock of your current skills. See how it matters in the new order. You may have to unlearn some of them as they may be irrelevant in the new order. You may also have to pick up new skills so that you can be successful during the upturn.

When you embrace change wholeheartedly as an inevitable part of life, looking for ways to use new changes to make your life richer, easier and more fulfilling, your life will work much better. You will experience change as an opportunity for growth and new experiences.