Generation X Y and boomer discussions ...

[MDC]

Oh don't you love a good inter-generational stoush!

Personally this whole labelling generations thing is a load of BS.

Good eggs, bad eggs, lazy, get rich quick, hard workers, debt to buy the world, - every generation has them.

Sure, every generation has them. I totally agree with that, but from my experience the Gen-Yers are least likely to do the hard and dirty work.

I have trouble getting Gen-Yers to travel. Most of them do one trip and then no longer see the glamourous travelling lifestyle and refuse.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Sure, every generation has them. I totally agree with that, but from my experience the Gen-Yers are least likely to do the hard and dirty work.

I have trouble getting Gen-Yers to travel. Most of them do one trip and then no longer see the glamourous travelling lifestyle and refuse.

Seems like a lot of employers are having difficulty retaining GenYs in general. Infact I remember some guests on QRadio a few months back that claimed to be experts in GenY around the workplace... some of their thoughts were interesting....

All comes down to work ethic really. I know some (ok, a lot) really slack GenYs but by the same token I know some that are driven so incredibly much by their zest for life and passion to succeed that they make everyone else (of all ages) look really bad.

 

[anat0l]

I'm a straddler of Gen X and Y, but I had a fairly strict upbringing by baby boomer parents who taught me to be quite conservative, so I'm not at the Gen Y pole by any means (but not the Gen X pole for sure). To the people of similar age to me, that probably isolates me somewhat socially, but so there.

Also, having graduated as an engineer, my peers don't seem to be too much on the Gen Y pole compared to others I have observed who study "on the other side of campus" (a.k.a. arts, law, commerce, marketing, journalism, humanities, political science, etc.), who seem to be far more cutthroat, demanding, doubly- or triply- fast paced.

To be completely fair, everyone from my generation or thereabouts has been advised by most employment agencies (and indirectly through industry association publications) that (at least in the years before - the "better" years) one should start to dictate how much they want to earn compared to just sitting down and taking what's given to them. Hence breeding the culture of the employee testing the employer, not the other way around. It is then no surprise why low retention is such a huge issue.

I will concur with those complaining about the degrading level of education in our society. I balk at this fact even though we have so-called academies for elite students, so perhaps the educational level range is widening, but on average we're getting worse. As a tutor of first year engineering students, I know most of my classes couldn't add two numbers without pulling out a calculator. Most couldn't sketch a simple graph in less than 15 seconds, let alone use their (oh my God - I didn't have one of these!) graphical calculators to produce the correct (yes, they still get it wrong!) answer within a few minutes. This is why I always add a heavy caveat to everything I teach that involves some technology, and my students are quite thankful for it - they learn to think more deeply and holistically.

Don't let me get started with the standard of English from the young generation now. I should know, I proofread my sister's writing work all throughout senior high school, and then helped her write and proofread her ethics assignments when she was undertaking dentistry. (And not one peep from anyone that this is a sign of "evolution"...)

 

[MissBurrill]

Sure, every generation has them. I totally agree with that, but from my experience the Gen-Yers are least likely to do the hard and dirty work.

I have trouble getting Gen-Yers to travel. Most of them do one trip and then no longer see the glamourous travelling lifestyle and refuse.

I'm Gen Y and my work contract expires mid-2009. If you want a hard worker who is willing to travel (and do the dirty work) let me know.

Karen

 

[Evan]

I'm Gen Y and my work contract expires mid-2009. If you want a hard worker who is willing to travel (and do the dirty work) let me know.

Karen

Does help if we know what kind of work you do

E

 

[MissBurrill]

Does help if we know what kind of work you do

E

Good point Evan

Short story is I have a primary teaching degree (Canberra Uni) but currently work in an admin-type role.

Karen

 

[Keith009]

I'm Gen Y and my work contract expires mid-2009. If you want a hard worker who is willing to travel (and do the dirty work) let me know.

Karen

+1!

Have just completed Arts/Law at Melbourne, will be doing Honours in Politics next year. Hopefully the recession will have eased somewhat by 2010...:-| Am pretty sure I won't be working as a solicitor though, having just turned down several legal traineeship offers. 5 yrs of Law School was quite enough...

*studiously ignores the gen x/y/boomer debate*

 

[beardoc]

Am pretty sure I won't be working as a solicitor though, having just turned down several legal traineeship offers. 5 yrs of Law School was quite enough...

It always does amaze me the number of Law graduates that never do Law ever again - I dropped it after a year at the ANU. Many of my friends stuck with it, but could bear it any more after 5 years of Law School as well.

 

[straitman]

It always does amaze me the number of Law graduates that never do Law ever again - I dropped it after a year at the ANU. Many of my friends stuck with it, but could bear it any more after 5 years of Law School as well.

You know that it's really cold when the lawyer has his hands in his own pockets :!:

 

[beardoc]

I think a lot of the problem with these sorts of arguments is that they rely on massive generalisations - both positive generalisations and negative ones. Generation X and "Gen Y" are shorthand concepts that allow people to either provide an identity for themselves, or for someone else to label them. And my social psychology days demonstrated that people see people in their own ingroups as more positive, more interesting, and heterogenous, and see those in outgroups as more negative and homogenous. Hence the discussions above.

Every generation does see themselves as different from their parents - and in some ways, that is the case. And in others the cycles of younger/older people continue through each generation.

I myself would be at the tail end of Generation X, which is supposedly the generation that was brought up without role models. I grew up with plenty of people who have many issues now because their boomer parents were more interested in work than parenting and threw money at their kid's problems rather than time and emotional energy. But I wasn't one of those people - I grew up in a relatively poor but conservative household that did have role models - and although I don't do everything my parents did (and are politically very different to them), I don't see myself as fitting the Generation X "mould". But I understand the concept of that and Generation Y.

I find it interesting that the Citibank Rewards Thread gave rise to this discussion!

 

[JohnK]

One thing is certain. Gen Y still has a lot to learn and I am not confident they will be able to carry the torch....

 

[Hvr]

One thing is certain. Gen Y still has a lot to learn and I am not confident they will be able to carry the torch....

I think every generation worries about that but eventually we have to hand over and trust that we have done our job as parents, mentors etc.

And we don't just disappear, we have a handover and guide and let them make the same mistakes we made. The same ones tha frustrated the previous generation.

 

[serfty]

... The same ones tha frustrated the previous generation.

And vice-versa

 

[beardoc]

One thing is certain. Gen Y still has a lot to learn and I am not confident they will be able to carry the torch....

Yes, absolutely. One thing you can be sure of when talking in generalisations about entire groups of many millions of people is that you can be certain that those generalisations are completely correct, so we are able to talk in certainties.

 

[dajop]

Completely OT, but it is related to a discussion on generations... has anyone been seeing/hearing the ads for "So You Can Dance Australia" on Ten? Every time I hear them I can't help but think they are ads for Coca-cola. Uses same music and not dissimilar styling as a coke commercial circa 92. Gen X's may know wot I mean, but boomers and Y's probably not.

 

[beardoc]

Completely OT, but it is related to a discussion on generations... has anyone been seeing/hearing the ads for "So You Can Dance Australia" on Ten? Every time I hear them I can't help but think they are ads for Coca-cola. Uses same music and not dissimilar styling as a coke commercial circa 92. Gen X's may know wot I mean, but boomers and Y's probably not.

Yes - it's a Global Deejays remix though, which is relatively new. Global Deejays do this a LOT - think things like "Flashdance", etc.