I have been doing a bit of research into generational "wars" between Gen X and Gen Y.

[Writer]

What I've read so far is that Gen X'ers tend to be more realistic, yet cynical. They are innovative but less civic-minded than their Gen Y counterparts. They tend to combat authority and live in a state of distrust of institutions.

Gen Y, on the other hand, are much more idealistic. While Gen X'ers were technological innovators, Gen Y'ers are technological users. A 35 year-old Gen X'er won't text message their friends, but a 25 year-old Gen Y'er will. Gen Y'ers also are much more civically-engaged like their Baby Boomer parents. Gen Y'ers also do not recognize authority.

I see aging/retiring baby boomers as the folks holding on to most of the nation's resources - resources that will not pass to Gen X'ers, but to Gen Y'ers. I also wonder if Baby Boomer superiors will choose to hand over more work to their Gen Y "children," overlooking older Gen X'ers.

What are your thoughts on this?

Oh... I am a late Gen X'er myself: 1975.

[Jamastiene]

1. No, but I know a 37 year old who text messages her friends...

That would be me. I wouldn't place too much emphasis on our differences. I don't see much difference at all between Gen X and Gen Y, to be honest. The only difference is that we Gen X'ers are older now than we once were. We DID like better music though. :P

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. You could be right - by the time the Boomers finally decide to let go their chokehold on power

The X-ers will be too old to receive it. For all their idealism and talk of fair play and 60s radicalism, the Boomer generation is in no hurry whatsoever to share things with the younger generations, especially not business or political power.

The next couple presidents will still be Boomers.

It'll be interesting to see if an X-er makes it to the White House, or if we go Boomer out to 2020, and then get a Y-er.

[DarkTirade]

3. From what I've seen, people between the ages of 25 and 35ish right now

are a mishmash of the two. Very few of my friends are outside of that age range, just because I don't quite fit in with the full Gen X'ers or Gen Y'ers. Just the people in the middle like me. Despite the fact that I'm at the very bottom of that age range.

[CBHagman]

4. It's news to me that I'm holding resources.

Hi. I'm a baby boomer here, one in the latter half of the boom (i.e., I'm not looking at retirement, I'm looking at 20 more years of full-time employment, God willing).

I've been looking at news stories on the intergenerational workplace for only a couple of months now, but I find it's a topic of heated discussion all over the English-speaking world. What got me started was Lisa Belkin's July 26th New York Times article called "When Geezers and Whippersnappers Collide." Don't take umbrage at the title; the article isn't a vilification of one generation or another, but rather a brief discussion of the sometimes clashing expectations and practices of today's diverse workforce.

I was pleased to discover Belkin's article is still available online without cost. See the link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/fashion/26work.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

While I hesitate to make too many generalizations about one age group or another, finding the article was a comfort to me because it showed others were going through the same dynamics I've run into in my office.

It's not necessarily a pretty picture. I'll cite just one particular co-worker (a member of Gen Y, as it happens). We rely on teamwork to get the job done in my department, and this young woman possesses one or two skills that are valuable to the group. The trouble is that there are several crucial areas where she is very weak, sometimes disastrously so. Some of this we can chalk up to her lack of experience, plus a tendency to rush through things and ignore detail (on a detail-oriented job, I might add).

But she makes it patently obvious that coming to work is a tremendous favor she is conferring on our sorry asses, that she is entitled to as much time off as she wants and as often as she wants, and by the way, despite her junior status, the plum vacation days at major holidays are hers, hers! She's half my age and calls in sick -- sometimes "sick," nudge, nudge, wink, wink -- more frequently than anyone on the staff.

A Gen X friend of mine ran into similar problems when he was in management, and it wasn't that these staffers were pursuing some idealistic work-life balance, either. They were unclear on the concepts to begin with.

That said, I wouldn't tar any generation with the same brush. I know Gen Y members who possess tremendous sweetness and maturity and idealism, and furthermore, I could get into a lengthy discussion about cynicism, self-absorption, indifference, and other fun traits I have observed in members of the other generations in my 30-plus years of employment.

I would submit, however, that at least in the U.S. we are undergoing some marked societal shifts, and it's creating tensions in the workplace -- tensions that don't serve anyone well, including Generation Y. It's not just technology or dress codes or work-life balance; it's how we treat each other.

On edit: Don't be in too much of a hurry to declare that boomers have a "chokehold on power" or hold all the resources. Gen Y is too young to be president (You've got to be 35), and heads of state in their 40s are the exception and not the rule. So we may have a Gen X president in the not too distant future, but expect the normal wait. Thus far we've only had two boomer presidents, both born at the beginning of the boom and not the end.

I haven't done a demographic anaylsis of Congress but would note that it's better to evaluate members according to their political stances and not their ages. Representative Patrick McHenry (R-NC), born at the end of Generation X, would be anathema to DUers. Korean War vet Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is younger than the Greatest Generation and older than the boomers, but politically he's more my speed!

Eat a big bowl of Resentment Flakes for breakfast every morning and you'll turn into the left-wing variation on Clarence Thomas. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?

[OzarkDem]

5. Don't worry, boomers are thinking of you

Impatience in youth in wanting to hold the reins of power is normal and has been around forever. I felt the same way when I was in my late 20's, early 30's as did most of my friends and co-workers. Age teaches you that the job or power you seek are not nearly as easy to manage as they seems.

Without using a broad brush, its possible some of the differences between X and Y have to do with growing up during the Reagan - Bush years during society's big shift to the right. Part of the GOP's (and corporate media) strategy then for holding power was to discourage the Gen X age from becoming interested in politics and encourage consumerism. The poor economy during those years encouraged more focus on getting ahead and making money.

Gen Y grew up during the Clinton era when the economy was good and conservative ideals were being discredited. Focus shifted again from individual achievement outward to more broader issues of improving communities, the environment, etc. Many workplace environments shifted from strict formal codes of dress, rank, etc. to a less hierarchical, more relaxed one.

There's no distinct border between generations, and many younger people's experiences reflect both eras.

Many of us in the boomer generation were very disappointed at the lack of political involvement by our peers during the 80's and even the 90's. While its good that more of us have become politically active again, its been a rude awakening to realize our own future and that of our children and grandchildren is at risk. A lot of us are concerned about the possibility of later generations having a lower standard of living than we enjoyed, something that never would have seemed possible, even ten years ago.

I can't speak for others, but I'm very concerned about my generation exercising its political power to ensure a better economy, better government and better world for Gen X and Gen Y. Clinton really made a lot of progress in securing the future, but so much has been undone. We're working on getting things back on track. Once we regain some influence at the levers of power, it won't be too difficult to restore fiscal sanity and stop the wars for oil. But rest assured, helping secure the future for Gens X, Y, Z, etc. is very much on my mind.

That said, online political activism has enabled many generations to have these discussions, and thats a good thing.

[petronius]

6. So what you're saying is that Gen Y'ers are a bunch of naive tools?

;)

[Wapsie B]

7. Well I'm one of those horrible boomers and I text people.

I'm also caught in the middle in a sense. When just out of school I was too young to have the reins of power. Now even at 50 it's deemed much more economically feasible
to promote a 24 year-old just out of school with an AAS degree than it is to pay someone for their college education and years of experience. That is the mindset of the MBA's who rule my world, who's bonus checks would be reduced significantly if my salary was taking part of it.

People near my age just had a taste of the high-wage manufacturing jobs before being forced out. If they have anything close to what they were making back then it's still at a much reduced level as a general rule, even before factoring in inflation.
So I'm a Boomer, yeah. But I'm not living the high life. Far from it. I've never had the reins of power. Never even managed a hamburger joint. So the thought of some X or Y'er wanting to push me aside makes me more than a little irate. And believe me it happens even in my field. To listen to some of them in my field it's as if I've spent the last 25 years under a fucking rock.

All signs point to a new career of my own. But as to what I'm at a loss.

:rant:

[Arugula Latte]

8. I'm sort of between generations ('66) but technically considered Gen X.

People about my age were teens in the early to mid-'80s, and a lot of them bought into the whole Reagan/Greed/Materialism/Jingoistic crap. I like my nieces' generation much better -- the 20-somethings seem more liberal, less concerned with divisions along color or sexual orientation lines, and more "on" to the crap that has been shoved down their throats from corporations and rightwing entities.

[Book Lover]

9. My thought is that Gen-X and Gen-Y are bullshit terms that

journalists writing the cultural and social beats come up with to justify their existence.

[TK421]

10. I agree....I don't care to be lumped into some category like that

and I never asked for the label, thank you. I wonder who thought up this term..it had to have been one person that thought up gen x. Personally, I would love to punch that person in their mouth

[havocmom]

11. I'm seeing a lot of boomers taking care of elderly parents

or a lot of just older than boomers living it up while a lot of boomers never got much further than paycheck to paycheck, having hit prime earning years when Reaganomics wiped out secure jobs in America.