Generation Consternation

My age is really in the spotlight for me this week, and not just physically. It's been a week where I'm really starting to feel the pinch of the generation gap in a way I haven't experienced before (as one of the "older" generation at my workplace.)


Our HR Director organized a Webinar yesterday about the Millennial generation, referenced by author Ron Alsop as "The Trophy Kids" because when they were in school, everyone was rewarded and praise was given for everything. Everyone was special. Therefore, this is a generation of people with an extremely high sense of self worth, a need for praise and feedback. My entire team is made up of Millennials. I love them but I'm struggling right now.


I'm Gen X. I'm so Gen X that for a very long time I refused to even claim I was Gen X because I didn't want to be labeled. I want to be seen as an individual, not part of a collective. How Gen X is that? When I was growing up there were winners and losers - not everyone who participated got a ribbon. You had to work to earn your rewards, and then they weren't always guaranteed. You had to struggle and compete to prove you were special. Individual work was the methodology. Group projects were hated because they weren't the "team" projects that the Millennials seem to tout, they were competitive, "my-idea-is-better-than-your-idea" power-struggles. The strong individuals always took over, and some of us went rogue and did our own thing to spite them. The over-arching cynicism of Gen X, I think, stems from the message we heard a lot: "What makes you think you're so special?"


Now that I'm a manager...a middle manager of Millennials being managed by another Gen Xer with a Boomer as the CEO...I am starting to have my share of "huh?" moments up and down the food chain. Although, I must admit that coming up in my career with Boomers in charge, I'm used to them. I know what to expect. I hate some of it, but I've been there done that. I know what I can get away with and how to push their buttons to get what I need and how to be obtuse or verbose enough to confuse them into agreeing if I have to sell. Working for another Xer is harder than I expected...mostly because I've never liked working FOR anyone anyway. It's just easier to be resentful of the Boomers and their nose-to-the-grindstone, 60-hour workweek mentalities than it is to one of my own who watches the clock as closely as I do.

And then there are my lovely Millennials, who flummox me with their drive and their checklists and time lines but whose spirits, ambition and ability to do 10 things at once I admire. I want to say I can relate to where they are coming from, but most of the time I'm not sure I can relate. I hear what they say, I hear what they want, I see the intention behind it all and I think I understand where it comes from but I'm having a hard time getting some of it to compute as it runs through my X filter...which is admittedly jaded and cynical.

What I struggle with the most is the responsibility that I feel about responding to the things the just don't quite compute with me. The only way I know how to respond is with the truth as I see it. But then I wonder how that computes with them, coming from the Gen X perspective it does...Hm...