Out of the mouths of baby boomers. Or is that Xers?

Posted On July 8, 2014

I was scrolling through the online news when this caught my eye “I think (Generation X) is the last hardworking generation[…]Generations after us have become more spoiled. Kids aren’t disciplined.”

And if it weren’t for the parenthetical I would have drifted right on by, expecting yet another complaint from a Boomer against the Xer work ethic. Except perhaps we’ve outgrown that one. Apparently the  Xers are claiming a spot on the “back in my day” soapbox. Was it only a matter of time?

The quotes are from an article discussing the Pew Research Center’s series “The Next America.” That series spans several studies and uses historical trends to predict where we are headed as it relates to societal norms, including economics, social values, family structure, gender and religion. The very real shifts in these societal norms underscore why generational perspective is so important. At the same time, now that Xers, who were once the “kids these days” with no work ethic, are now looking at Millennials and shaking that same finger, it does make you reinforce how the line between generation and age is often rather blurry.

Categories: Generation X, Generation Y / Millennials, Work, Workplace