No doubt about it the value system of my GenX significantly differs from that of the Baby Boomers before us. The GenX cohort tends to be more independent, self-sufficient and self-motivated, as opposed to the Boomers who display a more diligent work ethic and favor stability and loyalty to their employers.
GenXers have also broken from the sequential order of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that the Boomers followed so diligently, along the lines of education, career, marriage and promotion in sequence. In contrast, GenX has a need for self-achievement, yes, but endeavors not to let job responsibilities compro
mise general quality of life, whereas the Boomers would follow the path of work hard, play later (albeit after you get that Big Promotion).
That is not to say that GenX doesn’t have “Boomer Envy,†which Douglas Coupland defined as an envy of material wealth and long-range material security accrued by the older set of the boomer generation. But they also demonstrate an unwillingness to seriously ‘work’ for any of that. Mainly, my generational cohort focuses less on the ‘job’ itself and more on job satisfaction and life outside the job in terms of leisure activities, family, lifestyles and other interests.
Posted by: Colin Mangham