I spend most of my time interviewing Americans born between 1963 and 1977, the fifty-two million Americans known as Generation X. In those interviews, I ask Xers how they are being managed, how that is affecting their work, how they want to be managed, how they are looking at their careers, and how they are balancing their careers with the noncareer aspects of their lives.
I spend most of the rest of my time sharing what I am learning about Generation X in the workplace with those who rely on Xers’ time, energy, creativity, and hard work—with those who are “Managing Generation X,” which is the title of my first book. I try to help managers and business leaders to understand Xers better and to bring out the best in the young people who work for them. I also try to help young workers learn how to bring out the best in themselves.
But, please don’t think that this Pocket Guide is going to take the position that Xers have it all right and managers and business leaders have it all wrong—or that the only way to bring out the best in young workers is to bend over backwards to meet Xers’ every need and expectation. My work—and our work at Rainmaker, Inc.—is not about driving a wedge deeper between the generations in the workplace, but rather about closing that gap and bringing the generations closer together to everyone’s mutual benefit.
Let me explain what is at stake for most Xers in their careers: Xers are starting out their working lives in the wake of downsizing, restructuring, and reengineering. Of course, everyone is going through these profound changes in the economy—this is not unique to Generation X. The difference is that Xers are starting out their careers in the midst of all this chaos. Xers never got to play by the old rules, and Xers have no point of reference for working by the old rules. Imagine you are swimming in a big pool and the water starts draining out: Those who have made it halfway across the pool or three–quarters of the way are going to look at this dilemma much differently from those who just jumped in the pool—the water level is the same for everyone, but the experience is fundamentally different.
Xers know that they cannot rely on established institutions to be the anchors of their success and security. No one in this generation expects to base their career on a long–term affiliation with one established organization. More Xers believe in UFOs than believe they will ever receive a Social Security check. Xers know that the only success and security they can hope for is that which they build for themselves from within themselves.
But this is not a sob story. The good news is that Xers believe in their own skills and abilities. More than anyone or anything else, Xers believe in themselves. This is why most Xers see themselves as sole proprietors of their own skills and abilities. No matter where they go, no matter what they do, Xers are in business for themselves. Whether they are starting up their own companies, dropping out of the rat race, or established company, Xers are in business for themselves.
Before they turn 30, most Xers will have had at least one pretty good job and one pretty bad job. They will have dropped out of the rat race for a while, tried to start their own business, and at least considered going back to school. Often, they will be doing all those things at once. Every single year, more than 17 million Xers change full–time jobs. What are they searching for? Could it be that the whole generation is just restless?
Xers are searching for the same thing most people are searching for: success and security. The problem is that nobody knows what success and security are going to look like for our generation. So Xers are busy remapping the way to security and picking up the bits and pieces of success along the way. Xers are moving from one new experience to the next, aggressively seeking new marketable skills and knowledge, relationships with people who can help them, and creative challenges that allow them to collect tangible proof of their ability to add value in any workplace. This is the behavior I refer to as “Self Building.”
Why does Self Building depend on one new experience after another? Because in a brand new experience, Xers cannot help but learn new marketable skills, meet new people who can help them, and tackle creative challenges. In a brand new experience, those Self Building dividends come at a rapid pace. Of course, over time, the pace of those dividends begins to slow down. They come further and further apart and fewer and fewer between. The dividends may be larger and more valuable when they do come, but at a certain point that becomes a matter of long–term investment.
Here is the big generational shift: It used to be that the safest path—the most risk–averse path—to achieve success was to stay in one place. In the workplace of the past, the best strategy was to make that long–term investment and wait for the larger and more valuable dividends. But in a profoundly insecure and chaotic world, long–term investments seem very risky. Xers have learned not to trust long–term investments. Rather, Xers have learned they can count on the certain flood of Self Building dividends that comes in each new experience.
It is when the pace of the dividends in one work experience begins to slow down that the job is in danger of becoming “just a job.” Xers will start to look for a new focus for their Self Building energies: Maybe in a new job, or their own business, or going back to school, their social life, family, physical well being, or a hobby. The challenge for managers who want to keep Xers focused and motivated is to keep the job from ever becoming “just a job.” The only way to do that is to replicate what Xers look for in new experiences—that certain flood of Self Building dividends.
It is not easy to be a worker in the post–job era. Employees can’t hope anymore to work in the same old ways or follow that old fashioned career path. Today, employers need flexible workers prepared to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances and get the job done, whatever the job happens to be on any given day. To succeed in today’s workforce, workers must have the ability to seize new opportunities to add value and grow personally at the same time; to quickly acclimate to new environments; to take charge of their own skill building; to stay focused on results; to monitor feedback from the world around them; and to “cash out” each day, at least figuratively, and collect the tangible rewards for their contributions of time, labor, and creativity.
The new workplace bargain Xers seek is one that recognizes that workers in today’s economy are day-to-day value adders and offers tangible day-to-day rewards in exchange for daily contributions of time, labor, and creativity. Management strategies must evolve to facilitate the effectiveness of today’s workers as day-to-day value adders. The rest of this Pocket Guide is designed to help managers do just that.