Gen X: Full Disclosure
Below is the full content of the email I sent to the reporter researching the Gen X article. Why am I posting this? Because the article sounds a heck of a lot more pessimistic and depressing than reality. Truth? I LOVE where I am now and wouldn’t trade it for the world. The binary of industry/academia does not exist to me. There’s no on or off for theory and practice. Not for me, anyway.
Here goes:
Most of my career was spent in the software/internet industries; this is my second year as an assistant professor here at ODU. I’ve worked for start-ups (from boom to bust), Microsoft, and a design consultancy. I’ve had positions as a manager, a director, an employee, a contractor, and a consultant. I’ve managed folks both above and below my age group, and now I’m teaching Gen Y, Gen X, and whatever we call the folks who were teens in the 70s (Polyesters? Let’s hope not).
Why did I leave industry for academia? Freedom – both in the projects I select and in the work hours. I’m a mom of two daughters (7 and 3.5) and a wife to a software architect (who has run the same industry route as I have). I can work on my research (I look at how everyday people use social media tools during times of disaster/crisis), run my own lab, and consult on my own time. I was willing to swap a big paycheck to leave the 60-80hr work week grind of my industry.
Early on, Gen X was largely seen as apathetic. We didn’t have a war, crisis, etc. to galvanize us (yes, some of us went to Iraq, but that was nothing compared to a Vietnam or WWII) and we didn’t really have a plan. Or, at least that was the perception. What did we do? We innovated and built a new digital economy. The rise of the Internet as a place for commerce and communication (wider than it was prior) is really our marker.
But what about the work? Many of my friends had hoped to have jobs like their parents – places they would stay forever that would take care of them like they did their parents. But then we saw that start to crumble for our folks (I remember friends whose parents worked at the local IBM – layoffs or relocations, when those arrived, we’re very disruptive to those families). But, those kinds of companies are not as much in existence, at least not for the work my friends are in (software/internet). So we move from company to company, sticking around for at most 3 years (I’ve seen the resumes and LinkedIN is particularly useful for tracking this trend). This causes huge brain drains for those companies. And we’ve seen larger drains because of out-sourcing, building up economies overseas and causing our generations to scramble for other work and for Gen Y to avoid engineering.
So where are we now, short of reminiscing about John Hughes and Rick Rolling our friends? We have kids and jobs, trying to get to that ‘work/life’ balance that we were told we could have (for most of us, that’s not panned out). We have school loan debt, credit card debt, busted mortgages, and either unemployment or the threat of unemployment. Have you seen the new tv show Community? It’s a funny (and sometimes sad) look at students at community college – they have all the stereotypes (jock, smart girl, returning older student, etc.). But what is the show really about, to me? It’s about the failures of Gen X. The returning to the drawing board..where/what are we? Is there still time to become something different? Must we just accept where we are? Is there time to innovate elsewhere?
Now, Gen Y seems to be a totally different beastie. The children of the boomers, they come to work without Gen X’s notion of hierarchy. They are digital natives, employees willing to question assumptions and not eager to pin themselves down to one title or one role on the job. Maybe they can design, but they might also be able to write some of the code or the content (so the traditional roles of a developer, designer, writer blends for them well – they do not see such hard/fast distinctions). Gen X spent a lot of time trying to do this (hybridizing their work to cross multiple disciplines) in part because of the new professions that were created during the tech boom. It’s actually a brilliant move; such flexibility is especially needed now.
In talking to my students, what they want is a secure job and healthcare. They’re really good at following directions – it’s what we taught them to do in school (follow directions, pass the test, rinse, repeat). They don’t talk as much about innovation as stability. Is this them learning from our mistakes? Their parents? Hmm. That’s a tough one, as I’m not sure that swinging to the opposite side (towards safety away from innovation) is the better choice. We need innovators. We need people that can solve problems. It worries me to bits, and I guess the generations before me had the same concern, but when I think of our global competition, I’m concerned for us. I want Gen Y to have that same sense of hopefulness, that innovation, but tempered by our generations experiences. They’re smart, fun, and wiser than us when it comes to so many things – they could go on to do great things and I think there’s plenty of time for Gen X, too.
Now, these are, of course, big generalizations, but I’ve seen them played out in industry and in academia. YMMV. What I do see is this push towards participatory culture (both online and off) that is helping us pushing in new directions in work, too.