46 < IN MAGAZINE

Born between 1965 and 1976, members of Generation X, or the Baby Busters as some prefer to call them, havebeen influencing (some might say wreaking havoc on) theworkplace for more than 20 years now. To be precise, theywere hitting the streets with polished resumes in hand and business suits chaffing their skin right around 1987.Ronald Reagan was president. The median householdincome hovered at $26,000. Ollie North was taking thestand. And, yes, Wall Street (remember “Greed is good”?)was a box office smash. Boomers, the generation of peace,love and then yuppie-dom, still ruled the roost.

Fast-forward to 2008 and take note that three of the

10 richest Americans are Xers. Go ahead, Google it. Andwhile you’re at it, notice that two of the 10 richest, SergeyBrin and Larry Page, are not only responsible for makingGoogle the go-to information repository, but for making it a verb. They’ve done well. And they’ve done it theirway. While the boomers witnessed the age of Aquarius,Xers, not only witnessed, but helped usher in, the age ofpersonal computers and Web browsing. All this while busysending out resumes. Renegades all, Xers are known forbeing opportunistic job hoppers. Their careers look morelike latticework than ladders. Along the way, they havebeen given credit for dressing down the workplace,

GENERATION X: 1965–1976

GEN X WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE

Thanks Boomers For a Job … Well … Done.

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introducing the concept of multi-tasking,and not putting up with managerialnonsense.

But wait. Aren’t all those boomers — whogrumbled about management but stuck itout and earned their stripes, who embracedtechnology but only grudgingly, who held adeath grip on the notion that a voice on theother end of a line was more effective thanan e-mail reply — aren’t they about toabandon corporate America, taking their fatpensions and their day-timers and rolodexeswith them? Oh, boy. Will Generation X really be able to steer the ship? Or will they,in keeping with the story the precedinggeneration have on them, be too busyrearranging deck chairs to catch the best rays?

If two Consortium alumni, ShawnHamilton and Sydney Merritt, are indicativeof who will be keeping corporate Americaafloat, we needn’t worry. Both havedemonstrated how to get the job done by rising above the corporate politics andbureaucracy of the Boomer age work ethicsof independence, resilience and adaptabilitytrump loyalty to hierarchy and an attitudeof complacency.

Hamilton, a graduate of WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis, debunks theconventional wisdom maintaining that Xersdon’t stick with one job very long. Hamiltonhas worked as a financial analyst at Proctorand Gamble for nearly 13 years. But whatmotivates him and what motivated thosewho held a version of his job in the pastprobably vary.

All you had to do to motivate a BabyBoomer, conventional wisdom also has it, is raise the company flag. But Xers haveseen that company loyalty didn’t get theirparents very far in economic downturns. To Xers, every job is temporary, whetherthey want it to be or not. And unless youmaintain your readiness for that reality, you won’t get very far.

“There have been lots of changes at P&G over the years,” Hamilton says. “Job cutbacks, career model changes,reorganizations. By not being complacent,by demonstrating a willingness to understandeach new playing field, I’ve been able tokeep my job fresh and interesting.”

Workplace generational diversity expertswould look at Hamilton’s case as a win forProctor and Gamble. In general, it took alittle while for companies to realize howcostly Xer turnover can be, but they arecatching on. Hamilton has been able to map out his career within a structure thathas allowed him and his Boomer managersto carve out some common ground.

Merritt has stayed in the biotech industryand has changed jobs within that industryonly once since earning her graduate degree

in business from the University of SouthernCalifornia in 2000. What motivates her is an environment where she can use her owncreative thinking, strategy and initiative toget the job done in a scientific field. “I liketo be learning something constantly. And Ilike to be associated with products andservices that can help people.”

While Merritt would like to avoid workingin a hierarchical environment, she valuessome sense of structure and working withinthat structure. “Most professional peoplewho have gone to business school know that,to be successful, you have to work withinthe confines of a certain authority,” shesays. It’s that ability to adapt while neverlosing sight of themselves, never allowingwork to define their lives and valuingrelationships over achievement that driveMerritt and Hamilton and millions of othersin their generation into high gear every day.

Yes, the days of “do as I say, not as I do”are long gone. Xers don’t respect anorganization solely on name or title. Whatthey do respect is proof of organizationcapabilities. They want their employers towalk their talk.

And please, don’t look over their shoulder.Xers, many of whom grew up as latch-keykids, can work independently, thank youvery much. But they do enjoy workingcollaboratively in an environment whereeveryone is on the same page. Thecasual environment that seems tocreate is great as long as everyone pulls theirweight. Indeed, they might look atthe long lunches and early cut-outsof their boomer counterpartsinherited from the generation before them and say,“Whoa, what’s wrong with thispicture.” In this digital age, informationmoves too quickly to take a two-hour lunch.

In that sense, Xers may not agree with thegreediness that lead to the fictional GordonGekko’s or the real-life Michael Milkin’scorporate raidings. But they doembrace the notion that 27 vicepresidents taking corporate jetsto the Bahamas and relying ongolden parachutes is no way torun things, either. Maybe theirkind of greed, the kind thatdrives them to see one job as a stepping stone to another and that looks for true meaning intheir work, is what will cut through and clarify theevolutionary spirit and makecorporate America a survivor, afterall.

by Patti Smith-Jackson

Floppy DisksVestiges ofearlypersonalcomputers.

Day PlannerBefore PDAs, therewere Day Planners,standard issue forgenxers stepping outinto the business world.

Wall Street VideoGen Xers entered thejob market under theshadow of yuppies,those greedy, winnertake all types featuredin films like Wall Street.

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