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Why this GenX-er is jealous of Gen Z

Once again the kids are showing us all how to do life better. According to a recent New York Times story, thirtysomething managers are being intimidated by their demanding twentysomething employees. Or, in the language of our generationally-obsessed culture, Gen Z isn't taking any Millennial crap at work.

As a Gen X'er, I say it's about time.

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by Anonymousreply 22November 27, 2021 12:15 PM

Stupid.

by Anonymousreply 1November 26, 2021 8:07 AM

[quote]As a Gen X'er, I say it's about time.

About time for you to gag and die, fat OP? Okay, boomer!!!

Gobble down this and fuck off, fat slob.

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by Anonymousreply 2November 26, 2021 8:21 AM

52 here, my assistant manager is in her 20’s and though she does a great job she has a lot of rough edges that her generation not only refuses to burnish, but fashion and wear them as a badge of honor. Some are irritating, others make me reflect on what I could do better learning from, and that some of the ideals and behavior of what I hold in high regard are quickly becoming as obsolete as typewriter ribbon and driving gloves.

The truth is a lot of it has to do with the definition of professionalism and in the past, much of it was about trying to impress your higher ups. Also, in the past, you could have private conversations or hold court in a room without people secretly texting under the table or posting your interactions with them online. Also, I believe having cameras trained on you all the time or the threat of being recorded by a cellphone has forever changed the way people behave in public. This is both good and bad because people second guess their responses and freeze or do nothing..

I believe one huge problem and one I am proactive about as a manager is quickly diffusing resentment BEFORE IT HAPPENS because this generation can’t deal one on one face to face and will quit or blather their issues to others rather than come right to me about them.

by Anonymousreply 3November 26, 2021 9:15 AM

Each gen is different, and the gen after gen z will also find something annoying with gen z. It's a chain.

by Anonymousreply 4November 26, 2021 9:19 AM

sooooo tired of this generations bullshit.

by Anonymousreply 5November 26, 2021 10:01 AM

You realize all this generational bullshit is solely to divide us in the US, right? Other countries don't abide by this nonsense (maybe Canada does, but nowhere else I'm aware of).

Don't buy into it. Just more division to keep us weak.

by Anonymousreply 6November 26, 2021 10:04 AM

It’s as accurate as astrology 🧝🏼‍♀️

by Anonymousreply 7November 26, 2021 10:20 AM

We’re the very last generation that didn’t grow up tethered to the internet. We’re just starting to see the next generation that didn’t know life before a smartphone.

by Anonymousreply 8November 26, 2021 11:58 AM

Are we allowed to post links to CNN on here? Any time I had tried to in the past it was blocked.

Most of the "Now Hiring" signs I am seeing where I live are at restaurants, grocery stores, and retail. Gen Z seems to be bypassing these low wage, unrewarding jobs. I'm 45 and I don't blame them. I think some of us are overlooking that it's not necessarily they aren't working at all, they're just not working at these particular jobs and for shit wages.

I'm pretty active in several digital marketing/programming/web dev/front end design subreddits and there are many younger people participating in these as well, for example. Particularly those born in the late 90's.

by Anonymousreply 9November 26, 2021 12:16 PM

The opinion piece at the OP links to the NYT piece OP's author is writing about: Gen Z wants to make their own schedules, they want paid time off when they aren’t feeling up to working and they want to make everything political.

Here are some of the top recommended NYT reader comments:

[quote][bold]David[/bold] 4775 Recommended

[quote]Almost all of the examples of this generation of 72 million are from a small subset with college degrees living upscale lives in urban areas working for trendy startups. I guarantee the Gen Z farmers don't text their cows that they're not feeding up today because of their mental health, nor do the young lawyers in major corporate firms or explain to one of the partners they can't come in to help meet a deadline because they woke up "not in a good place."

[quote][bold]José[/bold] 3550 Recommended

[quote]I suspect that these differences amongst generations are less marked in other working locales: GenZ-ers who are cashiers at Walmart, flipping burgers at McDonald's, or even working construction might not be quite as lippy. With respect, I found this article rather superficial, a touch tone-deaf, and representative of few outside of the urban, privileged, and mostly white crowd who works in "cool" new economy settings.

[quote][bold]Mark[/bold] 3467 Recommended

[quote]What this author mistakes for “boldness” is actually a combination of entitlement, fragility and narcissism.

[quote][bold]C.[/bold] 2319 Recommended

[quote]I'm 52, live in San Francisco, and I'm friends with a number of these younger people. Yes, they mostly work in tech. They're digital natives, fluent in social justice and the environmental crisis, and want to make a difference. But they have almost no understanding of empathy, communion with others, or self sacrifice for the greater good. Graciousness is foreign to them, a stodgy old fashioned word. And, really, how would they have learned about these things that take time, attention, patience, and guidance? They all report that there was so little of that in their upbringing. I like these young people, and I feel for them. But they're blind to deeper human connectedness and are working with increasingly powerful tools while disdaining critical feedback. Their potential for destruction terrifies me.

[quote][bold]NoName[/bold] 2203 Recommended

[quote]I am disturbed by this piece and the cheery spin about "cracking the code." That may well be another expression for "not doing the work." I've taught these kids when they were in college. Many always wanted extra credit to raise their grades, after failing to complete routine assignments. They asked for special treatment and complained about how red ink on their papers was traumatic. The list was endless. I'd like to see gen-z ask more questions about how they can be like gen-x and not the other way around.

[quote][bold]John B.[/bold] 1933 Recommended

[quote]News flash: the overwhelming majority of Americans of every generation do not work at tech start-ups, trendy marketing firms, and fashion houses. They work in auto factories and meat packing plants, at Walmart, Target and Home Depot, in hospitals and dentists' offices. They are teachers, cops and firefighters, and postal workers. They are associates in big law firms where they are still expected to bill clients 60 hours a week. They drive cabs and Uber cars, trains and airplanes, and tens of thousands of trucks. They work in Amazon warehouses and deliver for UPS and Fedex. They work in oil fields and, yes, even a few coal mines. The number of "Generation Zers" who can tell their bosses what hours they feel like working is miniscule. But count on some in the media to create a "narrative" about something that is not really happening.

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by Anonymousreply 10November 27, 2021 12:03 AM

Gen X could’ve done anything with their lives. Tech jobs did start with our generation. Back in the late 80’s /early 90’s they employed just about anyone with an interest in tech..Back then the newspaper’s were filled with career advice on getting into programming & the excellent pay. Anyone from that era are happily retired or have a large portfolio. So no GenZ are showing us nothing that Gen X didn’t already do

by Anonymousreply 11November 27, 2021 12:20 AM

Well, as a Gen Y I can’t stand either of them.

Imo Xs are superficial sneery cynical drones who think their disgusting brat kids are little Buddhas and their empty sellout nuclear family lives are aspirational. Zs are hypebeast Jungvolk clones who fall in line with everything their online friends & patrons say without question yet push back on rational and humane thought.

by Anonymousreply 12November 27, 2021 12:37 AM

The recent slate of articles trying to paint gen Z as some force to be reckoned and a threat to current paradigms with is laughable.

by Anonymousreply 13November 27, 2021 3:29 AM

Gen Z is a generation that hasn’t experienced war or been asked to sacrifice and it shows. Millennials were the last that actually lived through things like the end of the Cold War, fear of AIDS, school shootings, 9/11, etc. This current generation’s issues are things like micro aggressions. Give me a friggin break. They have no perspective. People who lived through two world wars, depression, recessions, assassinations, Vietnam, etc, didn’t have time to ponder, “What are my pronouns?” Gen Z is growing up in a time where gays can marry, you can take a pill not to get HIV, free easily accessed porn, etc. And they’re still miserable. Telling everyone to shut up and wagging their finger in everyone’s face, they’re the regressive, highly conservative generation. Before them generations used to push boundaries and have fun. Gen Z is nothing but, don’t do this don’t do that because it might hurt someone’s feelings and they’re anti-sex. This is a generation we haven’t dealt with before. They’re backwards. Wait until they figure out that ripping off their tits and genitals wasn’t the brightest idea in the world.

by Anonymousreply 14November 27, 2021 3:38 AM

Correction: The recent slate of articles trying to paint gen Z as some force to be reckoned with and a threat to current paradigms is laughable.

by Anonymousreply 15November 27, 2021 6:09 AM

[quote]This current generation’s issues are things like micro aggressions. Give me a friggin break.

The pandemic, rise of fascism, Trump administration and attempted coup all happened, it's strange that you missed them all.

by Anonymousreply 16November 27, 2021 6:21 AM

R16 again with the hyperbole

by Anonymousreply 17November 27, 2021 6:31 AM

[quote]I'd like to see gen-z ask more questions about how they can be like gen-x and not the other way around.

Good Christ, no. I'm GenX and no one wants more GenXers. Our entire generation was screwed up by massive cuts to education and the social safety net, by the rise of media-pushed propaganda and by the fake reality of reality TV and the internet.

For a brief period, GenX fought against that, they confounded the olds by making fun of a teen girl deodorant commercial in one of the most iconic songs of the 1990s, but by the end of the decade the constant thrum of "useless slackers not worth hiring or educating" did a HUGE number on the collective self-esteem of the generation. Ever since Boomers got shit on for daring to be teenagers who opposed war, every generation has to be shit on, and GenX was shit on so hard from all sides that the generation all but disappeared.

Now GenX is a bunch of COVID-denying Q loon morons, desperate to feel involved and smart after decades of being ignored. Now they're happy to be occasionally dragged out, dusted off and held up as barely-human exemplars of Americana, standing around in the rain waiting for JFK Jr. to show up and make Trump president again.

No one wants Gen Z to be another GenX, and this supposed professor's claim that the world would be better if Gen Z was more like their parents is TERRIFYING.

by Anonymousreply 18November 27, 2021 7:35 AM

Good lord r18. I don’t know any GenXers like you describe.

I am GeX and have lived all over the US the past 30 years, so I know a petty good cross-section of people.

I do, however, have a few boomer aunts and uncles who are loony in the way you describe.

by Anonymousreply 19November 27, 2021 8:40 AM

Nearly everyone listed on SorryAntivaxxer is a GenXer, r19. GenX and young Boomers backed Trump more than any other generational demographic.

[quote]Millennials and seniors are spurning Trump. Here’s why middle-aged voters are sticking with him.

[quote]In poll after poll of the 2020 race, Trump receives his highest share of support from middle-aged men and women, an often overlooked demographic that is now playing a critical role in keeping the president’s electoral hopes alive against Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

[quote]These voters — older members of Generation X and younger Baby Boomers ranging in age from their late 40s to early 60s — are often the only age group that give Trump the majority of their support in national and battleground state surveys.

by Anonymousreply 20November 27, 2021 8:48 AM

As a GenXer, a lot of the anti vax QAnon folks seem to be like people I knew in high school who didn’t value education in a way that it made them more informed critical thinkers. It was just a means to an end—a better job.

The internet gave them the ability to fill the void of their rampant ignorance with intriguing conspiracy theories and political partisanship that for them replaced a real understanding of facts or politics.

So many Trumpers only have a vague understanding of how our political system works, and they really don’t care. It’s just political tribalism that supports an ideology that feeds their confirmation bias that brown and gay people are a threat to their existence.

As a GenXer I am equally horrified by so much on all sides. Every generation has a place to improve, and blamisn won’t solve it.

by Anonymousreply 21November 27, 2021 9:31 AM

We always knew this moment was coming.

by Anonymousreply 22November 27, 2021 12:15 PM
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