Talking About Your Generation?

There’s been much media coverage recently concerning how expectations and values vary between different generations of employees. According to standard categorisation, Baby Booemrs (those born between about 1946 and 1964) tend to work for the same employer for long periods, have a high work ethic and are highly competitive in climbing the corporate ladder. Generation X (1960s to the early 1980s) are more restless and frequently change employers.  Likewise, Millennials (sometimes known as Generation Y, including those born between the early 1980s to the early 2000s) are less materialistic, wishing to make a positive difference to the world, achieve a healthy work-life balance and find personal meaning at work. Generation Z is now starting to enter the workforce and will be highly socially networked, with little organisational loyalty.

Employers are interested in categorising generations in this way because they fear the effect of a demographic time bomb – advance planning means they can (hopefully) increase motivation, improve employee retention and plan for the worst case. However, recent research from Oxford Economics* has looked at one of these groups - Millennials - and found that its members generally do not confirm to the stereotype; in some cases they arelesslikely than other groups to seek these ideals!

It comes as no surprise to me. The idea that we can categorise what people want from employment based simply on the year they were born makes sweeping assumptions – it’s highly dangerous, ‘generationalist’, and no more accurate than astrology.

My cynicism makes sense when you consider all the possible variables that might influence our values and beliefs, not least of which are gender, race and religion.  If they were not enough, add to that their economic background, education, parental occupation, health, personality and nationality (we can’t assume that Generation X in one country is the same as Generation X everywhere else). Even the town you grew up in is a factor - a generation that grew up in an economically depressed area will feel very different about work than those living in a prosperous area, especially if work has been difficult to find and hold on to.  Finally, let’s not forget that not everyone works in a large corporation and we shouldn’t assume that self-employed people can be categorised in the same way.