Remember Billy Joel’s song, We Didn’t Start the Fire? The song mentions events and people who influenced societal thought from 1949 to 1989. Listening to the lyrics propels us all to an earlier time when the world felt different to us than it does currently. Indeed, national and world events, inventions, innovations, and the exposure to the influential people during our coming of age years, impacted who we grew up to be.
Traditionalists, the group of people born between 1925 and 1942, came of age during World War II. Pearl Harbor threatened the security of the U.S. like nothing ever had in the past, precipitating a cautious mood across the nation. Prohibition and big government were the order of the day. White European immigrants flooded our shores in search of work, and every household wanted an automobile. The arrival of the assembly line encouraged interdependence, and the Great Depression fostered the need to conserve.
The Child Labor Laws of 1938 shaped a different view of children in society, causing parents of the era to become more protective of their children, and to begin to pamper them more than had been previously possible. A high school diploma was beginning to be considered a necessity, especially if you aspired to a white-collar position at the local plant. Men were the undisputable head of the household, although the woman’s suffrage movement was beginning to gain traction.
Frugality, self-discipline, clean living, adherence to rules, loyalty to family and employers, top-shelf customer service, and accepting the protection of family patriarchs and the government were the order of the day. High morale character and a deep sense of responsibility typify Traditionalists.
In stark comparison to their conservative parents, Baby Boomers were members of the original “Me” generation. Born between 1943 and 1960, Boomers were more “rights” oriented than “responsibility” focused. Antiestablishment was the word coined to describe the Boomer mindset. With the assassinations of Jack and Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., the Vietnam War, and the shooting of college students by the National Guard at Kent State University, trust for authority was dashed. The introduction of the birth control pill launched the sexual revolution and ushered in an era of free love, street drugs, and top volume rock and roll.
Protest movements and strikes popped up everywhere. Women’s rights, civil rights, and war protest marches filled the streets. Draft cards, bras, flags, and cities were set ablaze as this feisty generation asserted their independence from oppression and authority.
Customer service gave way to a “serve yourself” business model. Divorce disrupted nuclear families. Parents sought to become friends with their children. Entrepreneurship was the order of the day. “Do your own thing,” was the motto of these free spirited souls. Expressing individuality, instant gratification, rights, and equality for all, enthusiasm for causes, peace at any price, and questioning authority composed the loosely woven fabric of the Boomer belief system.
The quiet arrival of Gen-Xers on the national scene went almost unnoticed by the huge generation of Baby Boomers who were busy becoming part of the establishment that they decried in their youth. The first generation of latchkey kids who depended as much on their grandparents as their parents were born from 1961 to 1981. Sesame Street characters were expected to teach children their alphabet and numbers, and daycare centers sprang up to house preschoolers whose parents worked long hours.
Air travel became the popular means of transportation, and moving across the country to find a high salary job was commonplace. Desert Storm, Tiananmen Square, the release of Nelson Mandela, and the invention of the personal computer shaped the values of this anonymous generation. Downsizing in organizations gave rise to a return to college to seek an advanced degree for 60 percent of Gen-Xers, and becoming a “lifelong learner,” soon became essential to career advancement.
Women as primary breadwinners, blended families, technical adeptness, and a yearning to balance freedom with responsibility, characterizes this generation of “work hard, play hard” people. Self-managing, multi-tasking, practical, and pragmatic Gen-Xers accept diversity, reject rigid rules, and rely as much on friends as family. A balanced mix of the generations preceding them, Gen-Xers value self-reliance, adventure, fun, and focus.
Millennials, often called Generation Y or Gen-Y by their elders, chose their own generational title because they came of age as the millennium changed. The Internet, cloning, Columbine, gang violence, reality TV, social networking, home schooling, simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Great Recession, the real estate bubble, flash mobs, and a tide of diverse immigrants are having an ongoing impact on the values of this burgeoning generation who are still in the process of defining themselves.
Demonstrating a need for structure, balanced with a need for support, this generation is rewriting the rules. Telecommuting, freelancing, and contract employment are preferred over a traditional 9-5 job, and time for friends is equally as important as work and family obligations.
Commanding the latest technology, this generation is never out of touch. Mobile Millennials will hop a plane for a weekend of fun in the sun as quickly as they will plan a trip to the grocery store. Recovery and resilience typify the 20-something mindset. Focused on hope and prosperity for all, optimistic, despite setbacks, confident captains of their own destiny, the youngest generation is chopping at the bit to take charge of a world that has seemingly spiraled out of control.
In many ways it seems we have come full circle over the past 85 years with the economic booms and busts of the 1920’s and the 1990’s giving way to the scarcity of the 1930’s and the 2000’s. Yet, our newest generation seems to be reacting in a very different way than their Traditionalist counterparts. Instead of hunkering down, they are breaking free, perhaps in testament to their Baby Boomer grandparents. They did not start the fire, but fanning the flames of progress and promise seems to be the calling of the youngest among us.
Source
This article is based on a case study written by the author Rita Rizzo for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM,), which provides college professors with the information to teach their students about the topic of generational diversity in bachelor degree programs around the world. SHRM is the largest organization for human resource leaders in the world. They set the standards for Human Resource practices here in the US. The case study is entitled Case Study Series on Creating Synergy in a Four-Generation Workplace, and a PDF copy can be downloaded from the SHRM website.