And the part that’s the most aggravating? All through the 1990s, we were told over and over that if we stuck with it and paid our dues, the boomers might - MIGHT - step aside and let us move up. During the Aughts, we were told over and over that we had to keep reinventing ourselves if we wanted to get to the levels our boomer parents already achieved. Now, we’re being told that the positions our parents had are being taken away, we’re unemployable because we aren’t 18 years old (with 30 years of experience), and we’re expected to fight two generations for the few entry-level positions remaining, but we’re watching as all of the perks we were told over and over that came with persistence and experience are being ripped away as being too expensive. Meanwhile, the boomers are crying “Why is nobody buying our crappy McMansions for four times for what we paid for them?” Who indeed?
That was written from long sad experience. I cannot tell you how many tech recruiters have called me with job requirements where the only way to find someone with THAT level of experience involves a TARDIS.
That was written from long sad experience. I cannot tell you how many tech recruiters have called me with job requirements where the only way to find someone with THAT level of experience involves a TARDIS.
Here we go again with the “blame the boomers game.” If you want to blame anyone for the state of the economy, look no further than the conservatives who began to screw everything and everyone over the last forty plus years. In fact check out who’s in charge now in DC. Interestingly, they’re all millennials or Gen Xers, but raised on Reagan ideology.
A thousand yeses to this. Also it fails to take into account how different kinds of professional experience can work in new contexts. Teaching college writing made me a great presenter when I worked in media and advertising. Being a poet helped me write fresh and interesting taglines. Growing up in a non-AI age just makes us more capable of using AI in ways a generation that’s used to it can’t.
All your recent newsletters have been spot on. I’ll add, they still don’t know what to do with us or how to capitalize on marketing to us - so instead they poke and insult. Meanwhile we’re quietly (as always) the generation figuring out portfolio careers and the next wave of freelance work that will allow us to live more equitably and teach others to do the same.
We have all the needed skills - and we fucking work hard because we worked in high school so we could drive the fuck away from our parents as soon as we possibly could. Also we clean up messes - put towel on vomit on floor - don’t try to slop up wet vomit while drunk -
We are by far the toughest generation since the “Greatest” - and we can communicate from paper to highest tech. In person and apart. And as Madonna said - we give good phone!
So, Gen X is being counted out, accused of being useless and the prediction is that we will be consigned to the trash heap. We've heard this before -- when they called us slackers and told us we were bad at working. We've heard this before -- when we were essentially ignored as not being as relevant and hip as Millennials or Gen Z. This is the latest way that MSM is looking to bash Gen X because they need headline clicks and generational bullshit sells.
Go ahead, underestimate us. That'll be fun. Come back in a few years when we've beaten the odds and are still thriving because that's what we fucking live for. If Gen X is anything, it's resilient and defiant. I wouldn't bet against us.
I did my degree pre-internet. My first job involved helping a health authority prep for Y2K.
By my third, I was marketing the UK’s first dial-up PSTN modem (56kbps!)—then broadband, trying to convince people that yes, one day, they might want to watch video on a computer.
I’ve pivoted so many times I should’ve been a ballerina.
And that’s a strength, isn’t it?
To adapt. To change.
To meet absurdly trying times with resilience, stoicism and sometimes, even humour.
Sadly, too many ‘journalists’ seem complicit in this tired old game. Division sells and agism is just the latest casualty in a war that seeks to distract, enrage, and conquer.
Every time we fall for the stereotypes, 'Boomers' do this, or 'Millenials' do that, we play along and the cracks deepen.
I love this (while hating it, of course). For years they called us slackers. For about 10 minutes they appreciated us. Then they disappeared us. That said, I hear from so many older folks (older than Gen X!) that they're restarting interesting careers because the generation they said would replace us can't really figure it all out...or don't want to.
One aspect that these stories miss is the generational emotional intelligence needed to make things run effectively. Sure, the robots are taking over the tasks, but how are we adapting and helping others adapt? We own this. We lived off of adapting. Terminator 2 Sold Out? We worked out what to do for the next two hours before the next showing. Who's driving? Who needs gas money? I haven't heard from Tom in a bit. I'm going to check in. These skills are needed more than ever.
In this spiteful, pity party narrative, there’s apparently no room to tell the story of those who worked hard, followed the rules and got da fuq off the hamster wheel as soon as we could, with no regrets, still healthy enough to lean into productive and (even more) rewarding lives not chained to a 40 hr/week self-identification addiction. Unlike our ‘rents, we can healthily divorce our true selves from our professional selves. And good thing we have this time, b/c someone needs to take care of said parents who kept working into their 70s out of habit and a disordered desire to collect every available retirement match and benefit, whether they truly needed them or not. One last joy of this freedom—we can/should have the self-contentment and outward facing drive to put down our phones, stop reading this type of bulls**t clickbait and be actively present in our families, community and world.
And the part that’s the most aggravating? All through the 1990s, we were told over and over that if we stuck with it and paid our dues, the boomers might - MIGHT - step aside and let us move up. During the Aughts, we were told over and over that we had to keep reinventing ourselves if we wanted to get to the levels our boomer parents already achieved. Now, we’re being told that the positions our parents had are being taken away, we’re unemployable because we aren’t 18 years old (with 30 years of experience), and we’re expected to fight two generations for the few entry-level positions remaining, but we’re watching as all of the perks we were told over and over that came with persistence and experience are being ripped away as being too expensive. Meanwhile, the boomers are crying “Why is nobody buying our crappy McMansions for four times for what we paid for them?” Who indeed?
So true!
It's the 'be 18 years old with 30 years experience' that makes me cry-laugh.
That was written from long sad experience. I cannot tell you how many tech recruiters have called me with job requirements where the only way to find someone with THAT level of experience involves a TARDIS.
That was written from long sad experience. I cannot tell you how many tech recruiters have called me with job requirements where the only way to find someone with THAT level of experience involves a TARDIS.
Here we go again with the “blame the boomers game.” If you want to blame anyone for the state of the economy, look no further than the conservatives who began to screw everything and everyone over the last forty plus years. In fact check out who’s in charge now in DC. Interestingly, they’re all millennials or Gen Xers, but raised on Reagan ideology.
I got nothing but love for boomers. They're generally not doing the hiring these days.
Truth hurt? Maybe it was the liberals in your generation
Truth hurt? Maybe it was the liberals in your generation
Truth hurt? Maybe it was the liberals in your generation
We are an adaptable generation and will be just a-okay.
Thanks for their concern, but we’re good🖤
Gen X applied for jobs in the paper and learned to build websites from scratch.
They adapted through the rise of the internet, social media, remote work – all of it.
And now we think this is the point where they can’t keep up?
That AI will outpace them entirely?
They’ve navigated every tech shift while holding down careers, raising families, and staying adaptable.
They won’t be taken out by a chatbot.
GEN-X UNITE!
We are best modern communicators - paper to phone to tech to even better - in person!
A thousand yeses to this. Also it fails to take into account how different kinds of professional experience can work in new contexts. Teaching college writing made me a great presenter when I worked in media and advertising. Being a poet helped me write fresh and interesting taglines. Growing up in a non-AI age just makes us more capable of using AI in ways a generation that’s used to it can’t.
Love this. All true.
All your recent newsletters have been spot on. I’ll add, they still don’t know what to do with us or how to capitalize on marketing to us - so instead they poke and insult. Meanwhile we’re quietly (as always) the generation figuring out portfolio careers and the next wave of freelance work that will allow us to live more equitably and teach others to do the same.
Exactly
Did we get a better education because the public schools weren’t gutted yet include state universities. ?
We have all the needed skills - and we fucking work hard because we worked in high school so we could drive the fuck away from our parents as soon as we possibly could. Also we clean up messes - put towel on vomit on floor - don’t try to slop up wet vomit while drunk -
GEN-X UNITE!!!
We are by far the toughest generation since the “Greatest” - and we can communicate from paper to highest tech. In person and apart. And as Madonna said - we give good phone!
So, Gen X is being counted out, accused of being useless and the prediction is that we will be consigned to the trash heap. We've heard this before -- when they called us slackers and told us we were bad at working. We've heard this before -- when we were essentially ignored as not being as relevant and hip as Millennials or Gen Z. This is the latest way that MSM is looking to bash Gen X because they need headline clicks and generational bullshit sells.
Go ahead, underestimate us. That'll be fun. Come back in a few years when we've beaten the odds and are still thriving because that's what we fucking live for. If Gen X is anything, it's resilient and defiant. I wouldn't bet against us.
As an elder Gen X, I feel this. It’s part of why I’m now an author. The only boss I plan to have from here on out is ME.
I am a junior Gen X — exactly the same.
This. They’re afraid because they can’t control us.
They hate us ‘cuz they ain’t us.
Because we are going to be the generation who gets the fuck up and fights this MAGA = Evil Death Cult !!!
Proud Gen-Xer here.
I did my degree pre-internet. My first job involved helping a health authority prep for Y2K.
By my third, I was marketing the UK’s first dial-up PSTN modem (56kbps!)—then broadband, trying to convince people that yes, one day, they might want to watch video on a computer.
I’ve pivoted so many times I should’ve been a ballerina.
And that’s a strength, isn’t it?
To adapt. To change.
To meet absurdly trying times with resilience, stoicism and sometimes, even humour.
Sadly, too many ‘journalists’ seem complicit in this tired old game. Division sells and agism is just the latest casualty in a war that seeks to distract, enrage, and conquer.
Every time we fall for the stereotypes, 'Boomers' do this, or 'Millenials' do that, we play along and the cracks deepen.
Yup, I will not play their stereotyping games.
I love this (while hating it, of course). For years they called us slackers. For about 10 minutes they appreciated us. Then they disappeared us. That said, I hear from so many older folks (older than Gen X!) that they're restarting interesting careers because the generation they said would replace us can't really figure it all out...or don't want to.
One aspect that these stories miss is the generational emotional intelligence needed to make things run effectively. Sure, the robots are taking over the tasks, but how are we adapting and helping others adapt? We own this. We lived off of adapting. Terminator 2 Sold Out? We worked out what to do for the next two hours before the next showing. Who's driving? Who needs gas money? I haven't heard from Tom in a bit. I'm going to check in. These skills are needed more than ever.
In this spiteful, pity party narrative, there’s apparently no room to tell the story of those who worked hard, followed the rules and got da fuq off the hamster wheel as soon as we could, with no regrets, still healthy enough to lean into productive and (even more) rewarding lives not chained to a 40 hr/week self-identification addiction. Unlike our ‘rents, we can healthily divorce our true selves from our professional selves. And good thing we have this time, b/c someone needs to take care of said parents who kept working into their 70s out of habit and a disordered desire to collect every available retirement match and benefit, whether they truly needed them or not. One last joy of this freedom—we can/should have the self-contentment and outward facing drive to put down our phones, stop reading this type of bulls**t clickbait and be actively present in our families, community and world.