I saw a tweet from Scott Ingram that caught my attention, where he asks about General V:
I’ve read a number of comments on Penelope Trunk’s blog about generation Y vs. the baby boomers, and of course my generation, the forgotten generation, Gen X.
There’s a lot of animosity, and blame. I see the millennials (GenY) blame the Baby Boomers for this financial mess (recession) we are in, while the baby boomers are saying “we’ve worked for what we got, and why did you go into debt to get a big screen TV?? Something we didn’t do… and on and on.
If you want to get your generational thang riled up go read the comments from Reason to give thanks: There is no job shortage for young people and 3 Ways work will change when Gen Y is in charge.
As my wife would say, it’s enough to “make my tired ache.”
Every generation has their strengths and weaknesses. And all younger generations, including those to come, think that the older generations are a bunch of know-nothing has-beens.
I think it’s hilarous to generalize that all young people know technology and all old people don’t … I find that to be untrue, especially in the workplace.
I am still amazed to ask a room full of college students who is on LinkedIn (hardly anyone) and who is on facebook (hardly anyone).
The stereotypes just don’t seem to be true, as with most stereotypes.
Can’t we all just get along??
That’s where this Generation V thing might come in… and if it isn’t Generation V, perhaps there is something that will help us step out of the hurtful stereotypes.
You can read more about Generation V at:
- Tekrati – Generation V will have a profound influence on culture, society and business, says Gartner
- Information Literacy Weblog – Generation V
- Marketing Charts – ‘Generation V’ Defies Traditional Demographics
- CIO Mind – Generation V
- Ad Week blogs – Check your email. Generation V says hello.
- Virtual Worlds News – Gartner Says Generation V Will Shift Business to Virtual Experience
And here are a few recent posts from this blog about Age Discrimination…
What does all of this mean for YOUR career?
I must admit that we at CIO.com have gotten A LOT of mileage out of the generational warfare stories (myself included: my most recent story on the topic lists the reasons Gen Y is totally unprepared to weather the recession.) This is the first I have heard of Generation V. I don’t think this Generation V idea will catch on, though. It’s a nice idea, but I think more people in each generation want to attack the other generations than find common ground. Whenever we post stories about Gen Y on CIO.com, Boomers leave comments essentially saying how much they can’t stand millenials, and Gen Yers are very quick to defend their reputation and to highlight their generation’s positive attributes. Gen X seems to be stuck in the middle of the spat, with clowns to the left of them and jokers to the right. Seriously, I can’t get over the overwhelming response we get to stories on Boomers, Millennials and Gen Xers.
I think the whole idea of generations antagonizing each other is exactly what we do not want or need. There seems to be way too much stereotyping and generational finger pointing that in reality does not matter much. I like this idea of Generation V though because it speaks to what we really need to repair corporate America. Older generations must realize that the younger generations have incredible ideas about how to leverage technology, and create efficiencies in the marketplace. Older workers should serve as mentors and teach the younger professionals how to manage their creativity and energy. Young professionals on the other hand can teach less tech savvy (usually older workers) about how to use all the new applications, making their own ideas more acceptable to the older workers who now have a knowledge of how it all works. Young professionals can also learn the wisdom that comes only from working for many years from their mentors. Corporations, I believe, who are able to mesh these two groups in the workplace will end up being the most successful going forward.