Baby Boomers - We Rule!!!
So who are we Baby Boomers anyway? Statistically speaking, chances are you are a Baby Boomer if you are reading this article and work. Why, you might ask? Because the majority of individuals in the workplace today are Baby Boomers- there are 77 million of us and we hold a majority of leadership positions in the United States along with a majority of all other positions as well!
We entered the workforce en masse; nearly 40% of us within a very short timeframe, which caused us to be very competitive- there were only so many jobs and many of us were competing for them at the same time. So what else influenced this generation?
Influences include: Suburbia, TV, Vietnam, Watergate, protests, human rights movement, drugs and rock ‘n roll, the pill and women entering and staying in the workplace. As we had families, cities were no longer capable of housing all of us so the suburbs were born; we spread out away from the core cities and created whole new communities. The pill was a major development allowing women for the first time in history to control their reproductive system. In fact, the pill was so popular when it became widely introduced around 1965 that we drastically reduced the number of offspring we procreated. This is the reason that, despite the fact there were 77 million of us, we only had about 45 million children, whom we now refer to as Generation X.
Some of our defining characteristics are: We are competitive, idealistic and we question authority. This last item is interesting. Although we still question authority, we often fail to realize that, in most cases we, the Baby Boomers, are the authority! Generally we are good team players; we had to be with so many of us kicking around. We are driven and we are willing to work long hours to get ahead. In our Generation Workshops, we often see this last item as being a divisive issue between Baby Boomers and Generations X and Y. The two later generations are seeking work/life balance; while to Baby Boomers, work is life. To X’ers and Y’ers, work is only a component of life and not the most important one by any means. As a Boomer, this is an important distinction to keep in mind when working with younger generations. Often we will hear from Baby Boomers that the younger generations are lazy and not as committed to the organization as Boomers. Generations X & Y are not lazy or less committed while they are at work, however; as I said before, work is only a component of their life and work/life balance is very important to them. Baby Boomers live to work, the younger generations work to live, a distinction that should not be lost the next time you have the urge to criticize an X’er or Y’er.
We Baby Boomers have a unique opportunity to leave a lasting positive legacy after we are long gone. We collectively have the fundamental attributes and characteristics to leave the world a better place than when we arrived. In fact, the word that best describes us is “hopeful”. This desire to make a positive contribution to society is a very common refrain we hear from Baby Boomers. It would be interesting to have insight into the world 75 years from now to see how it all turns out and what lasting impacts Baby Boomers have on the future.
