X + Y + Z + Alpha = ? Generations (and generalisations) at work

To paraphrase Pete Townsend and The Who, I am now getting old (50 – those of you who think this is youthful are free to comment) and haven’t taken the precaution of dying yet. One of the joys of ageing is having a revised sense of proportion on where shame lies: well, that’s my story and I’m not budging. But talk about Generations X, Y and Z abounds. (For my fellow old fogies, I checked Wikipedia before the gout finally prevented fine mouse control: the next batch will be referred to as Generation Alpha.) But are these generations – or just generalisations? Demographic bracketing is all the rage – an influence both of marketing and of computerisation (where database structures find defined lists of values easier to crunch) – but how far does it help us? Does discussing HR issues in terms of the ‘generations’ in the organisational mix clarify, or over-simplify?

 

The new mid-life crisis

A mid life crisis used to be something that happened to us because of the relationship between genes, hormones, ageing and self-esteem. The consequences (poor choices of vehicle, behavioural model and both hair- and life-styles) were often grim, but mostly for the more sensitive onlooker. But if recent figures are highlighting a little commented trend, the mid life crisis is now something that’s brought on by the confluence of cost and talent management practices, and by the gap in practise behaviour between ‘where life is heading’ and ‘how we live’. (This ‘gap’ is a topic covered from different angles in a recent article by Robert Terry in Edge magazine, now available as a PDF here (or in the Downloads section of our Elsewhere page). In an earlier difficult period, Neil Kinnock grabbed a few headlines for one of the occasions where brevity won out over passion:

I warn you not to be ordinary, I warn you not to be young, I warn you not to fall ill, and I warn you not to grow old.”

It now turns out one of the things we needed to be warned about is being 43. Or 38. Or just between 35 and 49 generally. The biggest demographic group in the UK workforce, this group has one of the highest employment rates (the percentage of them working.) Which, on the face of things, sounds optimistic. Yet this demographic band are losing out in the game of ‘employment musical chairs’ being conducted against the background of the repercussions of The Crisis. 320,000 more of them are out of work than in spring 2009. And while the economy may have grown 350,000 additional jobs in 2010, they have almost all gone to those under 35 or over 50. (Where this leaves the debate on ageism is an interesting point: have we become sensitised to the old and young to the extent that the middle-aged are now an unintended victim of unwitting prejudice?)