distinguish factor ..

The Baby Boomers

The Boomers, born between 1946! and 1964, were brought up in an abundant, healthy

post-war economy,! becoming an egocentric generation. They saw the world! revolving

around them.  Nuclear families! were the norm. More than anything, work has been! a de-

fining part of both, their self worth and their evaluation of others.! Their life style revolves

around the fact that they live to work.! Balance is a quaint idea but not really a possibility.

As such, they!see the workday at least!8 a.m. to!5 p.m.! This is a significant! tension point

between them and the newer generations, as they expect! others to have the same work

ethic and work the same hours. The earlier! part of this generation followed the “bent”

rules set by the traditionalists.

The X Generation

The generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, was

the first generation raised on “to do lists” and grew up

with high rate of blended families.! They were also

brought up in the shadow of the influential boomer!

generation. They witnessed their parents sacrifice

greatly for their companies. As a consequence, they!

developed behaviors (not values) of independence, re-silience and! adaptability more strongly than previous

generations.! In opposition to the hard driving Boomers who live to work, they work! to live

and view the world with a little cynicism and distrust.

Generation Y

The Y generation, born! between 1981 and 2000, has been portrayed as the next big gen-eration, an!enormously powerful group that has the sheer numbers to transform every life

stage it enters.!!They were brought up during the ‘empowerment’ years where everyone

won!and everyone got a medal. Raised by parents who nurtured! and structured their lives, they were drawn to their fami-lies for! safety and security. They were also encouraged to make their own! choices and

taught to question authority. This group was also raised in! a consumer economy, and as such, expects to influence the terms and! conditions

of their job. As a result, they expect employers to!

accommodate their ‘consumer’ expectations in this

regard.! This is the basis for the expecting more style

that characterizes this! generation. They don’t neces-sarily see that they should get more, but! that an em-ployer should give more to their employees.  They

were brought up with an ‘empowered’ parenting style

and therefore they are not afraid to! express it their opinion.

Generation Y (as well as X, to a lesser degree) is also the first to! grow up with computers

and the Internet as a significant part of their! lives. Constant experience in the networked

world has had a profound! impact on their style in approaching problem-solving situations.

This! generation of worker is coming into the workforce with networking,! multiprocessing,

and global-minded skills that the traditionalists and baby boomers could not have imag-ined.

The advent of interactive media such as instant messaging, text! messaging, blogs, and

especially multi player games have generated new! skills and styles of collaborating in the

generation X and the generation Y to such degree that it has made them different.  This

‘always on’ or ‘always connected’ mind-set is!at the heart of some of the friction that ex-ists between the! generations.  The x and y generation is challenged by the! rigidity of the

eight to five workdays.