Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Online Marketing Consultant

An article written by CIO magazine indicates that all of us late 20’s and early 30 somethings are in for a little pay raise pretty soon.

Generation X is also a cohort of employees who share some common traits. Born between 1961 and 1981, Gen X-ers tend to be a transient workforce, averaging a three- to five-year life span in any one organization. Gen X-ers are technologically savvy, pragmatic and competent; they are efficient at managing themselves to get the job done. They tend to be free agents, frequently distrusting corporate motives. And most have received very little training, development or mentoring in the workplace, and hence are adept at learning on the fly. Additionally, as a generation they have notably different values from the Baby Boomers. For example, many believe family time is so important that they are less willing to sell their souls to the 24/7 devil and often put work/life balance over income and career advancement. This means opportunities for flextime, part-time work and telecommuting are very appealing to them. These are generational traits that older leaders would do well to understand and incorporate into planning for their organizations’ future. 

Whoever wrote this did their homework. I can definitely attest to the work/life balance aspect of my jobs. I left one of my previous positions because I could see their future vision of having me living out of a suitcase for the better part of my 20’s until I had put in my time to get the cushier projects in Chicago. And as for the distrusting corporate motives, we’ll just say that my last job did not have the most reliable pay structure and I’ll leave it at that. In regards to the 3-5 year life span at a company, I think that is due to the crazy outsourcing and downsizing that occurred in the late 90’s and early 2000’s that caused “us” to keep our eyes open and play hot potato with our careers. Who knows when you’ll arrive at work one day and find the doors bolted and the phones disconnected.

So be nice to your middle managers today, because they may be the CEO’s and CIO’s of tomorrow.