Tapping into the Wisdom of the Ages: When Generations Collide

Part 1: Determining Your Generation Reference Points

For the first time in history, four generations are working side-by-side. Accordingly, the diversity of “generational reference points” that has shaped our employees' values, attitudes and behavior is unprecedented.

In determining someone's “generation”, we must first understand their “generational reference points”—significant “events” (people, places and things) or “conditions” (economics, labor, sociological) experienced during “formative years” (before high school) that leave an indelible impression. This “reference point” made a mark, changed a way of life, possibly altered a value or a belief, and definitely created an attitude.

Take a moment to reflect upon the pivotal experiences of your “formative years”.

• If World War, Pearl Harbor, the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the radio and the Korean War had an impact during your formative years, you could belong to the Veteran (also known as Traditionalists, Silents and GI) generation, whose approximate birth years are 1900-1945. You had an “ice box” and had to “ring the operator” on your phone. You played outside much of the time and also had jacks, hopscotch, jump rope and card games. You'd listen to the radio with your family, and often neighbors and friends, as you let your imaginations run with “Flash Gordon”, “The Shadow” and “Green Hornet”. Smallpox and Tuberculosis were epidemics. You may have been part of the “Industrial Revolution” and were glad when indoor plumbing was installed at your home!
• If you attended Woodstock, wore “hippie” clothing, dodged the draft of the Vietnam War, watched “Father Knows Best” and man's first landing on the moon on a black and white TV, remember exactly what you were doing when John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy and Malcolm X were assassinated, identify with “drugs, sex and rock 'n roll” while you protested and fought for Civil Rights, you could be of the Baby Boomer generation whose approximate birth years are 1946-1964. Polio was the epidemic. You remember having a “party line” before you got a rotary dial phone. You listened to Elvis, Janis and the Temptations on “vinyl” with your record player. Mom was a “housewife” while Dad worked and you had family dinners almost every evening.
• If you grew up in a home devastated by our country's divorce rate tripling, were known as a “latch key kid”, experienced the Challenger tragedy, “Watergate”, and “Reaganomics”, while Iran held 66 Americans hostage; if you were part of the “information superhighway” and fought for Women's Rights, you could be Generation X (or Gen X or the X’ers). Your approximate birth years are 1965-1980. Your first computer was a Tandy or an Apple. You started playing “games” like “Atari” and with “Pet Rocks” and “Cabbage Patch” dolls. After school, you may have gone home to an empty house, watched MTV and were expected to make dinner for siblings, since Mom and/or Dad were working late (they thought they were supposed to). You became very independent at an early age—you had to! You observed every major American institution get called into question during your formative years: President Nixon's potential impeachment; organized religion had a separation of “church and state” and “televangelists” such as Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were exposed; and Corporate America was “downsizing” thousands of your parents. You had push button phones, then “bag phones”, 8-track tapes (and later cassettes) and had VHS tapes. By this time, many had color TV and watched “Dallas”, “Dynasty” and “Dukes of Hazard”. AIDS is the epidemic.
• Or possibly you've had a computer and cell phone almost your entire life, have always watched color TV and “reality” shows, grew up in the midst of the Oklahoma City bombing, Johannesburg, Rodney King's beating and the Columbine High School massacre, know that “Waco” implies more than a Texan City, found out through Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan that there's more going on at the Olympics than you thought and you're fighting for Gay Rights. If this was occurring during your formative years, you could be a Millennials (also know as Echo Boomer, Generation Y, Nexter, Gen Y, Generation Next, Generation Tech) with approximate birth years 1981-1999.  Many of you program the DVD player and research topics on the Internet for your parents and show them how to maximize the computer—after all, you've had a computer in your home since you were born. At young ages many of you were into “body art”, getting tattoos and/or body piercing. You played with Barney, American Girl dolls, Beanie Babies and “computer games”. AIDS and HIV are the epidemic.

If you are unable to identify with one generation, you could be known as a “Cusper.” Many individuals could be a Cusper if:

• They were raised by very strict parents who did not let them “experience” the events and conditions occurring during their formative years;
• If they were born towards the end of one generation's birth years and identify with the formative experiences of the next generation;
• They grew up in rural communities;
• Or they immigrated to the USA with their parents.

No matter which generation you find yourself belonging to, awareness of the generational reference points” is the beginning to truly understanding the values, attitudes and behaviors at work.

Read Part 2
Read Part 3
Read Part 4

Related Training and Presentations

Tapping into the Wisdom of the Ages

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About the Author

Mary Kausch has more than 20 years experience in the human resources and consulting fields. Her company, HR etc!! “helps good people produce great results”. She has become known as St. Louis’s “generational guru,” having worked with more than 13,000 employees across the United States, bridging the gap of generational values, attitudes and behavior expressed in the workplace.