photo by my own worst nightmare via flickr
Early this morning, I awoke to the sound of Sully crying for me. Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! I went into his room and crawled into bed with him and soothed his fears. He said he had a bad dream. He was in a room all alone and it was cold. But, the room was his room, and it was not a dream. He’d kicked all his covers off, and he just needed someone to cover him up. I will cover you, Sullivan.
As I lay there staring up at Sully’s ceiling, a dozen posts marched through my head. I wish I had the time to write them all. The majority center on the challenges facing Generation X. I am not blind to them despite the mantra I repeat: the best is yet to be.
Do I really believe that? Many Gen Xers are in the late summer of life, edging toward a long autumn; the hurricane, the constellation dividing the two: a near financial cataclysm. Ever looming on the winter that has not yet come, 77 cents on every Social Security dollar.
And, so what am I suppose to write on my blog, when I feel so pressed down by it all? Somedays, I just want to be 10 again. Don’t you?
So, I pray about what I should write today because it’s the only way I know how to separate the wheat in my mind from the chaff. This is what came to me.
Recently, I was talking to a friend of mine who is a member of Generation Y. She’s one of the most talented people I’ve met in all my years in Oklahoma. She is engaging and articulate. She is confident without the burden of pride. She is talented, with a long list of impressive accomplishments. But, she told me the most astonishing thing the other day. She told me she had been iced-out of a particular opportunity by her peers. I know this young woman and I know the value of the knowledge and experience she is willing to share. But, her professional peers, most much older, didn’t want to listen to her, because in doing so they would have had to acknowledge her. Maybe she knew something they didn’t know.
Corporate Burnout
Last week, I discovered a blog, Corporate Burnout. I was certain the author would be a Gen Xer but was heartbroken to realize it was a member of Generation Y. Corporate burnout before 30? It’s possible. This is a story that begs our attention. Our country’s bright, young minds slipping into the groove of disappointment already worn slick by the generation that proceed thems.
So, I left a comment for Corporate Burnout and breathed a prayer before moving on to the next blog. But, then yesterday, Corporate Burnout emailed me. That rarely happens, and it’s why I’m writing about it now. He explained that one day everything at work was going great, but then he made a stellar presentation on a marketing project he’d managed. It produced record, quantifiable results, and just when he thought he might get acknowledged the opposite happened. He ended up on the ropes with his mid-level manager who was clearly threatened by his rising star. Instead of seeing him as an asset, he was a threat to be managed and expunged. A 90-day action plan followed. Eventually, he was fired, lucky to walk away with unemployment. In the process, he lost weight, sleep, mind.
What I love about Generation Y is they want mentors. They reach out to Generation X and they ask for help none of us were courageous or hopeful enough to seek. I don’t know why, really. It’s just the way it went. I’m not an expert in this generational stuff. I’m just hear to give voice, to write my own memoir.
One of the greatest lessons in my life is that my greatest losses ushered in the most profound deliverance. Now, when I see a loss on the horizon, I look also for that from which I am being spared and saved. Surely the Lord restores the years the locusts have eaten. The best is yet to be because the best things are those that moth and rust cannot destroy. Hope does not disappoint. This the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans:
“…But we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
Your comment about Gen Y seeking the mentors that Gen X lacked the courage to seek rings true. I have had the pleasure of mentoring three talented Gen Y people, yet when I was their age I had to go it alone. However I actively sought to mentor my Gen Yers yet no one sought me at a similar time. Would my Gen Yers have approached me regardless. Unlike Gen X Me at the same age and stage of life, the answer would be yes.
Good stuff, Jen.
I, too, have a high regard for hope. I am old enough to have weathered several storms and I know there are many more on the horizon. In the darkest hour of that storm, it’s easy to want to give up… quit… hide. But you can’t. You have to…
Stick. It. Out.
And, when the storms clouds clear and you are once again able to see the sun, all that remains is clean and shiny and new.
This is how hope is built. Each time you come through a storm, you have more faith that you will come through the next one, too. You BELIEVE it will happen. And, it will.
The Sarah Palins of the world would rather hide than face the storm. By doing so, they don’t reap the joy of surviving it. They don’t know what hope is.
I’m with you Jen – if we have hope we have everything – bst le xox
Beautiful poem. We are all over worked and underpaid. Some years ago when I was in business school I was taught that companies had very small margins of net income, usually in the tens of millions. So if we have to pay billions of dollars in bonuses to a select elite few the company is going into the hole with every bonus. The other night I saw undercover boss. It was amazing to see that a woman had to pee into a cup she had pulled out of a trash truck. I bet the President of waste management never saw that one coming when he personally implemented the policy that caused the driver not to be able to drive to a bathroom. He was a big enough man to fix his policy. I don’t feel as though most executives aren’t. Rob
great post lovey … managers just need to get over the ego factor and see talent where it really lies no matter the birth certificate … other peoples talents have got me to where I am today – and no I did not sleep my way up thru the food change – but stood hand in hand with the best and the brightest and made a go of it … my baby boomer director of engineering told me today I am equal best ceo he has ever worked with – I was so chuffed I nearly cried !! le xoxo
I too am shocked that the blog is written by Gen Y – amazing! I know what you mean about have posts in your head you can’t to, an itch you can’t scratch, it is awful.
Sad stories about Generation Y people. They really are talented, scary so. I can feel their deep need for mentors. When you do give them a little direction and guidance, they take what you tell them and run hard with it. If you let the leash out they can run a long ways and they end up teaching old guys like me a few things.
Its easy to let yourself feel threatened by them I admit. I try not to but I’m only human.
Their expectations are huge, but so is their energy and their rate of acquiring skills and experience. I’ll be working for them someday sooner than I think.
Hopefully they’ll keep me around.
It always amazes me how our thoughts intertwine…I was reading in Philipians today…you know, the book all about Joy that was written from prison by a man in chains? Thanks for sharing today, I heard God’s voice.