The Washington Post has published an article by Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl, Generation X in the workplace: Stuck in the Middle. (Frontiera and Leidl of Meno Consulting write the regular column, Leadership Playlist.)
If you’re a Gen Xer and you have a career, you can’t afford to miss this article, which discusses getting squeezed in the traffic merge between Baby Boomers and Generation Y. I’d like to hear what you think. How are things going with your career? Are you getting squeezed? Are you confident in your ability and/or role of traffic cop?
Here is an excerpt from the article’s introduction:
…He highlighted a “you go, and then I go” philosophy that enables us to navigate through our lives. Just as with Stewart’s congested tunnel, the modern workplace is jammed with three generations cramming to move forward, but sometimes it feels like there’s simply too much in the way of our meager little Xer generation to merge.
The writers go on to detail five challenges Generation X faces. They conclude with this:
Extending Stewart’s analogy, the Gen-X fate may be for us to become the all-important traffic cops, assuming responsibility for brokering between the generations on either side of us to keep this traffic moving along. The only question left is, what’s our whistle?
I really like that question — What’s our whistle? I don’t know, but I am thinking about it and I will let you know when I have an answer.
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I’m not so much stuck in between Boomers and Millennials, though I work with both, as I am simply stuck in a position with little if any more opportunity to advance.
At age 42 to switch careers means probably starting at an entry level position somewhere else, which I wouldn’t mind — I have no problem working for someone younger than me — but even these positions seem elusive.
The whole technology comfort level thing is particularly interesting to me since my comfort level is low. My daughter is more tech savvy than I. Working in a library I use specialized software, the skills for which do not translate into the private sector, any other sector. So it is back to community college for me.
Essentially my problem is not so much being stuck in between but trying to find a crack that I can wedge myself into.