Generations@Work

So I went to hear Tom Wolfe a few weeks ago. This iconic figure was more than a disappointment. Dressed in his omnipresent white suit, Wolfe invited the audience to go on a grand intellectual tour, invoking some of the titans of western philosophy, especially Neitzche, to buttress his main point - the end of  western civilization as we know it is at hand.  Flirting with the suburban audience, most of whom seem to take the bait, Wolfe  used  parts of what he claims  was his “study” of the sexual mores of contemporary college students, along with an article in the New York Post about sexual norms in the City,  to point us in the direction of the cultural and spiritual Apocalypse.  When you cut through all the bombast about the depravity of young people, especially young women, who’s sin apparently is that they told a Post reporter that they were enjoying their sex lives, the portrait the Wolfe was painting of the Millennial Generation (he did not use this term) was disturbing and dangerous.

Wolfe represents a body of commentators that I call the Alarmists, referring to our typology or system for understanding what is being said, and by whom, about Millennials.  Mr. Wolfe’s clarion call to battle reprsents nothing short of the defense of our civilization.  But on a scale less grandiose and audacious, there are voices of equal trepidation heralding Armageddon in the American work place.  Mr. Wolfe titillates bored suburban Boomers with his salacious reportage from the edge of history.  His near-octogenarian crankiness in the end is somewhat harmless, other than the fact that it perpetuates a cultural stereotype.  Alarmists of another type, though, have been hard at work creating myths about Gen Y in the workplace, myths that have, I surmise, done harm to many younger workers.

Is there pain out there?  Absolutely.  Are there responsible critics pointing out some of the foibles of youth as they enter the workplace? No doubt.  So what separates the reasonable critics from the Alarmists?  Tone.  The book Ready or Not, Here Life Comes is a perfect example of a highly moralistic and judgmental work that seems short on evidence and long on diatribe.  Other examples include: When Generations Collide, Generational Warfare, Generational Conflict and Generation Me.

The big issue is attitude or work ethic.  For Wolfe the problem seems to be the generalized breakdown of social values writ large.  Pulling back just a bit from that dark-side-of-the-moon vision of the world and into the workplace, the Alarmists want us to believe the sky is falling (or soon will) as Gen Y’ers, or Millennnials, gain presence and momentum in the work force.

The Alarmist represents one distinctive Type in our four quadrant model  which also includes the Objectifiers, the Bridgers, and the Authentic Voices (Millennials).  Thankfully, the early popularity of the Alarmists has faded as more Millennnials enter the workplace.  Their legacy can be heard more in the fading signals, like distant stars, that continue to create a context for other voices.  The early and dire prognosis of the future of the American workplace still reverberates as nearly all who write about  Gen Y somehow have to refute the early myths even as their half-lives fade.

So let me not dwell on what I hope is the early-but-now-past mythologizing about the Millennials at work.  A typology, of course, has to start somewhere.  The posts about the Bridgers, the Millennials, and even the Objectifiers, though, promise to be a lot more interesting and rewarding to write.