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Are Companies About to Have a Gen X Retention Problem?

8 points by apress 7y ago

mdorazio 7y ago
I was just discussing with a friend last night the seeming absence of commentary on Gen X. Just about all the news on generational trends and observations tends to focus on boomers, millennials, or both, with little to no mention of Gen Xers. Even beyond the business aspects pointed out by HBR here, politics is in a weird place as well. Based on historical trends, Gen X should be dominating congressional positions right now, but instead Boomers are still leading most states and the presidential front-runners are mostly 70+. As the article implies, there's an open question here - is Gen X less ambitious? Are they given fewer opportunities due to boomers? Are they just less talked about because their views depart less from the status quo? It's interesting and frustrating to try and get to the bottom of it.
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > Based on historical trends, Gen X should be dominating congressional positions right now, No, it shouldn't; based on historical trends, the baby bust of Gen X should never be politically dominant, and dominance should pass directly from the Boomers to Millenials. I meant based on historical age group dominance without consideration to population, yes, Gen X should be dominant now, but it's a bust sandwiched between a big boom and a little boom. > As the article implies, there's an open question here - is Gen X less ambitious? Are they given fewer opportunities due to boomers? Are they just less talked about because their views depart less from the status quo? It's interesting and frustrating to try and get to the bottom of it. It's much simpler: they are less numerous and will never be the numerically largest group unless something selectively kills off Millenials. Everyone cares about the current and emergent dominant group, not the once and future number 3 that might make it to number 2 for a while as the Boomers die off. See, e.g., https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/millennials...

8 points by apress 7y ago

I was just discussing with a friend last night the seeming absence of commentary on Gen X. Just about all the news on generational trends and observations tends to focus on boomers, millennials, or both, with little to no mention of Gen Xers. Even beyond the business aspects pointed out by HBR here, politics is in a weird place as well. Based on historical trends, Gen X should be dominating congressional positions right now, but instead Boomers are still leading most states and the presidential front-runners are mostly 70+. As the article implies, there's an open question here - is Gen X less ambitious? Are they given fewer opportunities due to boomers? Are they just less talked about because their views depart less from the status quo? It's interesting and frustrating to try and get to the bottom of it.

dragonwriter 7y ago
> Based on historical trends, Gen X should be dominating congressional positions right now, No, it shouldn't; based on historical trends, the baby bust of Gen X should never be politically dominant, and dominance should pass directly from the Boomers to Millenials. I meant based on historical age group dominance without consideration to population, yes, Gen X should be dominant now, but it's a bust sandwiched between a big boom and a little boom. > As the article implies, there's an open question here - is Gen X less ambitious? Are they given fewer opportunities due to boomers? Are they just less talked about because their views depart less from the status quo? It's interesting and frustrating to try and get to the bottom of it. It's much simpler: they are less numerous and will never be the numerically largest group unless something selectively kills off Millenials. Everyone cares about the current and emergent dominant group, not the once and future number 3 that might make it to number 2 for a while as the Boomers die off. See, e.g., https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/millennials...