Generation X vs. Generation Z
8 Thoughts Running Through My Gen X Brain While Gen Z Leads This Meeting
Does anyone even try anymore?
I really don’t want to be THAT person.
You know, the ninety-year-old curmudgeon that complains about how superlative their generation is and how clueless every other generation was before or since? But a recent Zoom meeting, the end of Crockpot season, and the deteriorating geopolitical climate, has me feeling cranky and not so tolerant of my Gen Z colleagues.
I am Generation X, a proud member of the group born between 1965 and 1980. We brought you portable computing, parachute pants, Run-DMC, and toxic work environments.
Unfortunately, most of the people in charge of my life personally and professionally are from Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012. This group can be charming, insightful, clueless, illogically confident, dizzyingly aggressive, and hypersensitive, all at the same time.
It seems that every meeting in 2022 has been unenergetically helmed by Gen Z. I try to smile, nod and pretend I’m listening. But during this particular Zoom meeting, I cannot for the life of me concentrate on the overstuffed agenda, illegible slides in 3-point font, or the “big idea” that will catapult our company forward…
