Why Gen-X is Awesome for the Workplace

If you grew up….

…listening to a Walkman

…playing with your friends til the streetlights came on

…going to a roller disco

…coveting Air Jordans

…rockin’ a Trapper Keeper

…trying to master the Rubix cube

…heading out the door in the morning with nothing more than a “bye Mom!”

…playing (or wanting) an Atari

…shakin’ it like a Polaroid picture (literally)

…then, friends, YOU are probably some of the best employees in your workplace today. Take a moment and pat yourselves on the back.

Now, let’s talk about why! Friends, growing up Gen-X meant growing up in a really interesting time. We were independent, sometimes latchkey kids, bridging genres, friend cliques, interests and more.

This independence didn’t go away when we entered the workforce, either! It made us confident and awesome.

Check out the video for my thoughts!

After you’ve checked out the video, won’t you head down to the comments section? We want to hear from you! Did you grow up Gen-X? How do you think that changed your workplace personality? And did anyone ever REALLY solve a Rubix cube?!

You can make a real difference for someone else when you share your story. So don’t be shy about leaving a comment. Every little bit of wisdom helps!

Listen to this video as a podcast!

Video Transcript:- Hey there friend, it’s Stefanie Krievins with Pro Troublemaker Nation, where I share tips and encouragement so you can fix your hot messes. And today, I wanna talk about the awesomeness that is the Gen-X generation. These are my friends, I’m one of them. The late 30s to late 50s. We grew up at a really interesting time that I think makes us really awesome advocates for both the Baby Boomer generation as well as the Millennial generation in our workplaces. Here are three reasons why: one, we grew up as latchkey kids so we’re the first generation to grow up either with a significant number of single parents, so we came home after school, they’re still at work, or we had both parents working, so we learned different kind of gender norms because both our moms and our dads were in the workplace, and we spent significant time after school by ourselves, which means we had to take responsibility at an early age for getting our chores done, playing with our friends unsupervised and gettin’ into some trouble and figuring things out and being problem solvers, and then also getting our homework done. So we learned from an early age the sense of responsibility for having fun and getting the work done that we’re supposed to at the same time, and we had to do that unsupervised. So now, in the modern workforce, that makes us really great independent workers for the most part because we’ve been figuring out how to get things done by ourselves since we were home by ourselves at 10, 12, 13 years old after school. Second, we played unorganized sports. We played pick up basketball at recess or in the cul-de-sac or at the public park. We learned how to get along with others, how to be a team player, how to get people to follow the rules and actually set rules together so that we could have fun together. In the modern workplace, in 2020 and beyond, what that means is we have a high level of influence skills because we understand how to bring together different perspectives so that we can all play on one team, so that we can see the benefits of how hard Baby Boomers have worked to create the institutions that they have and the businesses that they have, and we see the benefits of Millennials’ focus on wanting more purpose at work and better work/life balance. We want both of those things too, and we know how to bring people together in a way that I don’t think other generations know how to, and that’s because of that skill we learned in unorganized sports. We didn’t have parents around telling us what to do. We figured out how to have fun together. Third, Gen-Xers are great at bringing cultures together. My older step brother, who is deep into the Gen-X age frame, had both a Run-DMC poster on his bedroom door and a Sex Pistols poster on his bedroom door, right? We are the group that brought together different genres for the first time into pop culture. And what I think that means today is that a lot of Gen-Xers are looking for a level of inclusivity that brings together so many different perspectives to create one really awesome thing. When you think about that music lover who’s into hip-hop and rock and country, they understand something about the world that I think other people don’t, and that’s what I think Gen-Xers understand about the world is that when you bring together disparate ideas and connect them in one place, you have something even better, because you can love the Sex Pistols and Run-DMC at the same time, and be an even more cultured person, and that plays out in our workforces. Friends, I wanna hear your story. Are you a Gen-Xer? Tell us wherever you’re watching this what makes you awesome in the workforce. What gifts and strengths do you bring being part of the sandwich generation that no other generation understands. Share that in the stories. And now my friends, let’s get off the internet and get the real work done, and I’ll see you soon.