How the 4 Generations of Today Work and What They Want

by: Autor: Borja Arrizabalaga

Where is and what does Generation X want?
Digital native? Not so much
What changes will come to the company with the ‘Generation Z’?
The ‘Baby Boomers’, the ‘X’, the ‘Millennials’ and the younger, the ‘Z’, make up the business landscape, a diversity that has not yet been taken advantage of. All of them share space, obligations and work responsibilities, but they work differently. The great challenge is to take advantage of its potential in a new environment in full digital transformation.

They say of the X who are less concerned about the charges and more because their work makes sense. Many identify this group, who opened their eyes between the late sixties and 1980s, as the bridge generation, because they live between two of the big ones, the Baby Boomers and the Millennials. The latter have been the most media in recent years: their self-reliance, their detachment from standards and digital skills have made them an object of desire for organizations, an attraction that is mutating into disenchantment. Let’s not forget the youngest of the business family today: the Z. Born in the mid-90’s, they are starting to find a place in the labor market. It is the first generation of the 21st century, they are autonomous by nature and technology has been part of their life since their childhood. All of them coexist in today’s organizations and their management depends on their professional future and that of companies.
The Observatorio Generación & Talento, together with the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, its academic partner, has celebrated in the last year a dozen meetings between workers of the different generations to analyze what they contribute and how they are transforming these four generations the way of doing things. To this qualitative sample has added the results of a survey, carried out to 3,697 workers. With all this, it has elaborated the Diagnosis of generational diversity, a report that advances EXPANSION exclusively and that constitutes a deep analysis of the intergenerational talent in the companies. According to Ángeles Alcázar and Elena Cascante, impellers and managing partners of Generacciona, the creator of this observatory, generational reality becomes strategic for organizations and there are still many challenges to be resolved: “We need Baby Boomers to retire as late as possible and While our mature youth, Generation X, caught between the burdens of their age and lack of projection by the Baby Boomers plug, they feel stressed and unmotivated because Everything is falling on them. “Of the Millennials (Generation Y) they emphasize their formation and their precarious incorporation into the labor market,” they do works that do not correspond to their preparation. “And finally the Z,” witnesses of an inherited world, in the Who see how the efforts and work of their parents and siblings are not the bulwarks of success. The same thing is no longer believed. ”

BABY BOOMERS(1956/1964)
Bill Gates, Angela Merkel or Barack Obama are some of those who are part of this generation that in Spain is characterized by its long-term vital projects and the family that determines their interests. This generation, born between 1956 and the late sixties, is recognized as that of the romantics who are linked to things and people and who deposit their affections in those traditions that have been built. This attachment that gives stability and security also has a B face that is already felt in many organizations: their fear of letting go of what is known to hold on to something that changes continuously. His work fidelity has no discussion. They value what they have achieved and feel very proud of their trajectories. They are aware of the privileges they have achieved, which also affects their fear of change, so many panic when they lose their job: they feel helpless because they do not have the tools to deal with a new world they do not know.

They do not feel that threat before the generational relief. Almost do not mention Generation X, they see them very close, respect them and understand their language, feel comfortable and safe. Millennials are labeled as challengers and nonconformists, who do not respect authority and who are not willing to make the sacrifices they have made.

‘GENERATION X’ (1965/1980)

They tend to occupy the intermediate positions in the organization. They have the pressure from the top of the seniors – who have rope for a while in the top management positions – and, from below, that of the younger employees who are coming on. It is the generation of the consolidation of women in the labor market and feel the pressure of the demand.

Of a good professional career and of their private lives. Responsible and adaptable, they are described as the trapped generation between the reconciliation of family life and work. When asked about what made them feel more proud about their professional performance, they spoke little or nothing of personal success and success and much of helping clients, being honest with others and creating good work teams. In contact with the younger, they are obliged to have a very open mind to new ideas, and believe that they should be flexible and not be closed to their own ideas. Their opinion of the Baby Boomers is contradictory: they see how many of them are separated and marginalized by the organizations, but they are aware that their frustration before a professional careers that have not been fulfilled is due to the stopper that they generate. They perceive the Millennials as challengers and nonconformists and criticize their lack of respect for authority. They consider Z better because they think they are more fighters because, like them, they have grown up in the middle of a crisis.

MILLENNIALS ‘Y’ Z ‘(1981/1994) (1995/2010)

The younger ones are very similar. The Millennials are the most aware of their differential value, they think they are different, but perhaps because from the outside they insist on that difference. Protagonists of change are, however, afraid of losing control: they are so accustomed to immediacy that they fear their misadaptation to everyday life and confuse the virtual with the real. They demand more autonomy and confidence, and they want to grow very fast. That is not their only fear: they know that the Z are better prepared than they, have a freer and more entrepreneurial spirit.

That is why they show a sense of vertigo for those who come, because they think that they are the true digital natives. The first generation lostThe name ‘X’ because he had to join the labor market in a time marked by uncertainty and unemployment, Is represented as an unknown. So much so that there is no universal rank to identify them. The most widely used is from 1966 to 1980, but also cut between 1970 and 1981, little more than a decade for a generation – the first ‘Baby Boomers’ were born in the mid-1950s and the last’ Millennials’ are from 1992-.

These mature youngsters are also known as the ‘MTV Generation’, associating them with the television channel. In Spain they are the Nocilla Generation and, in the 1990s, many of them were proud to be JASP (Young Although Well-Prepared) in allusion to a famous advertisement of the time. Great impellers of technology – Jesús Encinar, creator of ‘Idealista.com’ is one of them – lived the analogical time and the birth and explosion of the dotcom bubble, and were the first users of the chat. People management experts do not dare question their adaptability, training and multifunctionality. Although they do not pamper them as much as the ‘Y’ or as they did with the ‘BB’, companies are aware that they need them. “They know they have a high organizational risk, that is, if they leave the company they can create a risk by occupying critical positions,” says Marta García-Valenzuela, director of diversity in Talengo.

The question that defines them often is not such, because although they are not as popular as those that will happen they aspire to the same thing: recognition, retribution, horizontal mobility in the company and conciliation laboral.De major I also want to be ‘Millennial ‘For the’ Generation Y ‘a much more mediatic term has been adopted:’ Millennial ‘. This will strengthen their role for change. They are the first to make intensive use of digital media, and especially those who joined the labor market in a time of full employment, their arrogance has earned them an attraction in which media have had much to do.

However, their profile and needs are not so different from what any professional aspires to:

  • Having an international experience is an opportunity.
  • They refuse to take responsibility. They want a good working climate.
  • They question processes and protocols. Work must be a place to develop.
  • Demand a good work environment and accept and make own the values ​​and mission of the company.
  • They admire people who have carved out their own future and who are not able to overcome difficulties.
  • They aspire to a job that gives them pleasure and fun, but gives them time to enjoy their free time.
How the 4 Generations of Today Work and What They Want

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