Entrepreneurs: a Basic Truth about Age
by Miki SaxonKG wrote a great post about ageism that started an interesting conversation regarding what needs to happen on both sides of the age line-in-the-sand for things to change.
But what people seem to forget is that, at the time, the Boomers were plenty disrupting and more demanding than their parents.
In fact, historically each generation has disrupted the status quo and demanded both more and different than its predecessor in one way or another.
Every generation has focused on various traits of the upcoming generation and deemed them the end of civilization—if not the world.
I’m sure our hunter ancestors looked with horror at their gatherer children and predicted starvation if the herds weren’t followed.
It’s a given that what’s currently happening always seems more difficult, and even brutal, than what happened in the past when viewed from a distance.
I have no problem when Gen Y demands and walks when those demands aren’t met for two reasons.
- Most of their demands are of universal interest (ability to make a difference, respect, challenge, opportunity to grow, etc.) and will improve the workplace for all ages; and
- walking is the privilege of the un’s—unmarried, unparenting, unmortaged, unencumbered.
One of the few constants is that we will always have a multigenerational workforce.
So everyone would do well to remember that eventually we all become our parents—maybe not in our own minds, but definitely in the minds of the newest generation agitating for change.
Flickr image credit: Eric Danley