“I am not living to
work; I am working so I can enjoy my husband, my son, and my life.”
Tabitha Carver
My millennial daughter-in-law shared this thinking with me
recently and I found it quite profound. I think it reflects the
thinking of many millennials and illustrates a seismic change in the ways these
young people see careers and jobs. Relationships are
more valuable than titles, promotions and the traditional trappings of climbing
the corporate ladder. It means more to live,
experience and contribute to life than it means to work 40+ hours.
The phenomena we face today are that there are four generations
in the workforce; Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y
or Millennials. The next workforce, Generation Z, is about to come
of age. Never before in the history of mankind have so many
different age groups been working at the same time.
|
Generation
|
Born
|
Work is
|
|
Traditionalists
|
Born before 1946
|
An obligation. Long term career.
|
|
Baby Boomers
|
Born between 1946-1964
|
An exciting adventure. A Career.
Work and then retire.
|
|
Generation X
|
Born between 1965-1976
|
A difficult challenge. A contract.
Just a job.
|
|
Generation Y, or
Millennials
|
Born 1977-1997
|
A means to an end. Fulfillment.
Flexible work arrangements.
|
|
Generation Z
|
Born after 1997
|
???
|
Each generation has its own specific life experiences,
which influences their perspective on career and employment. This can present a huge challenge. What is important and
meaningful to a 50-year-old is different from a 30-year-old, which is way different than
a 20-year-old.
The expectations and beliefs of those who entered the workforce
in the '60s, '70s, and '80s are different than those who have entered the
workforce from the 1990s to the present. Going to work in the mid 20th Century for companies like AT&T, Sears, Exxon, General Motors, and IBM would have one believing
they would have a job for life, a career, and a pension at retirement. Economic recessions
in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, the OPEC crisis, and the Great
Recession of 2006 reshaped businesses and in turn reshaped the world of work.
Career and College
For Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, and Generation X the belief
was that a college degree was the golden ticket to employment, a career, and a
good life. Families saved and made sacrifices to send their children
to college. It was not unusual to hear Traditionalists and Baby
Boomers talk about going to college on the GI Bill, working their way through
college or participating in university work-study programs to offset tuition
costs. This has
changed with
Millenniums and Generation Z.
Holding fast to the value of a college education, parents of
Millenniums and Generation Z borrowed and went into debt to give their children
the opportunity to get a college degree. It didn’t matter what the
degree was since the focus was just to get “the piece of paper”.
They bet on their child’s future employment to repay student loans.
As a result, young people earned degrees that did not necessarily
translate into jobs or careers.
Graduates were saddled with enormous student loan debt. The statistics
on this are staggering. https://lendedu.com/blog/average-student-loan-debt-statistics Currently student loan debt in the United States
is $1.52 trillion dollars which is the second-largest form of consumer debt
behind mortgages.
Growth Rings: Education is important but so is the ability to
go out and make one’s way in the world. According to the Bureau of Labor and
Statistics, the average worker will have ten different jobs before the age of forty. This number is projected to grow. It is important parents
have meaningful conversations with their children on this topic.
Determining one’s interests, aptitudes, skills and desired
lifestyle is crucial. College is not for everyone. Vocational training and
apprenticeships can be viable options.
Changing the perceptions of
parents, students, and educators is the challenge. How do we do this? How will this impact
K-12 education? Systemically how do we prepare
young people for jobs and careers yet to be created?
There is lots of good work to be done.
Mike Rowe created this poster that very much
speaks to the thinking in 1972 and the reality of 2020.
I am in 100% of agreement with your reflection and your daughter-in-law's statement. My own Millennials and Gen Z children of 35, 32, and 24 are clear proof of this new way of workforce thinking. My oldest son has told me personally he is not going to over extend himself with 50+ of work a week and let the work control him. He is a brilliant young man and he has chosen happiness of a well balanced life with his family first before work. Yes he too is in the IT field as a network administrator and could easily work for a large corporation and make 6 figures, yet he has chosen to be "work-life-balance happy" with working for local community company knowing he can control his work hours, and say yes to overtime when it is the best match for his family.
ReplyDeleteMy second son who is 32 is working a remote managerial/director job from home for a major cellular company. He at times is finding it hard time find work-life-balance, especially when it comes to the end of the month of closing out open work tickets and following up with employees that have not completed necessary required task. It all piles up for him, and he can not do anything to change this, as this corporation has a process in place that they are not flexible in changing- yet adds stress ultimately to the managers/directors in these types of positions. This type of stress I can see that is where on my son is gained wait, lack of sleep and extreme fatigue. Let me tell you - we as an entire family are working him to find a better balance, yet he has got to be the ultimate decision maker to change the life style and routine.
Our youngest son who is 24 is living with us full-time as he is a wounded warrior from the US Army. He too chose a career path to help serve and protect his country. He was so passionate about world history and economics, global travel and his patriotism towards the USA. He is now 100% disabled due to a sever TBI and 50% of his bones broken in his body from the in line of duty accident. Yes the US Army let us down, the VA system let us down - as benefits are not promised as they advertise- you have to fight to get every penny you are owned and every expense to be paid from medical expense - and knowing a military career is no longer a guarantee in our 21st century as a life long career choice that is actually very very sad.
We too as parents have to realize that the workforce is constantly changing based on the world economic needs, and a four year college/university degree may not the best option for some. A technical college degree/certification coursework provides our kids instantaneous real world experience that they can put into practice even their first semester of their studies. It is also so much more cost effective, and in some states free. They also have the choice of always going to back to school to earn a bachelor/master or even a doctorate degree at 30, 40, 50 or 60+ - as there are no age limits to keep learning :-)
Choice and real world hands-on learning experiences is critical for our future workforce of of our Generation Z and now our Generation Alpha students (as my three grand-babies). https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/move-gen-z-generation-alpha-watch/316314 We as parents need to be more open-minded, listen more intently to understand the immediate learning needs and interests of today's learners of their why, and support their creative job hunting and training efforts whether it be starting with a job in the workforce right out of high school with no college experience to find what interests them first, or to earn a certification in a focused area, a two year degree or a a four year university degree. We as educators must provided more hands-on, collaborative learning opportunities of real world learning experiences, so students can explore, discover, solve and create new solutions so they realize and understand that they are the one's ultimately going to be the creators of their own future.
#TogetherWeAreBetter
Naomi
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment and for sharing. We are indeed at a tipping point of change. Our system of preparing young people for the "real world" needs attention. Establishing "work-life-balance" is crucial to emotional health and well being. Like you, we are a Blue Star family. Our son served in the Air Force. Please know your son is in our thoughts and prayers.