Is Gen X the Real Lost Generation?
In our recent coverage of the tension between 20-somethings and baby boomers, several commenters observed that the generation with the most financial frustration is, in fact, Generation X. That’s the group of people currently in their 30s and 40s who are at the height of juggling family and work responsibilities.
“Much of the anger seems to be coming from Gen X,” pointed out a commenter calling herself Heather.
Veronica, 28, wrote in an email that she doesn’t relate to younger Millennials, who grew up with helicopter parents and material excess. “We weren’t surrounded in plastic bubbles and if we had a problem with a teacher or authority figure, it was up to us to sort it out. …Our parents smack us upside the head when we need it,” she says.
In fact, Veronica says her friends resent younger 20-somethings “who don’t know how to take critiques on job performance,” because they’ve always been told that they were good at everything. While she’s a few years past the traditional Gen X cut-off, she sounds more like a Gen Xer in her outlook and experience. She had a hard time finding steady employment after graduation and is saddled with hefty student loans.
Veronica sounds frustrated and perhaps even resentful of Gen Yers: “These are the helicopter kids who can’t seem to understand there are consequences to their actions….and are now wreaking havoc in the workplace, when they’re lucky enough to find a job and don’t realize how lucky they are.”