<p><font size="-1" face="Arial, Verdana, Geneva">When we began tracking Generation X (29.5% of the workforce) back in 1993, Xers were the young people in the workplace. Today, more than 21% of the workforce is younger than the youngest Xers (who are 28 this year). Meanwhile the oldest GenXers have been turning forty throughout 2005.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial, Verdana, Geneva">What are we learning from Generation X today? Xers' attitudes and behavior make a powerful lens through which to view many changes that have occurred over the last ten years because Xers´ careers have spanned the shift from the original downsizing, restructuring and reengineering revolution, through the tech boom, the dot com boom, the bust, and the consolidation. Generation X came of age during the mythic new economy and are the first generation to reach mature adulthood in the real new economy of highly interconnected, rapidly changing, fiercely competitive, knowledge-driven global markets.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial, Verdana, Geneva">When Xers first appeared in the workplace, they were widely viewed as being less loyal than previous generations, unwilling to pay their dues and climb the proverbial ladder. Gen Xers didn´t trust large institutions to make good on promises about long-term rewards and so, for short-term sacrifices, Xers demanded immediate gratification. Xers turned away from the traditional career path and its norms of success, acting like free agents. They were always asking, "What´s the deal around here? What do you want from me? What do I get in return?"</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial, Verdana, Geneva">All of this was seen as a youthful aberration at first. But don't forget that Xers started their careers in the early 1990s, amidst those first waves of downsizing, restructuring, and reengineering that attacked fundamental notions about long-term job security. Then, the tech boom took off and the tech boom turned into the dot com craze. All of a sudden Xers were viewed as super-workers with magical business models, making fortunes without ever having services or products, much less customers. By the late 1990s, unemployment was at record lows, the talent wars were raging, and there was a never-ending stream of good news on the business page. When the good news turned into bad news for much of the early 2000s, some expected the free agent trends to disappear, especially since those pesky GenXers were growing up. As they took on more adult responsibilities, surely Xers must be seeking more security. And they are.</font></p>
<p><font size="-1" face="Arial, Verdana, Geneva">So what does the new adult security-seeking behavior look like? It is not about a return to the post-war myth of job security; paying ones dues and climbing the ladder and waiting for the system to take care of you in the long term. Rather, it is about surviving and succeeding in a highly uncertain and transactional environment. That means keeping one´s options open, focusing short-term and local, asking all the time, "What´s the deal around here?" It means being a true free agent, in the great tradition of self-reliance, not because you want to be but because you have to take care of yourself and your family.</font></p>
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<p>Bruce Tulgan's Newsletter is available at: <a href="http://www.rainmakerthinking.com">http://www.rainmakerthinking.com</a></p>
