Generation What? Gen Z and Alpha

Generation Z / Net Generation / Dreamer Generation / Generation I / Generation @ / Generation 9/11 / 21st century generation

Relatively little has been established about this generation

Born: Roughly between the years of 1995-2010

Age: Between 1 and 16 they are the youngest generation, have older parents (late 20s to early 30s) and are being taught by older teachers (40s up). The youngest was born during the Global Financial Crisis of the late 2000s.

Education: They are the most formally educated generation in history, having started their education early and are projected to stay in education for longer than any other generation.  Despite being in day care facilities, many children have structured after school activities, this has reduced free playtime.  Parents help out more with homework and are becoming more like advisers to this generation. 

These kids know how to multi-task effectively and place value on the speed of their work rather than accuracy. They are the most internet-savvy, technologically literate generation and have only known life WITH mobile phones, pc’s, the internet, and wireless networks.

Influencers:  There major influencers are YouTube, Facebook, My Space, Wikispaces, and User Generated Content.  They are too young to remember the September 11th 2001 attacks other than through the media, but are aware of the threat of terrorism. 

Family:  The parents of Generation Z are working part time or are becoming stay-at-home parents so that their children are raised by them and other family members.  They have been born into older, wealthier families with fewer siblings, more entertainment provided for them rather than creating their own and much more technological options.

Money:  Compared to the previous generation they are much more consumer-oriented.  Financially intelligent they make decisions on how to spend their money based on the latest trends and media mania.  They are the most financially capable generation in history, having as much purchasing power in the home as Gen Y kids.

Values:  Self-directed, individualistic, and media mongrels

Motivation:  They are motivated by instant gratification (we want it and we want it now!), instant connectivity, communication with peers via technology, they are a highly connected generation.  They have had lifelong use of media technologies such as mobile phones, instant messaging, MP3 players, the world wide web resulting in the nickname – digital natives.  These connective devices are now carried in their pockets with the internet available on mobile phones or iPads, making news, communication and homework easier and more adaptable to do anywhere, anytime. This Generation have been born into the mass media and technology revolution and have never known a life without it

Work / School:  Described as a generation that lacks ambition in comparison to previous ones due to their parenting and instant gratification, and further described as impatient and instant minded.   As their attention span is much lower, with a high dependency on technology, as opposed to reading books and other printed material, there have been references by Psychologists of this generation having "Acquired Attention Deficit Disorder".

They are a materialistic generation, that want more and more technology at their fingertips.  In the next  decade they will comprise 10% of our workforce,  and they will be entering the workforce in an era of declining supply i.e. there will be more people exiting the workforce than entering it.  This will result in a skills shortage, with an ageing population and a global demand for labor, Gen Z will have a greater chance of finding work. 

Generation Alpha

Born: 2010 onwards

They will be truly the first millennial generation because they will be the first entirely born into the 21st century (some of the youngest members of Generation Z were born at the tail end of the 20th century).

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Generation What? Generation Y .....

Generation Y is the money spending generation, having seen economic expansion and experienced the booming economy, money has allowed for travel, gadgets and fun. Let’s take a closer look.

Generation Y / Gen Yer / Generation Next / Millennials  / Echo Boomers / 24x7’s

Born: Between  years of 1977 to 1994 and 1981 to 2000,

Age: Between 11 and 34

Education:  Seen as an incredible expense but the most educated generation, they will continue to study to enhance themselves in the work environment

Influences: 9/11 - World Trade Center, Pentagon attack, Oklahoma bombings, terrorist attacks, AIDS, Internet access made available, Kids shooting kids, School uniforms, Death of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa, Timothy McVeigh execution, Globalization, George W. Bush. There major influences are Friends, The Simpsons, Media and sports stars.

Family: Comfortable with a looser family structure, single mother / father family units, merged families (step mother or father) and have a new respect for the family unit.   They are coddled kids, every child gets a prize even when you come last.  Their parents have protected them from all the wrongs / evils of the world, and they are therefore more sheltered than any other generation.  They are kept busy, with homework, after school activities and most of these kids have schedules.  They consider their parents as their heroes.

Money: Have grown up in a world that has seen economic expansion.   They are eager to spend money and therefore work to indulge in fun and gadgets. They shop around for the best deals and bargains. They are part of the purchasing power of the family and take part in purchasing decisions.

Values: Achievement oriented, loyal, confident, diverse, fun, sociable, techno savvy, spiritual, they want everything now, optimistic, realists, members of a global community, high morals and very tolerant, competitive, like personal attention, street smart, and Individual in their thinking.  They value their lifestyle over upward mobility. If presented with a work promotion that will throw their life out of balance, they will choose their lifestyle.

Motivation:  They value their children, parents and family, they believe they can change the world via technology, they hope to be the next great generation to turn all the wrongs into rights.

Work: Ambitious but not entirely focused. They want a balance between work, life, community involvement and self-development / mentoring by managers.  They are entrepreneurial, effective, tenacious and good at multi-tasking but will be gone at 5pm, they view work as a means to an end and live for the weekends.

They look to the workplace for direction and to help them achieve their goals.  They will test authority but will seek them out when they need guidance and more readily accept older leadership than other generations.  Gen Y are global and networked, they have grown up in a world with cell phones, computers and the internet, they are always connected. They believe they can work flexibly anytime and anywhere, and that they should be evaluated for their output rather than where and when they got it done.  They want long term employment, but on their own terms and with more of a collaborative work environment. There is a decrease in career ambition and would rather have more family time, less travel and less personal pressure.

 “Me First “ Attitude in work life.

An Expat Gen X person, would be good in an organization looking for flexible, creative and ambitious candidates. This generation are willing to learn from managers and are willing to be molded into the organizations culture and goals.  They would not be the group of candidates required for their own experience and knowledge, but are rather seeking to gain this from the company they go to.

And in History…

1978 - Mass suicide in Jonestown

1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear reactor nears meltdown

1979 - US corporations begin massive layoffs

1979 - Iran holds sixty-six Americans hostage

1980 - John Lennon shot and killed

1980 - Ronald Reagan inaugurated

1986 - Challenger disaster

1987 - Stock market plummets

1988 - Terrorist bomb blows up flight 103 over Lockerbie

1989 - Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill

1989 - Fall of Berlin Wall

1991 - Operation Desert Storm

1992 - Rodney King beating videotaped, Los Angeles riots, child focused violence

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Generation What? The first Generation babies .... Gen X

Generation X is probably the generation with the biggest turning point, brought up by Baby Boomers, technological advancements, changes in politics and the economy, democracy, black and women’s rights, space exploration and all this happening at a rapid rate, this group have seen the biggest changes happening over time.

Generation X / Gen X / The Doer / Post Boomers / 13th Generation

Born: Between 1965 and 1980

Age: Between 31 to 46

Education: Seen as a way to get there

Influencers:  Watergate, the energy crisis, Challenger disaster, The fall of the Berlin Wall, Persian Gulf War, AIDS, The Clinton Administration, Reagan Assassination Attempt, dual income families and single parents, first generation of Latchkey Kids, Y2K, the energy crisis, activism, corporate downsizing, the end of the cold war, mom’s that work, and an increase in the divorce rate / single parent units.  There major influence however is the media.

Family: Born after the BabyBoomers.  Due to their workaholic Babyboomer parents, their focus is on a clearer balance between work and family life.

Their perceptions were shaped by growing up having to take care of themselves early, with working mothers, an increase in the divorce rate and single parent units.

Money: They are the first generation that will NOT do as well financially as their parents did.

Values: Their values revolve around life balance, self-reliance, diversity, being entrepreneurial, and having fun.

Motivation: They crave independence, ignore leadership, are pragmatic, anti-establishment, unimpressed with and will test authority repeatedly.

Work: They are Highly Educated, think globally and are technically literate with high job expectations. 

They are independent and informal with the result that they lack organizational loyalty, are cynical, pragmatic and would rather be self-employed or be able to move between employers if they so choose.

They take time off to “find themselves” as they are not worried about losing their place on the corporate team.  They are however very loyal to their managers. 

They are highly adaptable, confident, competent, ethical, results focuses, flexible, self-starters, willing to take on responsibilities and put in the extra time to get a job done if required and are more results driven than job driven.  They work smarter and with greater output.

They are the first “day care” generation, where women are expected to work outside the home due to the requirement of dual incomes.

Mostly this generation value their time, time away from work, time with their families and time to have fun. They work to live, not live to work.

As an expat this generation is highly employable and adaptable, they are extremely educated with the experience required for the job.  They enjoy moving and adapting to new experiences of a new country, culture and job, and are willing to work the extra hours to get the job done.

History onwards …..

1965 - United States sends ground combat troops to Vietnam

1966 - National Organization for Women founded

1966 - Cultural Revolution in China

1967 - American Indian Movement founded

1968 - Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy assassinated

1969 - First lunar landing

1969 - Woodstock

1970 - Kent State University shootings

1970 - Women’s Liberation protests and demonstrations

1972 - Arab terrorists at Munich Olympics

1973 - Watergate scandal

1973 - Energy crisis begins

1976 - Tandy and Apple market PCs

1978 - Mass suicide in Jonestown

1979 - Three Mile Island nuclear reactor nears meltdown

1979 - US corporations begin massive layoffs

1979 - Iran holds sixty-six Americans hostage

1980 - John Lennon shot and killed

1980 - Ronald Reagan inaugurated

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Generation What? The Baby Boomers .....

Having spoken about the Traditionalist Generation, we now move on to the Baby boomers and how they left and are leaving their mark in our lives.

Baby boomers 

Born: Between 1946 and 1964

Age: Between 47 to 65

Education: Seen as a birthright

Influencers: Civil Rights, Space Travel, the Vietnam War, the Sexual Revolution, and the Cold War/Russia.

Family:  Came from privileged backgrounds, due to their parents’ hard work and savings.  Long work hours and living to work resulted in an imbalance and the family unit disintegration with the highest divorce rate and 2nd marriages in history. 

Values:  Value success but also think of themselves as a special generation, due to their radical views and democratic outlook. They have a broad continuity of values with older and younger generations and have a tendency to define the world in terms of the generations. The Baby boomers are post War Babies who grew up to be the radicals of the 70’s and yuppies of the 80’s. 

Money: As a group in general, they are the healthiest, most educated and wealthiest generation of that time and grew up with an optimistic outlook for life, their futures and the world as a whole.

They strived for the American Dream, they are well established in their careers and hold positions of power and authority, and as a result they are seen as being greedy, materialistic and ambitious.

Motivation:  The strongest motivator for this group is being valued, prestige, perks and their need for money, they define themselves by their professional accomplishments.

Work: Baby boomers live to work, they are loyal to their careers and employer. They have a strong work ethic, are multi-taskers and traditionally found their worth in working long hours (they established the 60 hour work week). Working hard gave them the self-worth and fulfillment they required.

They established “flat” organizational structures, democracy, equal opportunity, and creating a more humane, warm and friendly workplace.

They were rebellious against convention and tradition due to their conservative parents , however they were also independent, confident and self-reliant with a competitive edge and goal orientation.

This hard work ethic led to this group being hesitant to take too much time off work for fear of losing their place in the corporate environment.

Now, the Baby boomers  strive for a work life balance with a leaning towards a healthy lifestyle and strong family bonds.  

Baby boomers defined a new form of working – living to work, they were / are scared that not working hard will result in failure, being successful is all important.  As expats, they may be a bit set in their ways and struggle to find their feet within structured work units.  They do however, have the knowledge required to complete tasks and will be of great benefit to the organization as a whole when dispatching experience and information into the workplace.  Although they are aiming for better work / life balance at this stage at life they are still achievers and are still looking at climbing the corporate ladder given the opportunity.

And more from history

1950 - Korean War

1954 - McCarthy HCUAA hearings begin

1955 - Salk Vaccine tested on the public

1955 - Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, AL

1957 - First nuclear power plant

1957 - Congress passes the Civil Rights Act

1960 - Birth control pills introduced

1960 - Kennedy elected

1961 - Kennedy establishes Peace Corps

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis

1962 - John Glenn circles the earth

1963 - Martin Luther King leads march on Washington,DC

1963 - President John Kennedy assassinated

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Generations What? Lets begin with the Traditionalist.....

Have you considered how the period you were born into determines how you will be as a person? How you and your school mates reacted towards circumstances?  How to cope with the generation gap that we all feel between ourselves, our grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren?  How some people cope with change better than others?  I am going to discuss each in a series of blogs.

There are 6 generations defined in Wikipedia and research has been completed on most of these, with a few speculative websites.  They are Traditionalists, BabyBoomers, Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Z and Generation Alpha. I will discuss Traditionalists in this first blog and how as an expat their experiences can be of value.

Traditionalists

Born: Between 1900 and 1945

Age: Between 66 to 111.

Influencers: WWII, the Korean War, the Great Depression, the New Deal, the Rise of Corporations, and the Space Age.

Education: Was more of a dream than a reality

Family: Generally came from the Traditional Nuclear family unit 

Values: Hard work and saving for tomorrow was their aim.  They valued the family unit and community above all else and were respectful of their elders and authority.

Money: They put money away, paid cash for everything and saved for retirement.

They were raised by survivors (not the reality type, but the real deal) and experienced hard times while growing up.  A hard childhood was followed by a time of prosperity.

Motivation:  Your experience is respected

Work: Was of the utmost importance to their livelihoods, they believed in working hard, were dedicated to their jobs, made sure they got the job done, were always on time and punched in and out for the hours required.  They worked hard to gain senior positions, where time on the job and working hard resulted in promotions. They believed in long term assignments which gave them job security and stability. Conservative in their outlook on life, they believed in hierarchal work and home structures, with clear chains of command and top-down management with job - recognition and respect for their experience.

As an expat, this group of aging people can bring experience to a company.  They have had their careers and are looking at either topping up their pensions or experiencing the world. They are no longer looking for upward mobility in the workplace, but rather enjoyment. They still respect authority and have a gentler more respective outlook on life in general.  If they are employable, this shows that they have kept up with technology and the changing times and generations.

A group well worth having around.

Events in history during their time:

1927 - Lindbergh completes first transatlantic flight

1929 - Stock market crashes

1930 - US Depression deepens

1931 - Star Spangled Banner becomes national anthem

1932 - Lindbergh baby kidnapped

1932 - FD Roosevelt elected

1933 - The Dust Bowl

1933 - The New Deal

1934 - Social Security system established

1937 - Hindenburg tragedy

1937 - Hitler invades Austria

1940 - United States prepares for war

1941 - Pearl Harbor; United States enters World War II

1944 - D-Day in Normandy

1945 – FD Roosevelt dies

1945 - Victory in Europe and Japan

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