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New office crisis: Boomers won't leave!
Dan Drezner
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Kai Ryssdal: How you feel about the economy right now might well depend on where you are in the pecking order, generationally speaking. To use a personal finance term here for a second, financial horizons -- that is, the time any given person has left to work and save -- can vary widely. And in light of the great stock market crash of 2008, everybody's reassessing their economic future, including commentator Dan Drezner.
DAN DREZNER: The financial downturn has left all sorts of casualties in its wake: more unemployment, depressed wages, and greater economic uncertainty. But I'd like to direct my angst at a different target -- the baby boomers.
A hidden effect of this crisis is that, in the workplace, as in popular discourse, they simply refuse to get out of the way.
To understand my lament, you have to realize that the oldest of the baby boomers are on the cusp of retirement. For younger generations, this should be a cause for relief. For decades, Gen X-ers like myself have had to hear the standard declarations about the uniqueness of the baby boomers. Maybe they were not the Greatest Generation, but they were the ones who glorified the whole idea of generational identity. For decades, Gen X-ers have had to hear complaints about our political apathy, our popular culture, and our musical tastes.
We have suffered many of these critiques without complaint. Why? Because so many of us worked for so many of them. They were the bosses of the business world. And they were supposed to be retiring very soon, but the recession has changed all that.
In 2008, U.S. workers aged 55 to 64 who had 401(k)'s for at least 20 years saw their retirement balances drop an average of 20 percent. A recent YouGov poll showed two-thirds of this generation have not made the necessary adjustments in their financial planning. This is not a recipe for leaving the workforce anytime soon.
What does this mean for the rest of us? Younger workers who expected promotions when the boomers cleared out are going to have to stew in their own juices. With this job market, looking for a better opportunity elsewhere is not in the cards. Which means that Gen X-ers are going to have to listen to baby boomers doing what they do best -- talk about themselves.
Office politics across the country are going to get a lot nastier. Of course, it could be worse. Generation Y not only has to deal with the boomers, they have to cope with people like me complaining about them.
Ryssdal: Dan Drezner is a professor of international politics at Tufts University.
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As a Generation Xer, I agree with Dan Drezner completely that Baby Boomers should get out of our way. Baby Boomers talked a great game but all they did was run out the clock.
They said they would stick it to the man, but they stood idly by as real wages have fallen steadily for the past 30 years and organized labor has all but disappeared.
They said they would stand up for the little guy, but we have 47 million Americans without health insurance, many of them children.
They wanted to save the planet, but they scoffed at solar panels, wind turbines, and conservation and bought gas-guzzzling SUVs instead.
They argued for civil rights, but as a generation they didn't vote for Barack Obama.
They championed feminsim, but women still make 70 cents on the male dollar and we have nothing even close to real maternity leave for women.
They swore fealty to family values, but they brought us a record-high divorce rate.
They advocated for higher education, but saved so little for their kids' college tuition that an entire generation is starting out their adult lives in deep debt to student loans.
They worry about how close their second home is to the lake, while their kids worry about whether they'll ever be able to afford a first home.
They whine about their pensions, but their kids don't even know what a pension is.
Dan Drezner is right. The Baby Boomers do need to get out of the way, and let Generation X finally get a chance to run with the ball. We have better ideas, fresher legs, and a lot of their work to finish.
I hate it when people generalize about an entire generation. I am a proud baby boomer and I have never declared the uniqueness of my generation in the workplace, nor have I complained about my Gen-X colleagues' musical tastes, political apathy or pop culture. In my current workplace, I am participating in an extreme fitness challenge. Our team is called XYBoom...two people from each generation and we are getting along very well, thank you, on and off the job.
Dr. Drezner took the words right out of my mouth. Gen Xers have always lived in the shadow of some other generation. We're like the middle child--on the one hand Gen Xers have to deal with the boomer generation who are not unlike bossy older siblings who push the younger ones around, tell them what to do, criticize them and take all the good resources (whether it be the first crack at the popsicles or the best jobs on the market). On the other hand, we have to deal with the Millenials (who are much like the youngest siblings) who are too young to care about the state of the economy and too busy texting to notice anyway, yet who grew up in the decade of the child and have such an inflated sense of entitlement that they are making unrealistic and unreasonable demands on employers--and unbelievably, they are getting exactly what they want from them, so much so that employers are seeking consultation on how to properly welcome millenials to their workforce and getting an education on their preferences and tastes (such as flexible schedules so they can sleep in). The Xers are like the middle kid who is stuck between two selfish, dramatic children. Yes, boomers need to move over and get out when they reach retirement age. While we're at it--Millenials need to wait their turn in line before taking all the interesting jobs that Xers have been waiting for. Excellent work, Dr. Drezner!
After our retirement savings and pensions were blown away by hotshots who were by no means all boomers, in fact the group was dominated by Gen-Xers with Ivy League MBAs, the professor wants us to just disappear. Sorry, no can do.
We are going to have to rebuild our savings. That means work, and not at menial jobs. We have to keep our hard earned positions so we have the resources to face a long future. And it is made more urgent because we fear people like the professor will happily default on the Social Security and Medicare contracts we have previously calculated into our plans.
The professor suggests we just downsize our plans to what is left of our savings. That's a non-starter. We've worked for 35 years, built the comfortable society that the professor wants to take over and we've sacrificed a lot to do it. Now we are not going to move into a poorhouse and disappear so that the professor can take over our earnings on his schedule.
The professor says if we don't run, he and his cohorts will make our lives miserable. Remember who is the boss in that battle. Not all Gen-Xers have tenure, professor. And yes, we will play that card.
Boomers had the luxury of having one of the most productive generations in American history as our parents. And we had to wait before we could build on their success. When we are ready, and when we feel things will be in good hands, we will move on. And not before.
Thank you, Ms. Song/Welland. You said this well.
These people, these people who call themselves generation y or x, have come to my attention for all this whining and contempt that they feel for "Baby Boomers," which they like harping on in their "blogs."
They are looking forward to our dying and going away. It's incredibly silly.
This guy, however, looks like he himself could be a baby boomer--could easily pass for 50. Perhaps this explains his petty bitterness.
These academics don't have to grow up, I guess.
Mr. Drezner, I am older than you -- a so-called "baby-boomer," and I have been working for YOUR generation all my life, because women, especially older ones, don't get promotions at the rate of you men, especially you younger ones. Women don't make as much money as you men, women are often last hired and first fired, along with people of color. So we have to change jobs a lot, if we can. So we don't get raises, or move up, like you expect to. And inevitably, we are working under one of YOU.
Women artists and writers don't get support or gigs or work at the rate of you men. So men of all ages, like YOU, whining and aggressive (talking about "get out of my way"), have been OVER me always. If I believed in that sort of nastiness, I might tell YOU to get out of the way. Since I have learned the lessons of history, and know you don't EVER suggest that an entire group of people you happen not to like should "get out of the way," I won't join with you and tell you to get out of mine.
I'll just say: Look around at all the people on the street, all the hungry children in America, all the homeless men of many ages who won't be getting a promotion ever, and go help somebody. You'll feel better.
One of the options I have to stimulate the economy is to allow for "early retirement" for us baby boomers who are within 5 years of retirement. I'm happy to give up my place in the job market.
As an aside, personally, I define baby boomers as those born between 1943 and 1953. Those born after 1953 belong to another generation and had a very different early childhood.
It may be true that many a Baby Boomer isn't ready to -- or doesn't want to -- retire. Yet, I do not believe Mr. Drezner's claim that they'll continue to be in charge, an accurate one. Many Boomers will fight to maintain their positions, as they have done throughout their lives: a turf-oriented, squatting generation they are.
But, in generational theory and natural dynamics of societal cycles, when a gen reaches elderhood, it's time to shift its role in society. The role now for Boomers -- in politics, corporations and civic life -- is to do just this: to release their tight grip on power and to move *behind* GenX leadership in the role of wise counsel and experienced elder.
It is time for the well-honed GenXers' pragmatic, no-nonsense, nimble Get-it-Done-ness to be the primary value in businesses and organizations.
So, dear Boomers, we love you and need you in these times. But you need to move out of our way ... If you don't, you risk being marginalized. Your era to be in charge of HOW things get done is over, but we still need you to hold us on course to values and morals, a skill in which you excel.
You're still welcome to be in the clan. Just not at the helm. So, kindly, really, move over. It's for the good of us all.
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