Sunday, November 10, 2019

Okay Boomer

"Okay Boomer" is a trending put down of folks in the Baby Boom generation by "Millennials" those in the so-called "Generation Z". Apparently many Baby Boomers have been offended, forgetting how arrogant and dismissive we were of our elders in our younger days. ("Don't trust anyone over 30"; "I hope I die before I get old").




I was born in 1958, so according to widely accepted ranges, I fall into the last third of the Baby Boom generation. But I don't really feel any kind of bond with the members of my generation. The oldest Boomers, based on the chart below, are 73 years old. I know a few people in their early seventies who are basically old hippies, and others who act not that different than people in my parents' generation. Donald Trump is technically a Boomer, while Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck falls just outside the ranks of Boomers. The movers and shakers of the sixties counter culture, as well as the  heads of most multi-national corporations are both Boomers. We're not a monolithic group.

On the other hand, perhaps Boomers should have refrained from being so judgmental about later generations. My own anecdotal observations indicate that Boomers view Millennials as lazy and entitled, while my own experiences with Millennials leave me with the opinion that people in this age group are neither more no less likely to have a strong work ethic, just as Boomers' work ethic runs the gamut from hyper-motivated to super-lazy. We Boomers often forget that the older Millennials are now in their late thirties and are the managers and company presidents that are running the show in many companies. At my own job, at a state agency, many of the managers and senior accountants are Generation X, with the older Millennials filling a lot of the mid-level positions.

Birth year, aka your "generation", isn't a very dependable predictor or someone's values, and "Okay Boomer", while designed to be dismissive and a little bit rude, isn't something to get upset about.



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