What matters to Generation Z? What does life hold for Generation Alpha? - Misc and chat

I found this article provided good context for considering the environment of development of generation z and generation alpha:

www.britannica.com/.../Generation-Alpha

Who's generation alpha?

I can't get my head around all these generations being labled, I did look it up once and got fed up, I'm apparently at the tail end of being a boomer, we're supposed to be a well off generation, who got the best of the post war stuff. I didn't by the time I needed a council house there were none left and a long waiting list, unemployment was growing and it was hard to get a job, Thatcherism was rife and many people my age were rioting. I feel I got the worst of both the generations either side of me and that I fell down the cracks between the generations.

Who's generation alpha?

I can't get my head around all these generations being labled, I did look it up once and got fed up, I'm apparently at the tail end of being a boomer, we're supposed to be a well off generation, who got the best of the post war stuff. I didn't by the time I needed a council house there were none left and a long waiting list, unemployment was growing and it was hard to get a job, Thatcherism was rife and many people my age were rioting. I feel I got the worst of both the generations either side of me and that I fell down the cracks between the generations.

I understand employers talk about upskilling their multi generational employees in an AI driven society. I hope that means making purposeful alliances across the generations. 

ArchaeC said:

. We ‘should’ be committed, competitive and self-sufficient. 

Well, "committed" can be taken to mean two things, ha ha!

 I'm more Gen X - Resourceful, logical and good problem solver. Although I think that could be attributed to most autistic people?

I don't think a lot of us had the same experiences as those born in the mid to late 1950's either, as you say Thatcher came into power and eveything changed. I'm probably more generation x too, I in my early teens when punk exploded onto the music scene and "alternative" comedy came along, how strange to think it was once Ok to racially abuse people, denigrate women and the disabled in the name of comedy?

I think the other thing with these pigeon holes is the assumption that we all had an equal playing field, when we didn't, if you were poor, working class, non white, female or really anything other than a middle class white male, then the field didn't feel level at all.

I thought this was a helpful article - certainly, when integrating personnel of different age groups into a team in the workplace it can be helpful to consider the nuanced difference in life experience, expectations and ambitions which may arise.

Gen Z enter the workforce very much more accustomed (through their education years) to being consulted about things - which can sometimes mean their entering the world of work jarred more harshly for them than they had anticipated.  If the remainder of the team are aware of that dissonance - a more open and early conversation csn be achieved - before a mismatch of expectations or conflict occurs.

I agree Cat woman, I really don't understand the generation labels. It seems that the US government started labelling people born between 1946 and 1964 as baby boomers just because the birth rate soared during that period, then someone decided to make up random generational periods after it, and now before it too. The generation periods are not all the same length either, which annoys me.

Those of us born in the early 1960s don't have the same life experiences as people born in the late 40s - we became adults as Thatcher came to power, and there were massive changes to society and culture at that time. Jobs changed and became less secure, unions were demonised, the poor became poorer, there was rioting in the streets against the poll tax and people went on demonstrations against nuclear warfare and animal testing. There were big cultural changes too, with punk, new romantic and electronic music and alternative comedy. So although I'm classed as a boomer, I would identify more with generation X. Although I don't really want to be put in any of them.

I think that all generations want financial security, I think that's one thing that doesn't change.

ArchaeC said:

I am posting a link as other people might be interested in this piece,

Thank you. 

I found that interesting. 

'The silent generation'.

I'd not heard that before.

My mother often said to me 'children should be seen and not heard' so she continued that delightful tradition. 

The big space was auto removed.

The generation of Baby Boomers is the only generation to be defined by an official government body, the US Census Bureau. We ‘should’ be committed, competitive and self-sufficient. 

I am posting a link as other people might be interested in this piece, but I am leaving a big space to separate it from the body of this post. Sorry CatWoman. Eeeeek.

www.bbc.co.uk/.../zf8j92p

Generation Alpha, term used to describe the generation of people born (or who will be born) between 2010 and 2025.