Generation X on working today,
Morag Phillips from 21st Century shares her thoughts…
Generation X has had to move with the times in terms of working during the COVID-19 pandemic. One member of this generation shares her views on how she feels about it.
About X
I am a Generation X-er, who has been in the working world for a significant amount of time, and in fact, at one company for two thirds of my working life. Traditionally, the employment journey for a generation X-er would be characterised by a sense of structure: a formal mode of address, a confinement to brick and mortar, and a structured hierarchy and career path within an organisation.
Having said that, having grown up with less adult supervision, our generation values independence, strives for a work-life balance, and in a time of technological change, we are technologically adept and thrive on challenge and responsibility in the workplace.
The first work experience
My context for work was the example of a father who had worked in one company for his whole life in South Africa, having immigrated here as a young adult. His priorities and values were loyalty, hard work and respect for a boss who was viewed as separate in their seniority and following of rules.
His work life was completely predictable and prescribed from my point of view… leaving at exactly the same time every morning, dressed in a shirt and tie every day, following a very prescribed career ladder. This is not to say he was unhappy at work, but it was certainly painted with a brush of predictability.
To some extent, I expected some of these things in my first job and future work. On the contrary, though, my first experience of work was that I had freedom to dress more casually on a Friday. I did not have to record the time I arrived at or left the office. I had freedom to determine what I would achieve and complete day by day, and I had a very genuine and real relationship with my boss – she was a real person who actually cared about me and guided me and did not just tell me what to do! What a revelation!
The current world of work
Fast forward into my current world of work, and it is all about flexibility, taking responsibility, crafting my own outputs, bringing creative and innovative solutions and building constructive, open relationships across levels. I have crafted a sense of purpose in my work world – more than just a job. In comparison to my father’s descriptions, yes, there are rules, but there is an expectation of challenging the rules where appropriate, to continually drive change and improvement.
The evolution of the times, technology and the global pandemic have accelerated major changes, as if a fast-forward button was pressed in the world we find ourselves in. With this came a different style of working; one that is vastly different from the kind our parents might have stepped into, whether we are the millennial of the Gen X-er. The notion of structure has been replaced with flexibility, an element that enables one to work from any part of the world, across time-zones, any part of the household and in conjunction with other activities that one would find personally fulfilling. The changes we are currently evolving into are crafting new ways of work in both where and how.
What does it all mean?
The COVID-19 pandemic has pressed fast-forward on changes we may have seen coming further down the line, and that may even have been changes post my formal workplace experience!
It has meant that I have had to tap into my resilience and adaptability reserves, specifically around the change of learning that engagement with people on a virtual platform does not have to be a compromise versus the real in-person experience. I have taken advantage of the flexibility on the WHERE, enjoying the lack of travel time and using it instead to keep physical wellness a priority in my life. The work-life balance opportunity is immense! It takes discipline, not to just convert to more desk-time, particularly when work demands are high in a pressured environment such as we are in. I am intrigued to see the continued evolution of this change, and to see what hybrid model we land on for the next chapter.
