According to a recent study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, baby boomers and Gen Y grads may have more in common than you think. NACE's 2008 Graduating Student Survey shows little difference among Class of 2008 graduates and Class of 1982 graduates on questions related to work hours and tradeoffs between work and life commitments. Both groups were willing to give up free time to succeed in their careers.
However, today's graduates are more community-oriented than boomers, and are more concerned with ethical behavior of employers and economic security.
Are you a boomer? Do you agree with these results? How did you approach work when you graduated from college or left high school?
My company has a boomer-centric marketing division and in our research we have found many similarities between boomers and Gen Y. I am a boomer myself, and many of my close friends are Gen Yers...we have a lot in common.
Posted by: Margo | July 01, 2008 at 10:31 AM
As a Gen X, I feel like the middle child. We have many of the same values of Boomers and just enough techie "know how" to play in the main stream... but the balance of play and career was very important. It seems that alternate generations have greater synchronicity than direct descendants.
-Boomers parallel to Gen Y
-Gen X parallel to Millennial
Posted by: Lee | July 03, 2008 at 04:23 PM
I think the study is flawed. Class of 1982 college graduates are at the trailing end of the Baby Boom generation. They grew up on a steady diet of new technology and changing workplace norms like their younger Gen Y counterparts. The big differences in workplace/home-life ethics is another decade removed. Boomers in their late 50's and early 60's (think class of 1972) will be the ones who can't relate. They are the CEO's and senior managers who resist overt use of technology (even email is a burden), and exude hostility towards things like tele-commuting, flexible hours, or family friendly policies. To them, work is a rigid 8 to 5 slog, and families should only come into play once a year at the company picnic.
Posted by: Mark | July 10, 2008 at 01:22 PM
You may want to do a follow-up post on this. It seems that some of your commenters aren't aware of what years the boomers, Gen-X, and Gen-Y were born in.
I write a boomer consumer blog called The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide at http://boomersurvive-thriveguide.typepad.com.
Rita
Posted by: Rita | July 14, 2008 at 02:50 AM