Baby Boomer Careerists From the Eyes of the Entrepreneurial Generation

The generation whose leading edge is just coming into the work force, the ones that many of us call the Entrepreneurial Generation, are sick and tired of the simultaneous bragging and whining that we Baby Boomers constantly offer up when talking about our work and careers. They are the children of the tale end of the Baby Boomers — and they are angry and they want to make changes in our culture.
One of my students offered this comment to a post I wrote on Character last summer:

There are many things that help forge our character and values. My generation, from what I’ve seen, is really focused on keeping family first, even before career. Some say that this is because we watched so many baby boomers screw this whole family thing up. My take on it is that because the baby boomers sometimes grew up wanting, they determined in their minds that their families would want for nothing. Unfortunately, my generation has all they want, but grew up with workaholic parents who were absent in their lives. I believe we’re searching to find that balance between family and career.

Penelope Trunk, who writes a blog called Brazen Careerist, offered her take yesterday on a Harvard study on “extreme careerists” (who are most often Baby Boomers):

I cringe every time I read an interview with a “Successful Mom” who works a 70 hour week and can miraculously balance her kids and husband’s 70-hour week as well. All of this womens magazine [stuff] is self-reported, and what mom or dad is going to stand up and say they are destroying the kids by working long hours?…
Here’s what the Harvard Business Review article should have said: The long-standing practice of baby boomers to have dual-career families with no one home for the kids is bad for the kids, even if the parents are enjoying themselves. Fortunately, the post-boomer generations recognize the problem and plan to not repeat it.

And if you think her words sting, make sure to read the comments that follow her post!
Cal Thomas’ quote on the mess we Baby Boomers have left the generations that follow us are worth repeating:

My generation has been obsessed with making money and acquiring things in place of investing necessary time on marriage and children. The message the kids get is that if marriage is mostly about accumulating wealth and acquiring stuff, they can do that without getting married.
Family trees are beginning to resemble kudzu…

Other countries and cultures around the world are not the only people ready to rebel against today’s American culture — so too are the young adults who are inheriting it.