In this episode, Marc covers the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, and the Baby Boom Generation in America, from the events and technologies that shaped them, to the life choices they made.
[1:13] Marc welcomes you to Episode 112 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Career Pivot brings this podcast to you. CareerPivot.com is one of the very few websites dedicated to those of us in the second half of life and our careers. Please take a moment to check out the blog and the other resources delivered to you free of charge.
[1:42] If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with other like-minded souls. Subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, or any of the other apps that supply podcasts. Share it on social media or just tell your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. The more people Marc can reach, the more he can help.
[2:07] In this week’s podcast, Marc will continue a short series of episodes based on his Multi-generational Workplace Workshop. Marc will deliver this workshop on March 7th at the Texas Hospital Insurance Exchange and it was suggested to him that he might want to make a podcast series of it.
[2:23] Last week, Marc published a blog post, “The Ubiquitous Access to Information and a Generational Rift,” based on the idea that how people obtain information is changing rapidly.
[2:42] When doctors are trained, memorization of medical information has decreased because it is so readily available. Marc learned this from the Dean of the University of Texas Medical School at a breakfast club. The roomful of Baby Boomers showed shocked faces.
[3:09] Because things are readily available, we don’t memorize anymore and we don’t have to. That scares most Baby Boomers.
[3:19] If you did not listen to Part 1 of this series, Marc suggests you go back and listen to that, first. In this episode, Marc will cover the Greatest, the Silent, and the Baby Boomer Generations in this episode. Next week, Marc will cover Gen X and Gen Y — why they don’t necessarily get along and why we sometimes misinterpret them.
[3:43] Marc welcomes you to the second installment of “The Multi-generational Workplace — ‘Why can’t we all get along?’” In the workshop, March shows five flipcharts, one for each generation. Each flipchart has areas for events, technology, communications, learning, and how we research “What is the capital Madagascar?”
[4:22] Each flipchart talks about our parents (of Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y) and which presidents came from each generation.
[4:37] The Greatest Generation are those born from 1900 to 1924. Every single male of this generation served in the military or in public service. You might pause the podcast to consider what events catalyzed this generation.
[5:24] WWII and the Great Depression completely galvanized this generation. As a result, they believed in big government and they saved money ‘like crazy,’ Marc’s father graduated from college in ’42 and enlisted in the Army. Marc joked that his father wasn’t frugal, he was cheap.
[6:12] You might pause the podcast and ponder what technologies affected this generation.
[6:28] This generation was all about transportation. They were the first to have automobiles, and the U.S. Interstate Highway system was created after WWII.
[7:01] When this generation left home, how did they communicate back with their families? You might pause the podcast and consider it.
[7:25] This generation wrote letters. Written communication was the foundation of this generation. They wrote by hand in cursive. Do not hand a letter in cursive to a Millennial. They may not be able to read it!
[7:59] Marc will show there has been a transformation between generations from written to audio and back to a form of written communications.
[8:21] How did this generation research the question, “What is the capital of Madagascar?” How did they learn? You might pause your podcast and think about it.
[8:37] The encyclopedia? World Book did not become prevalent until the 1950s. This generation very likely had to go to the library and find an atlas or a globe. They did not have information that was readily available in their homes. They had to go somewhere to go find the answer.
[9:34] The Greatest Generation or G.I. Generation produced every president from JFK all the way to George Bush, Sr. The Greatest Generation has had their fingerprints on almost everything for 40 to 50 years.
[10:13] The Silent Generation or Traditional Generation was born from 1925 to 1945. What events do you think affected this generation? You might pause the podcast to consider.
[10:35] The events that affected this generation are WWII and the JFK assassination. The assassination was a real shocker. Marc remembers Dallas at the time of the assassination.
[11:41] What technology affected and galvanized this generation? You might pause the podcast to think about it.
[12:01] There were two very significant technologies. The first was the telephone and the second was “the pill.” The pill had a massive effect on this generation through birth control. Divorce rates soared among this generation, which is why so many of Generation X ended up being latchkey kids growing up in households of divorce.
[13:01] This was the first generation where we had telephones. They still wrote letters, but calling was a step to auditory communications from a distance.
[13:47] How did this generation research the capital of Madagascar? They still probably had to go to the library. Encyclopedias did not become prevalent until the Baby Boomers.
[14:38] The Silent Generation has produced zero presidents. They’ve had some candidates, most recently, John McCain. We very likely will not have a president from the Silent Generation.
[15:23] Because the Silent Generation was so small, they have not had the impact, politically, that the Greatest Generation has had, or that Baby Boomers have had. Generation X is also a small generation.
[15:46] Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964. What events affected this generation? You might pause the podcast to think about it? Jot down some ideas.
[16:20] Two critical events galvanized Baby Boomers. One was Vietnam. Marc has seen television newscasts from that period at the U.S. History Museum. The ramp up into the Vietnam War was fast. Marc contrasts it with the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.
[17:21] Watergate was the second event that affected the Baby Boom Generation. Both these events made us very distrustful of big government. If you were born from 1946 to 1955, you were probably affected by Vietnam. If you were born 1956 to 1964, you were affected more by Watergate.
[18:01] Marc remembers in the summer of 1972 watching the Watergate Hearings daily after his work shift at the Howard Johnson's. Early Boomers affected by Vietnam, delayed marriage and stayed in college. Some Boomers in their 60s still have kids in college.
[19:12] Late Boomers, 1961 on, had children at a younger age, have little memory of Vietnam, and in their 50s, have children in college.
[19:46] You might pause the podcast and think about what technology most affected the Baby Boomer Generation.
[20:10] Baby Boomers were the first to have televisions. Mass marketing was first applied to the Boomer Generation. Marc remembers seeing The Flintstones in 1962, which was mainly sponsored then by Winston Cigarettes!
[21:04] The next technology came in 1969. You might pause the podcast and consider what it was.
[21:19] In 1969, Visa was introduced. Boomers were the first generation to have easy access to credit. Marc remembers a Barney Miller episode where a detective was telling a young drug dealer that he would never have one thing — credit!
[21:56] Boomers were the first generation to be the targets of advertising, with ready credit to purchase new things. This is an echo effect from our parents, who saved money like crazy. We spent money.
[22:24] When Boomers left home, how did we communicate? You might pause the podcast and think on this.
[22:34] Boomers were the first generation to have prevalent long-distance phone calls. College students would give their parents two rings on the phone and hang up. Their parents would call them back and pay for the long distance. Also, we used collect phone calls. Boomers were a very auditory generation.
[23:10] Marc tells his Millennial colleagues, “If you have a Baby Boomer boss, and you want them to listen to you, you need to go talk to them.”
[23:27] How did Baby Boomers research the capital of Madagascar? You might pause the podcast and ponder this.
[23:39] A lot of us had World Book or Encyclopedia Britannica at home. We could easily research at home and get new information with annual updates. It opened up the world to us. Information was rapidly becoming more accessible.
[24:18] Who were our parents? To a large extent, our parents were The Greatest Generation. They saved money and believed in Big Government. They believed in “playing it safe.” We Baby Boomers spend money like crazy and we don’t trust government.
[24:49] Marc did as his parents told him to. He graduated from college and went to work for IBM, a big company. Marc was raised to be an employee and work for a father-like company that would take care of him. Others did differently than their parents advised.
[25:21] Marc never served in the military; most Baby Boomers did not, especially if they were college-educated. Marc did a workshop for a national staffing company and he asked 150 Boomers (110 of whom were males) how many served in Vietnam. Three hands went up. They had volunteered.
[25:55] The Vietnam Draft, besides taking citizens, took Green Card holders. Minorities and the poor made up a huge percentage of Vietnam War draftees. Marc learned that those who had the highest casualty rate in Vietnam were college-educated volunteers because they went to fight. Most draftees were not sent to fight.
[27:02] The U.S. presidents from Bill Clinton through Donald Trump, has been a Baby Boomer. The next president may also be a Baby Boomer. We will see. Next week, Marc will discuss Generation X Candidates. They don’t look or behave like us.
[27:41] In next week’s episode, Marc will cover Gen X and spend a fair amount of time talking about Gen Y (The Millennials). How they view themselves is very different from how Boomers view them. The Millennials are the opposite of the Baby Boomers and we made them that way.
[28:12] Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode. Next week, Marc will dig into Gen X and Gen Y. He will show why they likely don’t get along, and why we Baby Boomers misperceive Gen Y. They are our kids!
[28:30] Susan Lahey and Marc are working on the next edition of Repurpose Your Career, and Marc is looking for your help. Marc has formed a release team of readers who will get access to pre-release chapters of the book to provide feedback.
[28:43] Marc has already released the opening chapter to the release team. You can be part of this team by going to CareerPivot.com/RYCTeam where you can sign up.
[28:59] When you sign up, you’ll receive the pre-release versions of the chapters when they become available. What Marc asks in return is for you to provide feedback and be prepared to write a review on Amazon.com when the book is released.
[29:14] Marc and Susan are adding about eight new chapters to the book and re-writing several others. Marc will release a new pre-release chapter on this podcast and to the team every four to six weeks in the coming months.
[29:33] The CareerPivot.com/Community website has become a valuable resource for the almost 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project. Marc will soon be soliciting members for the next cohort.
[29:51] If you are interested in the endeavor and would like to be put on the waiting list, so Marc can interview you, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community. When you sign up you’ll receive information about the community as it evolves.
[30:05] Those in the initial cohorts will get to set the direction for this endeavor. This is a paid membership community with special content. More importantly, it will be a community where you can seek help. Go to CareerPivot.com/Community to learn more.
[30:31] Marc invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.com/in/mrmiller. Just include in the connection request that you heard Marc on this podcast. You can look for Career Pivot on Facebook, LinkedIn, or @CareerPivot on Twitter.
[30:59] Please come back next week, when Marc will be covering Gen X and Gen Y.
[31:06] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast.
[31:10] You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-112.
[31:19] Please hop over to CareerPivot.com and subscribe to get updates on this podcast and all the other happenings at Career Pivot. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, Overcast app, or the Spotify app.