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Generation X Professionals Versus Others: The Characteristics

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ByFaizal Sohaimi
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I am a Gen X. The Baby Boomers or Boomers for short, always complained about our generation. That was about thirty years ago when we entered the employment market. We were the blurry graduate engineers, clueless lawyers, panicking doctors and whatever else. Today, most of us are already near the end of our careers or working life. Some of my friends had already retired.

In the last few years, we, the ones who were the “clueless Gen X” had to deal with Gen Y, Gen Z and millennials. I’ll be honest, I heard about them, but I still couldn’t differentiate, nor did I know which decade or era they were born in! Except for the Millennials maybe. I have two sons who were born in 1996 and 1999. I just knew that, just like us Gen X, who entered the job market clueless, they might have similar challenges. Or more.

Urbanisation

Most of my generation came from parents who were recently or what I’d call “just urbanised” (they were Boomers who were originally villagers) or villagers. Unlike the earlier Boomer generation who thrived at whatever challenges were thrown at them, we were a little stymied. While you can post a Boomer from the Peninsular to a job deep in rural Sabah (a place like Ranau or Kunak), not so with Gen X. 

We preferred to be on the same soil with our family or at least in the same state. Preferably in the same city and town. I was told that the post-Gen X would even want to live in the same house as their parents. My own son is a Gen Z. 

Leaving home

While I started life in the United Kingdom just after my 18th birthday, my son Adam, only left to work outside of where he’d lived his whole life, only when he was twenty-two. He lives in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam. He was posted at the Coffee Bean outlets in Kota Kemuning, still in Shah Alam, then to the outlet at Sunway Pyramid, just outside Shah Alam.

Only this year he ventured out to a cafe in Taman Tun in Kuala Lumpur. Still, all this while still staying with his mother, in the city of Shah Alam. Which he’d stayed since birth, more than twenty-three years ago.

This was one of the key differences between the generations. A higher percentage of this post-Gen X had been raised in an urban setting. Even those who entered boarding schools (I had three nephews and nieces in MRSMs), their settings were also different from that of my time.

MTV generation versus the TikToks?

My generation grew up with only three channels on television. Today not only do they have Astro and the countless channels (but nothing on), there are the internet and various social media and entertainment channels too. While many youngsters are glued to Instagram and TikTok, I, and many of my generations, just couldn’t get it!

When I started work, engineers had to share one computer to put in our reports. Today, you receive a laptop the day you report for duty! I received my first work laptop, only in the fourth year of my second job. It was so different. 

Thus, the work pattern and expectations too. Unfortunately, we the klunkers – Boomers and Gen X, had the same expectation of these post-Gen X people. We wanted them to be and work like us.

If they missed our expectations – we labelled them “no good”! But how would they know what we expect of them? Especially since we need to work as teams these days. There’s no working solo anymore. A bigger question – how would we know, what they were expecting from us “The Klunkers”?

A quick test

I might have just designed one of the coolest or maybe simplest interviews to sort of have a feel at how good and hungry these post-Gen X people are; at least for hiring junior staff or entry-level staff. Heck, any level probably. Also, to look at how smart and tech-savvy they are.

I was queueing at a McDonald’s in Kampar, Perak—quite near the University Tuanku Abdul Rahman (UTAR). There were three of these order screens at this McDonald’s. At two of these screens, there were two or three groups in front of me and at another screen, there was one man.

The man seemed to struggle with the various combo of chicken available. Probably in his mid-30s, didn’t seem to be tech-savvy. But hang on, do you need to be tech-savvy to order these screens? As I watched this tech-klutz struggle the queues on the other screens thinned out to a group of four boys in shorts and three girls in head covers. Possibly freshmen or juniors at the university.

Now imagine you are with the four boys, at McDonald’s, you already knew what were your regulars and favourites, and you were hungry, how quickly would you order? As quick as you could, right? 

From my perspective and if I was with them, I would order the quickest way I could figure. I was hungry for goodness’ sake! I’d want my food soonest! I would go to the burgers option, and ask everyone to quickly select; the drinks option, quickly select; add-ons, quickly select and so on. We’d split the bill later once we sat down and enjoyed our food.

But sadly no!

The slow poke

One by one they would go sequentially into each segment, burgers – add-ons – dessert – drinks to do their selections. Initially, I thought that they were splitting the orders and payments. But no, it was on the same bill! And, they had to go in again to check the orders. Each item! On the next screen, the girls were doing the same thing! Worried me. Why?

I wondered if they work for me, and we have something urgent that I need to be done. Hey, being hungry, I need food soonest, right? Now, let us imagine today’s busy office scenario. Proposals, and quotations deadlines!

Doomsday!

In another scenario – prepare to deliver a major project. I had unintentionally devised the interview myself. I was helping the project manager to deliver a major project to an oil company. We were severely understaffed. 

We had already recruited quite a few interns – those who were in between their second and final years of university, and those who had just graduated. At that time, we were careful to not directly hire engineers immediately as they might be duds! Thus, we engaged many of them as interns, with the plan to absorb into full employment, the few that we felt were suitable.

I received feedback from my project manager, and I engaged with them regularly too. At about 3:30 – 4 pm, many of these hardworking engineers would be thirsty and hungry too, myself included. Coffee and tea were provided in the pantry, but we needed a bit more oooooomph!

There were times that I asked one or two of them to go to the Starbucks downstairs, to get the team their favourite beverages. But I couldn’t do this all the time as it could be quite costly. But there was the first test – who would volunteer to go down, and carry a few cups of coffee or tea upstairs? Rather than just waiting for their drinks.

Next test, as the team got bigger, I needed something cheaper and more filling. There was a food truck by the roadside that sold local favourites like popiah goreng, goreng pisang and cekodok. Almost every other day, I’d get one of the interns to go down and buy some for the team.

But there were days that the food truck was not there. Most of the interns would just get back up to the office and say, “Sorry, the food truck was not there”. There were a few, very few of them though, who would realise that the LRT could take them somewhere nearby with food trucks, or had asked our office manager where they could get some kueh

These engineers were tested with three objectives in mind:

  1. Follow instruction.
  2. Be resourceful.
  3. Boost morale.

The instruction was quite simple – bring back the kuehs, yet many would come back empty-handed. At the very least, the instructed person could just cross over to the other side of the road, to Ampang Park, he would already have some options. Normally I would give RM50. That could at least get some nuggets and fries from KFC!

A person who was resourceful would ask around and would know that two LRT stops further would take him to Pasar Keramat. RM50 would get him a lot of kuehs. Some of them might even be able to skip dinner after eating those kuehs.

When you bring back plenty of food to the office, when everyone was hungry, imagine the smile on everyone’s faces. Morale booster!

Those who met these objectives were recommended to be taken in as full-time engineers or would at least get a glowing report from me. We knew that these new hires would strive to meet their objectives, be resourceful and typically would work great in a team. I checked six years later; people still talk glowingly about these now senior engineers.

And I am proud of them.

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