What are the questions we should be asking when we talk about different generations?

What Are the Questions We Should Be Asking When We Talk About Different Generations?

Gen X was originally called the baby busters. The silent generation is called silent. And somewhere along the way, somebody decided that Gen Y needed a rebrand while Gen Z is still waiting for one. Who exactly is making these decisions, and why do we care so much?

This is the season two finale of Listening for the Questions, and Dr. Patti Fletcher, Lynne Cuppernull, and Dan Ward went out swinging. The topic is generations, and it gets complicated fast. Because the more you pull at the question of generational differences, the more you realize you are not really talking about birth years. You are talking about the moments that shaped entire populations of people before they even knew they were being shaped. The Challenger explosion. September 11th. The moment every parent in a college auditorium raised their hand to admit they gave their kid a cell phone for safety reasons and called it parenting.

The questions this episode asks are the ones worth writing down: What are we actually getting wrong about millennials and Gen Z the same way we got the slacker narrative wrong about Gen X? Is each generation's identity locked in by their early twenties, or is that just the conventional wisdom we keep repeating? What does each generation actually want from work, and how much of that is shaped by the economy they walked into rather than the year they were born? Can we look at generations not just as birth cohorts but as groups of people who experienced something significant together at the same time? And what is the Gen Z stare actually a rebellion against?

Also on the table: AI as the new electricity, the entry-level jobs that are disappearing before Gen Z even gets to them, why Gen X adopting AI might be making it uncool, and Lynne's gift to every manager who has ever felt stuck across a generational divide: the questions you can actually ask.

This is the season two finale. They will be back. But in the meantime, keep your curiosity going.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Where Millennials End and Gen Z Begins: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins
• Gen X’ers Aren’t Slackers After All: https://web.archive.org/web/20160701074918/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,221136,00.html
• Generation X Reconsidered: https://web.archive.org/web/20160911121441/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-22449092.html
• Gen Z Stare: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-clarity/202507/the-psychology-behind-that-gen-z-stare
• Chat GPT fed his students easy answers, so he built an app to argue with them, Susan Svrluga, Washington Post: https://wapo.st/415YOQP
  
  
  

Listening for the Questions is where curiosity is our compass.

Transcript

Dan 0:14

Hello and welcome back to Listening for the Questions, a podcast the whole family can enjoy. My name's Dan Ward. I'm an engineer and a military technologist. I'm also an author, a juggler, and a punk. And I'm a proud Gen Xer. I'm also old enough to remember back when Gen X was called the slacker generation, I gotta say that's a term I never identified with.

Lynne 0:32

And I'm Lynnee Cuppernull. I'm a leadership coach and a healthcare consultant. I am also a triathlete, so definitely not a slacker. Well, most of the time. I'm also a proud member of Gen X, who I have to say seems to be a generation that's getting prouder with age.

Patti 0:49

And I'm Dr. Patti Fletcher. I always wanted to be a slacker, but it gave me agita. So I just couldn't do it. Um, I'm a recovering C-suite executive from big tech, a leadership futurist working at the intersection of people, business, technology, and data, a best-selling author, and I have been so looking forward to this episode for a long time because we're talking about generational cohorts. Specifically, what are the questions we should be asking when we talk about different generations?

Lynne 1:23

We've all heard the terms baby boomers, Gen X, that's all three of us, even though Patti did not proudly give it a shout out. Um, millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha, but uh does anyone else have a hard time remembering the specific cutoff dates for those generations? So maybe we start there. What are these generations we're talking about?

Patti 1:45

Lynne, I'm so happy you called me out. Of course, I'm doing my typical giggling um because I am such a proud Gen Xer. People, it's important to know this. I'm very, very conceited about many things. My friend group, I'm a member of Gen X. I am Scorpio, um, moon, and sun rising. My birthday is the best ever. Um, so those are all of my things. Yes, Gen X is at the top of that list. All right, so Lynne, I can't help myself. I need to ask for permission from you and Dan. Can I answer your question about yes, yes, yes, answer away. Thank you. Yes, Christmas came early. Okay. So, first of all, you know, the the I spend a lot of time here, right, because of my work and generations, and it kind of depends those dates on who you ask. I mean, there's not a significant, you know, difference, but generally baby boomers are 1946 to 1964, Gen X is 1965 to 1980, millennials are 1981 to 1996, Gen Z is 1997 to 2012, and Gen Alpha is 2012 to present day.

Dan 3:03

So it sounds like the generations are about 15 years plus or minus. And as you kind of go through that rundown, it had me wondering when will Gen Z and Gen Alpha get their own labels? Like millennials used to be called Gen Y because they came after Gen X and Y is after that, and then Gen Z was next, and then we go back to the beginning of the alphabet for Gen Alpha. But why are all the other generations' names based on Gen X as like the starting point? And really, if Gen Y can become millennials, because nobody calls them Gen Y anymore, isn't it about time Gen Z got their own name?

Patti 3:38

I can't help but think about my puppy dog and her zoomies when I think about that. And having, you know, each of us has children, right, in in Gen Z. And it does make me laugh, but I really hope they aren't called Zoomers, um, although I think some of us may call them that.

Dan 3:55

Yeah, so uh fun fact, speaking of generational names, did you know Gen Xers were originally called baby busters? Because there was a big drop in birth rates after the baby boomers. So they went from baby boomers to baby busters. I'm so glad they changed that name.

Lynne 4:11

I'm laughing because I mean, who is they? Who gets to pick the names for these groups? And just staying with the unfortunate names for a second, the group before the boomers is sometimes called the silent generation. And I've always wondered how they feel about being called that. I guess because they're silent, we may never know. And prior to the early 1900s, those generations they didn't even seem to have a label. So why did we decide that we need to start labeling these generations? Did generations have labels in the 1800s or the 1500s? Right.

Dan 4:47

And then, like, whether they had labels or not, I do wonder, were there really big differences between generations in previous centuries? Like, if life was fairly consistent for hundreds of years, my dad was a farmer, his dad was a farmer, we're all farmers as far back as anybody can remember. Like, would the concept of a generational cohort have made much sense to people in like the 1200s?

Lynne 5:09

Ooh, and that gets me wondering why the concept of generational differences is so strong today. I mean, that's really a lot you hear so many people talking about tensions between the generations and frustrations, particularly at work. Um, so what do we actually mean when we say generational differences? Are we talking about age, life stage, ability to use your phone, something else? And why do so many of us identify so strongly with those labels like boomers or this proud Generation X? Or is it maybe just Generation X? Who does? I'm afraid maybe it is. So do different generations do they have the same sense of identity? Do Gen Zers think of themselves as Gen Z in the same way that Gen Xers do? Probably not.

Patti 6:02

I don't think they have the mental or intellectual capacity, Lynne, for that.

Dan 6:08

Shots fired. Wow.

Patti 6:11

Yeah. Um, and you know, it's it's interesting when I when I think about generational differences, uh, until I heard what what you just had to say, Lynne, I didn't realize that other people didn't have those separations, you know, throughout it's always been called out. My sisters are part of a different generation. It's also interesting present time that watching my children, Gen Zers, really not be impressed with Gen Alphas, right? And so hearing them kind of complain a lot, and I'm like, look in the mirror, buddy. Um, and also just music, right? So my father um grew up in a very um blue-collar, very white family, and um he really liked Motown and he liked all of these other kinds of genres of music, rock and roll, that maybe his family wasn't too fond of because they were afraid of what they represented. And so I was always very aware that younger generation is always going to question older generation, and that also my godfather was a hippie, he was a draft dodging, you know, all that stuff. And he is probably the most conservative guy I know now. So it's also interesting what happens as the generation ages. But for me, this has been part of my life, you know, forever because I work on workforce um generations, right? So, what are the new generations that are entering the workplace? How do they change over time? And how do they prepare us for that? So I look at things like what was the impact of 9-11 on the kids who were born around it, who were in high school at the time, right? It was such a pivotal moment. So it's not just the years, right? You can imagine in the 70s, the Vietnam War going on, all of those, you know, kinds of marching in the streets, not something this country really, you know, had seen before. From a workforce perspective, we were very focused on millennials as digital natives, right? Very focused in on Gen Z as AI natives, instant gratification, not having to look someone in the eye face to face, using texting so you don't use complete sentences, right? All of those things that we associate with humanity, communication, and being able to focus in on those. But but ultimately, I guess my question is for me, is it really about the generation when I think about work? Is it about the generational differences, or is it because of experiences that it's what are the generational expectations of the world around them? It feels like that is a good question to ask.

Dan 8:45

Oh, Patti, I love that. There's so much to unpack there. And you know, when we think of to use the example of millennials as digital natives, because they grew up with this digital world, that gets me thinking that I want to flip the question around a little bit and ask, what are the environmental influences that actually do affect an entire generation like the internet or like 9-11? And what are these things that have a big, like consistent effect on everyone? We each might individually respond differently to stuff like MTV or social media or global warming. But like when sociologists look at a big group, a generational cohort, they do see trends, they see similarities coming from these significant influences. So I'm not a sociologist. That is beyond the scope of my education. So I actually just don't know. What are the things in a general sense that shape and define any generation? And then are there consistent attributes that these influences share? I just think that'd be an interesting thing to know.

Lynne 9:43

Yes, yes. I'm I'm going with you there, Dan. We think of things like wars. Uh, World War II was such a shaping event uh for the silent generation and really the baby boomers, too. Um uh oh, presidential administrations, um, and thinking about different presidential administrations or new technologies or the moon landing. So we're recording this the day after the Artemis launch, and it had been so many years since there had been a moon launch, and that was really a shaping event for that generation. And I'm wondering, I don't think that the Artemis launch is gonna be the same type of shaping event. Um, I think about the Challenger explosion. That was such a pivotal moment for Generation X, right? Everybody can still remember where they were, right? Probably in like math class taking a test when that happened, or you were, you know, everybody was watching it on TV. Anyway, I'm digressing a little bit. Because what I'm wondering is if those are the big things, what's the smallest possible thing that could influence a whole generation? Smaller than a war, smaller than a president, smaller than a moon landing, more localized than climate change.

Patti 11:03

I I love that. Just a little fun fact. I did meet Christina Koch um at the White House um during the um State of Women that that Obama had conference, and I have quite a few photos um with her, and she was incredible. That was in 2016, and and she is she is incredible, excuse me. And Lynne, I really wish people paid attention because look at the diversity going around the moon. And isn't that something? So, you know, I just want to share a really quick story, and I'll try to make it quick because I'm me and that's gonna be a challenge. Linda, you know, you tipped off something when you were thinking about and and you know, pontificating around like what about the big things and the little things? And are there things we would see as a before and after? And what are the small things? And I don't think there's a smoking gun, I think it's many. So a few years ago, as my daughter, my younger one, was getting into URI, I went to what was the best college orientation I had ever experienced. The dean of the URI school got up on stage and he was saying how it's been really interesting in higher ed um to see the ways in which the people who decide who goes to their school and who stays in their school, how they view parents and what they have seen over the years in terms of parents um kind of letting their kids grow up. And now, you know, everyone's a helicopter parent, right up until kind of thing, you know, in their 20s. And so he asked us in this big auditorium um, how many of you gave your kids cell phones at whatever age? And we all, you know, it was like age 10 or whatever, hands open up. How many of you thought it was too early? Hands holding up. How many of you did that because you did it for safety? All of our hands went up. And he said that was pivotal. He said, Of course it was 9-11, right? We are all post-9-11, but then we have all this technology that helps us have this control. And so, Lynne, listening to you, I'm thinking, what are all of those factors? 9-11, especially in the area that we're all in in the Northeast. And Dan, you and I, because of Logan Airport, and you know, you may know people I was supposed to be in tower two right that day, couldn't be there. So all of these things with technology, there are big and little things we don't even notice. I didn't know other parents. And I thought, wow, when listening to you, not just marking a generation Gen X, we do the grit, but we also have a little bit of millennial in us, right? We we have those things. But me as a generational person, who I was and how that has changed as a parent, as a Gen Xer, is is pretty interesting. So, you know, what are those things that we can tell are influential? I I think I knew I knew September 11th changed me. I knew the pandemic changed us, right? I knew it changed my children. Um, but yeah, maybe some things require hindsight, you know, you know, a decade hindsight. I know certainly in my own life they do, but I do wonder that. What will we see when we look back?

Dan 14:05

Speaking of looking back and looking forward, uh, I assume you both watched or heard about the the launch yesterday. We talked about the launch around the moon. As Gen Xers, how did you feel knowing that they were about to light off this big rocket? Anyone else feeling a little bit of you know, shuttle uh PTSD?

Patti 14:21

I remember exactly where I was, Mr. Tinto's class, yes, and watching that. And here's the thing: I read something that was interesting, generational difference. The TV was rolled back into the closet and we went on with our day. There was no talking about it, there was none of that. And I don't now there would be counselors, there would be emails, right? So it was also the generational response of the baby boomers and that silent generation is called the traditionalists, right? They were members of that no nonsense, you know, kind of world. Yeah. I hear you, Dan. I I still take a little bit of a when that happens.

Dan 14:59

Yeah, because that singular moment still affects the way we process and experience and feel news events today. So it does seem like these influences tend to be things that show up at an early stage in a generation's development. Like anybody could watch MTV in the early 80s, but Gen X became the MTV generation because of how young we were when it came out and it influenced us differently than it influenced our parents. Or like today, anybody can have a social media account, but social media shaped the millennials in a significant way differently than the other generations. So is each generation's defining attributes locked in by the time we're in our 20s? But then, Patti, you know, you did mention like sometimes they do change over time as we get older and more conservative or less conservative.

Lynne 15:46

Yeah, that's interesting, Dan. I think I think the conventional wisdom is that they are locked in. And I think we are seeing that that is not true, right? That there are shifts. And Facebook, which started as like something cool, that you know, the Facebook for college kids has now been taken over by uh not just the baby boomers, but even the greatest generation. And so it's no longer cool. Anyway, I just think it's an interesting question. Uh, on the face of it, yes, the defining attributes are locked in in our by our early 20s, but that's actually not the reality. And I think that is gonna take us into our next concept, which is really about at work, right? These generational differences and key moments and how they show up at work. They do really often surface as tensions in the workplace. I mean, I've seen it, I've had friends that I've talked about it with. Um, and so I want to ask some questions about these generational tensions and just being together in the workplace. And so I'm curious, like, what does each generation want from work? And how much of that wanting is shaped by the economy when they're entering the workforce, not just when they're born.

Patti 17:05

Yeah, it's true, seeing what their parents go through as they're growing up when it comes to relationship with work. And, you know, then that brings me to in therefore the tension, right? Those differences and what do we want from work? What are our expectations from work? We can we feel that, right, as Gen Xers. We we certainly probably have our opinions on the other generations, but that tension at work, and you know what else hit me, Dan, when you were talking about um, when you were talking about the space shuttle in in and um Lynne, was Dan and I had just a wonderful experience. And Dan, I will be forever grateful to you for bringing me into this workshop we did, I think it was over two days at the National Academy of Sciences, right? And it was for NASA, and NASA was focused in on the future of innovation at NASA. And one thing I learned there that I probably should have known was they look at generations based on manned flights. And those generations are impacted by the loss of human life in those manned flights. So generations are not just potentially, or can we look at generations? I'm not gonna answer it. Can we look at generations, not just the time we were born, but the time we were together with a big population of people and experience something? I know I can, right? Working at like an SAP in the early days. I was part of that generation, which is very different, which was all mixed generations, right? So um, like how do we think about stuff like that? And, you know, how do those different wants and needs, based on those experiences we have as a collective or based on who we were conditioned to be as part of an actual year generation, how do we get them to help us work together, find common ground versus always, and we've spent the last however many minutes, 19 minutes, we've been recording on the differences versus the common ground of things.

Dan 18:58

The military has a similar concept of year groups. So, you know, two officers meet up and you ask, like, well, when did you get commissioned? When did you join the military? And we were lieutenants together, and then we were majors together, and then you know, you go on. So it is interesting to have the you know, this group of majors looking at the new batch of lieutenants and thinking, kids these days, right? And I think this is where curiosity can be really helpful. You know, when we notice these differences, what does it look like to be genuinely curious about someone's generational experience or desires or wants? And Lynne, I love that you asked the question, what do the gen what do the different generations want? Instead of just tolerating it or criticizing it or complaining about it. So, what are some of the curious questions that people could ask when we notice these types of things?

Lynne 19:45

Okay, and I'm I'm gonna answer that one. Don't be jealous, Patti. Um, but because I'm answering with questions, I don't think it really counts. Uh and the reason I want to I want our to give our listeners some of these questions is because there's so much talk about curiosity and leaning into curiosity and curiosity being a leadership superpower, but it's not always easy to be curious. And so here's a here's a gift, here's a few questions that you could consider asking about generational differences or just generations in in general. Um, so here's one. What do you think people, either younger or older, depending on who's asking, fundamentally misunderstand about your relationship to work? Or for younger generations to ask older ones, what did you have to unlearn when the workplace changed around you? And finally, for maybe the older generations to ask each other, what's something a younger colleague does that you admire, but you haven't said out loud or told them about?

Patti 20:52

Well, if I wasn't allowed to answer questions that Dan has, and you are Lynne, you got the job. Those are excellent, excellent questions. They really are, and and really making me think. And I have one more I want to add, and that is like, what question about your own generational experience have you never been asked, but you really wish someone would ask you?

Dan 21:15

Oh, Patti, I love that addition too. That's terrific. Uh, and I do want to point out like our conversation so far has all been very US-centric. Like we're talking about American generations. Not every country had a baby boom at the same time the US did. MTV didn't have the same impact around the whole world at the same time as it did here in the continental, you know, '48. So when we talk about these generations, maybe we should also ask how do people in other countries experience these differences and these shifts?

Lynne 21:46

And how do they experience them? And you know, this is one of our favorite ones. Who benefits? Who benefits from generational labels? Who benefits in the US? Who maybe benefits if there are even Generational labels, and I think there are in different certain cultures. Um, who benefits from them? I mean, I think Patti, you probably would second this, but marketing people probably do.

Patti 22:11

We sure do. Yeah, we sure do. Um, we we love a generational, right? Because it there are those attributes. Um, and you know, I I think about this too. I'm also a research scientist. And so the kind of work I do when it comes to the future of work and when it comes to gender, I look very deeply at things like generational differences. And Dan, thank you for bringing up the global viewpoint, because I raise my hand to say, absolutely, I'm a Western culture girl, and I do need that bias um unchecked. So, so thank you for that, because that's really important. But there are all kinds of researchers, right? So, Dan, you mentioned sociologists, but there are economists, there are political scientists, you know, all of those folks. And you know when I think about these labels and groupings and my own use around analyzing them, right? The trends that go with them, the the trends as individuals, the trends as groups, I I can't help but kind of question am I doing it because it makes my research more coherent? And by the way, is that not a bad benefit, right? As long as I'm not using them as labels, but maybe is it okay that I use them as a way to understand populations of people and how they're viewing whatever it is that I'm focused on.

Dan 23:30

Oh, Patti, I love that. Using these labels to increase our understanding of the world around us, that makes a lot of sense. That sounds like a really useful framework. And it does kind of beg the question about like dark patterns, the people who use these frameworks not just to study and understand, but to like manipulate or control big groups of people. How do we avoid falling down that kind of a rabbit hole when a framework like this has a positive use and maybe a negative or an exploitive use as well?

Lynne 24:01

Well, Dan, you teed it up for me. So guess what?

Dan 24:04

I'm gonna bring up AI before Patti gets a chance to when Lynne gets to answer questions, you get to answer questions and bring up AI first.

Lynne 24:13

I think Lynne is winning this episode. All right, this is my favorite episode. Um so here we go. AI. How do gener different generations approach AI? And do different generations have different benefits and different harms from AI? Are they using it differently and are they seeing different opportunities and threats?

Patti 24:40

So, you know, one of the trends we're seeing, right, is AI is taking over some of the entry-level jobs, even higher level, but entry level. So now that I'm doing more college circuit stuff and I find out what um the students are focused on, and my question is always, how is AI being incorporated? When I hear what they're focused on, all I think about is you're not gonna have a job, right? So it's it's really difficult. And so when I think about AI and the harm, is it harm, by the way? I don't know if this is harm or it's simply evolution that Gen Z is disproportionately impacted because those entry-level jobs are the ones that leaders are focusing AI on, which by the way, makes sense. I just don't necessarily know if my question would be framed with harm, uh, or it should be impact. And perhaps the real question is there is the educational system the problem when it comes to AI and the generations? Are we using antiquated ways of teaching and learning and the tools we bring in that don't actually represent the world around us? How do we go from, you know, those philosophy things that are important in bedrock? Are we doing a disservice, right? So are we not keeping up with those generations? And um, but you know, going back to growing up in an AI world as an AI native seems like it also creates opportunities that older generations won't have access to simply because they don't think that way. They think in an old, antiquated way. So, like, which is it, right? Is it is it that you know it's gonna help us, benefit us? Is it that it's going to keep certain generations out?

Lynne 26:26

Yeah. So, first of all, I just want to say if we're gonna put this in the show notes, I just read an article in the post today about this teacher who has trained in AI to be much more of a challenger teacher. Um, so he saw his students were using AI. He was like, okay, this is the world I'm living in. Let me create an agent that can really help them learn. So I'll find that article. We'll put it in the show notes because I think, Patti, that's getting to your point around how do we change our educational systems? The good news is some of these really smart teachers are already doing it and thinking about it. And something I'm hearing about, both from friends with Gen Z kids and seeing it myself with my own Gen Z kids, one of whom is a teacher, is a bit of a generational backlash from them about AI. And I don't think it's because they're worried about it taking their jobs. I mean, maybe they should be, but I don't think that's the where the backlash is coming from. It seems like it may be more related to this emerging need to connect IRL, which I know actually only Gen X says now, and so that's not cool. Um, and maybe the fact that Gen X is doubling down on AI, which is also making it uncool. Uh, so I'm just I'm wondering a little bit about that. Um, but then also, like we talked about earlier, how how generations change over time. Uh Gen X was described as slackers in the 80s. Did we continue to be slackers as we got older? The answer is no, but maybe that's because we we never were.

Dan 28:01

I love that question and yay for another answer. And you know, as we think about AI and the generations and the generational differences, a question that popped into my head is does anyone think AI is going to go away? Like, do any of these generations as a cohort think it's going to go away? Are they more skeptical about the continued viability of this as a particular type of technology? And, you know, what are the implications of that belief? But back to the Gen X thing. So I did find an article from 2002. So, like 24 years ago, if I'm doing my public math correctly, it had some really nice things to say about our generation. We'll put a link to this one in the show notes as well. So the author is Patrick Reddy, and he wrote that Gen X has, quote, reversed every bad social trend from the last four decades, despite getting little help from either their families or the government. Bam! Not bad for a bunch of slackers, right? So I think that kind of answers one of the questions you asked earlier, Lynne, but it also asks a new one if Gen X wasn't actually a bunch of slackers. If we really did reverse every bad social trend from the past four decades, which, come on, that's a dubious claim. But if that's true, that makes me wonder what are we getting wrong about the millennials and the Gen Zers now? Like what stories about them are we holding on to that aren't serving us and that aren't serving them because they're just not based in reality.

Patti 29:22

Okay, I'm just gonna take this opportunity to say I have not one example, but I do think we reversed all the bad decisions. Um, all of them. Four decades worth.

Dan 29:32

Four decades worth, yes.

Patti 29:34

And listening to the two of you talk about AI and Dan, your questions around do people essentially think it's a phase, there were people that thought the internet was a phase. And and when we think about AI, it's really interesting for me to sit here and listen and go, gosh, Gen X really does seem to be good at accepting things for how they are and not um submitting to them, right? And when I think about how things are, many of us know that AI is the new electricity. Where previous generations went electricity, or my God, the TV, which changed everything, right? Were there folks when, like by the time their parents thought electricity or the TV was cool, that the younger generations were like, no, it's not, right? So it's it's such an interesting thing. Every industrial revolution has really been marked by that. And I wonder what the experience is based on at what point in time in your life, you know, the the nor the forming, the norming, whatever of your life, what that that looked like. But let's get back to this. Um, so Gen Z, right? They catch a lot of flack. Um, and it's funny to watch the memes making fun of themselves, but that Gen Z stare, oh my God, that blank look, I'm sure we've all heard about, right? It's interesting when I used to get it for my kids, very interesting in the workplace to get it. Um, I know sometimes it does drive me crazy. I am a Gen Xer, right? So don't mess with me. Um, like I think we call that um F-A-F-O on a few things. One of my favorite, I might get that as an additional tattoo. Um, but like in my question, I guess, like every time I go, because I learned so much from younger generations, is is it really like these negative things from Gen Z, the blank stares, the you know, whatever it is that that drives me crazy? But am I just misunderstanding it? Right? Am I misunderstanding and reading it with my Gen Z, no nonsense, latchkey kid brain, right? That so many of us grew up in. And like, what if it isn't them being rude, right? What if it isn't them being ironic? And what if it's actually something else, right? Which gets me back to shouldn't we be focused on like what one generation can learn from the other generations?

Lynne 31:48

Yes. I mean, I think about what Dan just shared with us. If generations are defined by rebellion against the previous status quo, what is that Gen Z stare a rebellion against?

Dan 32:00

We do have an article that we'll put in the show notes if you want to read more about the Gen Z stare. Well, that is our time for today. I can't believe how fast this episode went. What a great set of questions we asked today about generational differences. I think my big takeaway is that our interactions with other generations, whether it's in the workplace or elsewhere, is actually a big opportunity to put curiosity into practice. And my goodness, Lynne's questions are a terrific, specific place to start. So rewind back to that part. Listen to those questions again, write them down, ask them yourselves.

Lynne 32:34

Dan, we are on such the same wavelength. That was my takeaway too was this idea of leaning into curiosity about the other generations. Um, and just so you don't have to rewind all the way back, here's a couple. To ask of your younger colleagues, what are older generations misunderstanding about your relationship to work? And to tell someone to ask you, what have you not been asked about your own generational experience that you wish you had?

Patti 33:00

For me, it's very similar to both of you, right? What are the areas of commonality? And if I look at Gen Z and go, oh, that stare, how are people looking at Gen X and misinterpreting us? Right. And how do I then take that to look in the mirror and maybe do some EQ work on myself, get more emotionally intelligent because I clearly, the three of us clearly have been impacted by the generation we're in and the labels there. So thanks for listening, folks. That's our time. Today's episode was sponsored by MTV, VHS Cassettes, and Pac-Man Arcade Cabinets.

Lynne 33:39

Our music was composed by Gen Zier Jake Cuppernal.

Dan 33:43

Our cover art was created by Gen Zier Mads Graham.

Patti 33:47

Listeners, this episode is our final one for season two, regardless of your generation. And so we're gonna take a little bit of a break, not easy for Gen Xers, but we're gonna take a little bit of a break and plan to be back later this year. So we will catch you next time, but it will be a little later. Take care, enjoy, and keep your curiosity going.