What Was Once New May Be Quaint to Younger Employees - Brief Article

Issues concerning Generation X must be popular these days; my columns on the subject have attracted many letters.

One thing to consider: The younger Xers are still in the educational pipeline or just entering the job market. Some of their experiences--or lack of experiences--might puzzle boomers and older Xers. Things these younger Xers take for granted once seemed new to those of us who are older. And things that once seemed new to some of us have been with them all their lives.

For the last couple of years, Beloit College in Wisconsin has issued "mindset" papers that describe the characteristics of the entering freshman class. Most of the freshmen entering last fall--the class of 2003--were born in 1981. You'll start receiving resumes from them in about three years.

Here are a few items from the Beloit list, with my comments in parentheses. (Warning: Some of this will make boomers feel very old.)

* The Beloit incoming freshmen grew up with Microsoft, IBM PCs and fax machines. (IBM introduced the first PC the year they were born. Microsoft Windows was on the market when they were 4 years old.)

* "Cats" has been on Broadway all their lives.

* They probably have never dialed a phone or opened an icebox. (On a field trip in the eighth grade, my class went to a museum in Philadelphia. One of the exhibits was the new push-button "telephone of the future." Today, kids can see artifacts in museums that boomers may have owned when those things were new.)

* They have always been able to get their news from USA Today and CNN.

* They don't think there is anything terribly futuristic about 2001. (And if they've seen the movie "2001," they probably think the special effects are pretty quaint.)

* President Kennedy's s assassination is as significant to them as those of Lincoln or Garfield. (I was in the ninth grade when Kennedy was shot. I spent the next several days glued to my 12-inch, black-and-white television set.)

* There has always been a woman on the Supreme Court, and women have always been traveling into space. (They probably read about the women's movement and the equal rights amendment in their high school history texts.)

* They have never had to worry about the safety of Tylenol. (And they don't have a clue why it's so difficult to open a new bottle and actually get to the pills inside.)

* And, finally, they know what a "Whammee" is.

If you know--or, like me, don't know--what a Whammee is, or if you have other examples of differences in life experiences, send me a note at jadams@shrm.org. If you want to see the rest of the Beloit "mindset" list, go to www.beloit .edul./pubaff/releases/mindsetlist .html.)

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