Silver Surfers

I came across a new term today - Silver Surfers. This is term being used to describe Babyboomers who use the Internet. They are hip, cool, in their 60s, but not old.

This is where I don't know whether to be fasinated or appalled. Really, what is worse - being old and rolling with it or being old and pretending that you're not.

In a couple weeks, I'll be 37. I teach at a local university and have students who are 22 and think I'm A LOT older than them. They usually think I'm old enough to be their mother. It never bothers me. So I guess I just don't get it.

(Photo is Grandma Moses, for anyone who is wondering. I like to pick on the Boomers when I get the chance.)

Politics and Generation X

I read the most fascinating article in The Atlantic recently about Barack Obama and how he's the man who can pull the American political system out of the grips of the Babyboomers. I posted it to this site, because this article was the first that I have ever read that actually changed my mind about a presidential race.

While Obama is a Boomer, he's actually a trailing-edge Boomer (born 1958-1964), which really makes him more of an Xer. 1958 was the first year of declining birth rates in the U.S. and those born in the last years of the boom had a very similar formative cohort experience to Generation X ) - they don't really remember that pre-Kennedy assassination era when "girls were girls and men were men."

The Boomer Calling

Recently, I was reading Penelope Trunk's blog and she talked about not choosing a career based on the often recited professorial advice "Do what you love" and it really got me thinking. Where did this idea of your career being your "calling" come from?

When I was in high school and college - and even for the first five or so years of my career - I subscribed to the notion that you are meant to do a specific job - a divine calling, if you will. Although I did not realize it at the time, this idea made me miserable, because at the end of the day, a job is a job, because they pay you to do the work.

So where did I get this idea from? The "follow your bliss" career advice? Teachers, mostly. Babyboomer teachers to be more specific. The same Babyboomers who are the self-proclaimed workaholics (just google "boomer" and "workaholic" and see how many sites pop up).

I was in church a couple weeks ago and our pastor, who is a feminist nun, talked about how our job is not our calling. Our calling is about the people in our life and our relationships with them.

So if that's true (and I believe it is), then what's up with this "job as calling" thing?

First off, boomers love to work. And by work, I mean work at their jobs. The more hours you put in, the better worker you are. My friend, Julie, who is a boomer herself, even says that boomers love Saturdays because there's no one in the office and they can get more work done.

For many Xers, while our boomer parents were off at their jobs (think the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off), we were forging friendships. We were laying the ground work for what I believe is a new mindset - something Xers do not get the credit we deserve for. It's the idea that my job is important, but my life is more important.

Now that I understand that my job is just my job, I can enjoy it a lot more. I'm not expecting it to be a cosmic experience. And I can focus on doing things I really love (like blogging) without make it "work."

Office holiday party - teambuilding or torture?

Last month I was speaking in Orlando to a group of Gen Xers and Millenials and the topic of office holiday parties came up. Basically, there was no one in the audience who wanted to attend them and no one who could figure out how to get out of them. It's a pretty common complaint among the under-40 crowd.

I, myself, spent nine years working at a college and trying to avoid potlucks, cookie exchanges, and the dreaded Christmas party at the boss' house. The Babyboomer women I worked with would get so annoyed with me - I wasn't a team player. And yet, the Babyboomer men just had to show up for such events (no casserole required if you had a Y chromosome.)

The whole thing was so frustrating, because these people were not my friends - they were my co-workers.

Getting back to the presentation in Orlando, we brainstormed for solutions to avoiding the office party, and the best we could come up with is "I'm going to be out of town." And as I researched the topic a bit more, it turns out that "suck it up" is about the only thing you can do without hindering your career.

Earlier this year, I was talking to a meeting planner in Michigan who said he is having trouble getting certain company events off the ground. Specifically, for years there has been a three-day "retreat" at a northern Michigan resort that included some work, and a lot of dinners and activities. The planner said the Xers did not want to come. They wanted to do it in one concentrated day - all work and no play.

I think these situations are both part of the same issue. Generation Xers are looking for a work-life balance. That means work being something separate from life. Not having your life be your work, your colleagues, your company.

So what is the solution? Do we go along with the festivities and hope the Boomers retire soon? Or do we revolt?

Build me up buttercup

Are Boomers really re-defining anything? Or, as marketers, are we just telling them what they want to hear in order to sell them something?

I am of the opinion that it’s a little of both.

A Boomer friend of mine jokes – “Didn’t you know that Boomer women are the first to ever go through Menopause?” And she’s right. It seems like Boomers are always claiming to redefine each life stage as if until they reached 30-40-50-60, everyone had lived a cookie-cutter existence.

Are Baby boomers really the only retires to travel? Is there really that much of a difference between a bus tour that plays music from the 1940s while you travel through wine country and a tour bus that plays music from the 1960s?

I’ve noticed that a lot of Gen Xers like myself sit back and listen to the Boomer mantra of redefinition without disagreeing. But I don’t think we’re buying it. We are, however, selling it. At least us marketing Gen Xers.

In some ways, it’s almost as if the Boomers are reaching that stage where the patronizing begins. Kind of like when a young guy flirts with his girlfriend’s grandma to get on her good side. I believe it’s true that life after age 50 is changing – but that’s probably more due to modern medicine than some sort of super culture created by the Boomers.

What's Gen Y thinking?

A promising new column in the Cincinnati Enquirer has begun and features analysis of trends in the workforce from a Gen Y perspective.
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071031/BIZ03/710310308/1001/BIZ

Senior Citizens Become Adults

By now, most people know that Babyboomers will never be seniors. Shoot, they can barely handle being called grown ups.

When we market to this demographic, we can't do what worked 20 years ago for the 55+ market. I found a really good example of how to market to Boomers.

http://www.cafebabyboomers.com/travel-leisure/Adult-Golf-Vacations-For-the-Babyboomer-Age.php

What's best is that these "Adult" trips are clearly for people who are over 55. But they never mention the terms seniors or "active adults" (which I think implies seniors). They just say adults.

Seniors become Midlifers

While, doing some research this morning I came across a term I hadn't heard before - Midlifer. It was used to describe the aging Baby boomer demographic. Frankly, I love it. I can see 20-years from now people flocking to Midlifer Centers, taking Midlifer Water Aerobics, and going on Midlifer bus tours to the wine country. The marketing to retired Baby boomer dilemma may have been solved with one word!

Who is out of touch?

A recent post to the Ypulse blog discusses the pros and cons of accessing networking sites such as FaceBook while at work:

http://ypulse.com/archives/2007/07/myspacing_faceb.php

Last week I spoke with a group of association executives. There was a lot of frustration over the work habits of Generation Y. The group, made up mostly of Gen Xers and Boomers, said it was a challenge to get Gen Y workers to do what was expected. The fact of the matter is, Gen Y is less likely to have the same assumptions as older workers and they often do need things spelled out for them (i.e. casual Friday means something a lot different to Gen Y and if you don't want them wearing flip flops to work you need to let them know).

But here's the question - who really is out of touch? My theory is that Gen Y is leading the workforce changes. However, they still are very young. For Gen Y, I believe the bravado of being 25 will be replaced by the humility of being 35. And yet, they will still have the technical savvy they do now. Gen Y will make a huge contribution once they do what all of us had to - grow up a little.

The myth of the Baby boomer

Apparently, the myth of the Baby boomer experience in the 1960s and 1970s does not jive with reality - and it can't impact the success of your use of nostalgia in marketing to them.

That's according to The Opinionated Marketer blog.
http://opinionatedmarketers.blogspot.com/2007/06/boom-town-marketing-to-baby-boomers.html

In fact, "Contrary to the general portrait, every Boomer didn't go to college, dodge the draft, and delay marriage. Even among those that did go to college, there were plenty who took accounting rather than sociology, drank beer at frat parties, and got married senior year."

Boomers fail at retirement

Although most Boomers expect to retire around age 63, the majority of them will continue working for pay while "retired." The reasons? Staying busy, making ends meet, and affording the "extras" top the list.

Retirement just doesn't seem to stick with this group, and the Boomers won't stay out of the workforce for long.

I also suspect it also has to do with the perception that retirement is for old people - and the Boomers will never consider themselves old. Therefore, if you're marketing a product or service for the 60+ crowd, you'll have to re-think the way you talk to the Boomers.

Here's some more information on retirement and the Boomers:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Business/story?id=1491624