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Tired of Being Crammed Between Gen X and Gen Y?

By crooky | July 10, 2008

This is something that I swore I would never advertise because I feel it is a liability to my business - I am 30 years old. Now that I’ve put that out there, it’s a much more interesting conversation to explore why my age has been a liability in my business these past five years.

Let me explain it this way - most people would agree that anyone born between 1980 and the late 90s is a Generation Y person (also known as Millenials). By that same token, most people would agree that anyone born between 1965 and 1975 is definitely a Gen Xer.

I was born in 1978. That makes me almost young enough to be a Gen Yer and almost old enough to be a Gen Xer but not really either. This is a bigger problem for me as a former employee and as a consultant than you might suspect. Here’s why:

1. Gen Yer clients of mine expect me to be significantly older than them.

Typically, when you hire a consultant or anyone to give you advice, you expect them to be older and/or more experienced that you. Obviously, I have some depth in a niche of my expertise area or no one would hire me but rarely am I older than my clients.

I avoid this topic like the plague. It actually came up recently with a client of mine. We got talking about demographic dividers as a way to categorize potential customers. They said “how old are you?” Doh! I hate that question. I copped to being 30 and they were quite taken aback. I’m only 2 years older than they are. I asked them what made them think I was older than that and they said “because you seem wiser and more knowledgeable than most 30 year-olds.”

Now, that was a compliment and they insisted that it wasn’t because I am in poor shape for a 30 year-old but this is exactly the kind of conversation I don’t want to get into with most of my clients. They’re very cool and I don’t think it will impact my working relationship with them but it’s come up in the past when I’ve worked for other 20-something entrepreneurs.

The fact is that most of them don’t take me as seriously when they find out that I’m only a handful of years older than them.

2. Gen Xer clients of mine expect me to be older than most Gen Yers they know.

Let’s face it - the newspapers and magazines are full of articles about how much Generation Y sucks. Where Generation X was supposed to be the slacker generation, Generation Y has gotten saddled with this “selfish, narcissistic, pompous, arrogant asshole” vibe that I don’t think is deserved.

You can see how this might be a bit of an image problem when my clients who are in their 40s find out that I could technically be lumped in with these Gen Yers. Most of them know that I am not as old as they are because I don’t have any grey in my hair (yet) and I have young kids. I’m sure they do the math and think “okay. He must have gotten married in his late 20s and now he has a pre-schooler daughter and a toddler son and he owns his own business.” They’re most likely pegging me at 35-40 years old.

When they find out I’m 30 - some of them are visibly angry. It’s like they think I’ve cheated or something. I understand the frustration. Most of my Gen X friends couldn’t find decent jobs when they left university. I was at the leading edge of the generation that didn’t have as much trouble finding work because so many people are retiring now. I entered my Big C “Career” at the same time as a lot of people as much as 10 years older than me.

Again, most of my older clients have been pretty cool when they find out how old I am because the quality of my work speaks for itself. However, I have lost a few clients over the years because of this and it has certainly strained my relationship with others.

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So, you can see how I might be reluctant to admit my age to most clients but I’m at a place in my life when I’m tired of lying about my age or refusing to say. If you judge me based on my age, that’s ageism - pure and simple. You might as well be judging me for being white, or male.

While I may have “outed” myself with this post, I’m certainly not going to make it a new policy to advertise my age to everyone I meet and work with. Even if they recognize that what they’re doing to me is ageism if they change the way they feel about me based on my age, it’s not going to change the fact that I’m suddenly different in their eyes.

I want to thank Maren Hogan over at Big O Recruiting for putting into words many of my thoughts about this issue and linking to one of my previous posts.

I’d also invite anyone considering writing a “how to manage Gen Yers in the workplace”-type article to kiss my ass. I’m sure you were a model employee at age 20. Being irresponsible and/or irrational in your youth is something that people born in 1980 or later invented. In fact, they have a patent on it so next time you want to do something assinine at work, you have to send $2 to the Generation Y Foundation. Sure, they’re going to spend it on piercings but you shouldn’t infringe on their IP.

While I’m at it, I’d like to throw out a big “fuck you” to my fellow Vancouverite Douglas Coupland. You’re a shitty writer, no one should interview you for your views on anything because you’re an asshole and my sister, who used to clean your apartment for a living, says you’re a fucking slob.

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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for ten years.

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Topics: Business of Consulting, Levity, social issues |

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