
Are Companies About to Have a Gen X Retention Problem? - apress
https://hbr.org/2019/07/are-companies-about-to-have-a-gen-x-retention-problem
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mdorazio
I was just discussing with a friend last night the seeming absence of
commentary on Gen X. Just about all the news on generational trends and
observations tends to focus on boomers, millennials, or both, with little to
no mention of Gen Xers. Even beyond the business aspects pointed out by HBR
here, politics is in a weird place as well. Based on historical trends, Gen X
should be dominating congressional positions right now, but instead Boomers
are still leading most states and the presidential front-runners are mostly
70+.

As the article implies, there's an open question here - is Gen X less
ambitious? Are they given fewer opportunities due to boomers? Are they just
less talked about because their views depart less from the status quo? It's
interesting and frustrating to try and get to the bottom of it.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Based on historical trends, Gen X should be dominating congressional
> positions right now,

No, it shouldn't; based on historical trends, the baby bust of Gen X should
_never_ be politically dominant, and dominance should pass directly from the
Boomers to Millenials.

I meant based on historical age group dominance without consideration to
population, yes, Gen X should be dominant now, but it's a bust sandwiched
between a big boom and a little boom.

> As the article implies, there's an open question here - is Gen X less
> ambitious? Are they given fewer opportunities due to boomers? Are they just
> less talked about because their views depart less from the status quo? It's
> interesting and frustrating to try and get to the bottom of it.

It's much simpler: they are less numerous and will never be the numerically
largest group unless something selectively kills off Millenials. Everyone
cares about the current and emergent dominant group, not the once and future
number 3 that might make it to number 2 for a while as the Boomers die off.

See, e.g., [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2018/03/01/millennials...](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2018/03/01/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/)

