The Millennial Gen Z Dilemma
There was an opinion article a couple of days ago that went viral for all the wrong reasons. It quintessentially was a 3 to 4 paragraph column (if you will) bashing the Millennial Generation and to some extent Generation Z as “The Peter Pan Generations” examining the fact as to how “COVID will force Millennials to grow up.” As one Gentleman tweeted in response “I beg any editor to actually know how old Millennials are.” Another spoke on how the majority of Millennials specifically during this era of COVID19 are suffering from lack of employment and unsteady housing by way of infrastructures set into place by previous generations. I agree with both statements as both made a point that Millenials this year are between the ages of 25 to roughly 40 as where Generation Z fall between the ages of anywhere from 25 to some demographers say 8-years-old. The ranging birth years give or take for Millenials are from around 1982 to 1996. For Generation Z the birth years are roughly 1997 to 2012. I commented that I like many young professionals have had go rounds with Boomers or even Generation X’ers who had us mistaken for either Generation Z, Xennials, or even Generation X. Pew Research Center carried out a study on generational gaps.
Credit- Pew Research Center
These numbers apart let us be real here for a minute. Cut both Generations some slack. We’ve witnessed disastrous momentous events all within our formative years. As one article in I believe it was Forbes last summer spoke on the threat of unemployment mainly during the thick of COVID however also mentioned the fact we witnessed 9/11 in either childhood or grade school followed by the US declaring war, the recession during our High School or College age years, the election of Trump, attack on the Capitol as a result, then at last COVID let alone if we’ve encountered any other Generational pertinent issue in our lives. There are fools in every generation that’s a given however to generalize and assume an entire generation based on biases against that generation is spreading further animosity between groups. The structures that were conducive to the sustainable success of past generations does not and have proven it doesn’t work the same way for our generations. Needless to say there is a great deal of discrimination against young professionals when it comes to employment this is in spite of any credentials and or education we have. This is why Generation Z has taken the non traditional employment route and honestly slaying it. This is particularly true during the era of COVID we are living in. Our generations have had to be incredibly innovative and in frequent cases just to get by.
