Generation X is the book title by Charles Hamblett and Jane Deverson in 1964. The book is an account of interviews conducted with teenagers at the time, which showed a significant number of changes in the values and behaviors of this age group.
The idea caught the interest of sociologists, who delved deeper into the subject and "enriched" it with subsequent generations.
This approach is very much in vogue. It gives the illusion of being able to define the personality of a (future) employee based on his or her age.
Several books suggest types of management based on the generation of your teams.
I consider this segregation to be totally absurd and dramatically counter-productive.
It's undeniable that mentalities are evolving, habits are changing, and behaviors are adapting to technologies. It is also valid to consider that habits are established in the early years of a professional career. But it's ludicrous to compartmentalize appetites and motivations into generational groups simply because they've grown up in a particular technological environment.
Technological evolution has affected all generations, and everyone has found their own particular interest in it. It's easy to say that social networking is a feature of one generation and e-mail of another.
This discrimination is increasingly visible in companies and creates difficulties when getting different generations to work together.
Worse still, there's a Pygmalion effect in this arbitrary division. The younger generations will stigmatize the older ones based on stereotypes, and in response, the older ones will stigmatize them.
Of course, the "generation war" has always existed. But today, this segregation has been formalized by a few pseudo-sociologists.
According to them, rights and entitlements are defined by belonging to a specific generation and no longer by personal appetites. If you're young, you're a digital addict. If you're old, you watch TV.
On these two basic points alone, current events show us the folly of this model. The streets are full of protesters over 50 who base their vindictiveness on Internet conspiracy videos.
And how many young people, on the contrary, seek their happiness in nature and disconnection?
The only difference between generations is their age. Is that obvious? It's even a tautology. But above all, it's the only valid difference.
This subject could fill a book all by itself.
But for now, I'll leave it at that.
I'd like to remind you that this model has to get out of the way of corporate management and HR.
It's a risky and counter-productive simplification, which only serves to sell papers and give the impression of having mastered the subject.
No to generationalism!