Change agents

Ever-so-quietly it’s Generation X business owners, managers and executives who are bringing about a techtonic shift in the way we balance the needs of the corporate environment with the needs of our families

According to those intergenerational genies McCrindle Research, the members of Generation X are right now facing the most challenging time of their lives. Wages are four times what they were when Gen Xers turned 18, but house prices are eight times higher than what they were back then, and we got into the housing market later than our parents because we spent longer at university or TAFE.

Many Gen Xers are married now, we married later than our parents did, and also had babies later. We are at a crucial point in our careers, creeping our way into senior management, and wondering whether that extra $50 per week should be put into the mortgage, the super fund or the kid’s saving account.

While baby boomers are fighting a wave of ageism, and Gen Ys are apparently struggling to have their needs met in the workplace, ever so quietly it’s Generation X business owners, managers and executives who are bringing about a tectonic shift in the way people balance the needs of the corporate environment with the needs of their families. About 20 years ago, it was women entering the workforce en masse that lead to some fundamental changes in the economy during the heyday of the baby boomers. But this time around it’s Generation X dads leading the charge.

They’re not entering the workforce, but they’re changing it fundamentally.

Now that they are taking control of their own companies these Gen X individuals – who grew up during a wave of divorces, and an age of dual-income household parents and 17 per cent interest rates – seem determined to create sensible, new, flexible work practices that will enable productivity to bloom, and families to blossom. A quick flick through the 2010 Best Places to Work list published in the June 24 edition of BRW, reveals any number of Gen X bosses who have created the workplaces where getting in at 9am is less important than getting the job done, where working from home is possible and even encouraged and where a commitment to family is seen as a strength, not a weakness.

The refrain I hear time and again from managers at companies like MRWED Group and Point Project Management is that they understand that the success of their business is based on staff commitment, and that the most committed employees are those who are able to work hard and play hard. But unlike the 1980s, when play meant excessive drinking with workmates, this time around it means flying kites, attending sports carnivals and doing the school run before coming to work.

And while it would be nice to see some more Gen X mums up there in the higher echelons of management, it’s predominantly Gen X dads in those roles who are creating fairer more flexible working environments that should ultimately even up that balance.

So, this coming Sunday, on behalf of us Gen X working mums and whole host of noisy, surly, spoilt and generally helicopter-parented Gen Zs, I’d just like to say, “Thanks guys, you’re doing great job!”.

BRW

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