The Manager's Pocket Guide to Generation X

7.Gen-Xers and CorporateCulture

 

Just as Generation Xers are close readers of cultural signs outside the workplace, Xers are close readers of the signals conveyed by corporate culture. Xers are always looking for evidence that investing in a particular employer–employee relationship is worthwhile, or not. That is how Xers decide whether a job is “just a job,” or has the potential to be something more. When Xers see in the signals of a given corporate culture that a company’s leadership undervalues the individual and treats its young workers like easily replaceable cogs in the machine, Xers feel rejected. Xers know they can never thrive in companies like that. In response, Xers reject the company and its management by psychologically compartmentalizing ...