GenX Careers: Meltdown vs. Building

Resisting nostalgia, getting real about work, the DIY ethos and our times

Weird coincidence: On Friday, I had two separate conversations about the recent NYT GenX article and the career cross-roads we’re all experiencing. Then Sunday morning David Armano sent out this thoughtful, inspiring piece advocating for GenX’s unique experience in the workplace.

The universe is not-so-gently prodding me.

I’m a GenXer. I bought (and loved) the actual book when it came out, and I did feel like it captured something me and my friends were experiencing. My first real rock concert was the band X (with Soul Asylum opening), and I was a true believer - for a while - in the punk/alternative/college rock ethos (stick it to the man and don’t sell out). As much as I don’t want to be grouped into a generational cohort (typical Gen X response, btw), I am what I am and I knew, coming into 2025, that I wanted to dive deeper into issues facing my generation and write more about them.

The tone of the article has a little bit of surprise, and a sense of nostalgia for an era that has passed and features nice people who are struggling to adjust to an accelerated creative media culture that first embraced them, then seemingly left them behind. Lots of folks in their late 40’s and fifties are faced with remaking their career or dropping down into what Douglas Copeland called McJobs.

The stories and the anecdotes in the NYT story are sad, but GenX shouldn’t be surprised when eras pass. We came of age in the wreckage of the 70’s, at a time when the “Classic Rock” era was on it’s way down, punk and metal were rising, and the renewal of culture via Rap and Hip Hop was just in front of us.

To paraphrase one of my favorite X’ers: we were there, we had an edge, but a lot of us have lost it. And, now the kids have come up behind us.

Still, the article rings true to me. We’re all feeling the creep of tech obviating our skills. There’s a familiar sourness to the undercurrent of resentment and sadness that comes when our skills and experience are longer esteemed (or relevant). I’ve seen, up-close and in personal terms, incredibly talented leaders being sidelined due to age perceptions. I’ve listened to colleagues and peers express exasperation as the expertise they’ve built loses value seemingly overnight.

It makes me think of my 20’s, as I was explaining how the internet was going to change everything, and the Boomers across the desk had that look of fear and worry, a belief that maybe what I was saying was true and their days were coming to an end. Now it’s our turn in the barrel.

If you remember LiveAid, you’re probably part of GenX

While we’re pre-grieving the loss of our career-driven status, we’re soaking in the realities of our life-stage: Stuck in a generational vise, on one side the steady worry of tending to aging and dying parents, on the other the conditional joy and hope and optimism of helping our kids get launched. Oh, and we’re all desperately working on our retirement nest egg, trying to sock it away during what are supposed to be our peak earning years.

We should be clear-eyed. Isn’t this the burden of every generation at some point, though? Didn’t the boomers feel this way? The “silent generation” before them? I’m guessing Cicero and Marcus Aurelius and Kant and Edith Wharton and Joan Didion all felt layers of despair and resignation at some point in their lives when they realized culture had accelerated ahead of them?

The world we grew up in shapes us. Duh. I’m surprised, though, after all these years, how much I’m still reflecting the patterns that seem to characterize our latchkey, sorta-feral GenX childhood: Skepticism of the mainstream (“Don’t tell me what to do”), a resourceful, abundance-driven optimisim paired with a DIY mindset (e.g. We’ve got what we need and we can figure it out on our own), and being biased towards a “hands-on” approach (we grew up in an analog world where our media was physical and the world around us was relatively easy to take apart and fix).

Those mindsets are in me, deep down and they still guide my thinking, even if i don’t always know it. They’re still there, even though I’m now part of the steady money-spewing machine that young-me wanted to rage against.

The DIY Ethos

I talk to a lot of late-career Xers as they are seeking new roles or spearheading hard shifts in their organizations as part of efforts to jumpstart yet another new era of transformation (AI). Most are excited about what’s ahead and what’s in it for them (marketing and strategy folks tend to be optimists). At the same time, with so much happening, and all the obligations we’ve got, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and to go negative.

Sometimes, in those coffee talks and happy hours, I pick up a strong undercurrent of the funk the NYT article describes: the fear, resignation, and resentment. The dread and fatigue are palpable, almost Bartleby-esque. “I’d prefer not to.” It’s a spirit that is toxic and contagious.

On the other hand, while there’s absolute truth to the statement, it’s annoying as hell to say “see the opportunity!” Even Bobby Mcferrin would want to flip over the table.

I wonder how much he hated singing that song by the end of his career?

We need to find inside of ourselves what Armano characterizes as "Young Energy.” It’s the creative drive, the curiosity, the optimism, the “let’s figure it out” mindset. You see it in people that are working on exciting projects, the folks that are building or getting something new off the ground. It’s the alternative to resignation.

When I was in high school, I was part of the “normal” or “jock” group, but I had classmates that were alternative. They weren’t the burnouts or metalheads listening to Def Leppard and getting high. They were forming (punk) bands, booking underground shows, creating record labels and making their own merch¹. They built their own skate ramps, recorded their own cassettes. It was so eye-opening: They wanted something and then figured out how to make it. They didn’t ask anyone, didn’t wait to be told. I was jealous of their ambition and the ethic.

As weird as these times seem, we might actually be in the golden age of DIY. You can just do things now that might have been incredibly hard just a few years ago; Experience is leverage. You don’t have to wait or ask for permission or, more often than not, money. The tools and AI are there to design and make almost anything. Talent is everywhere and available². You can go from idea to operating side hustle in a week or faster. It’s never been easier to be an independent, whether by choice or by circumstances. It just takes work and a little bit of hope.

Nostalgia, in small measures, is a kind of love. Clinging to the past is fear. If we’re afraid, maybe it’s time for some of us X’ers to pass the torch, to get out of the way, and let the next generation take the wheel.

But, for most us, it’s time to, as our punk rock peers did in the old days, get in the van. Jam Econo. Embrace what it means to be indie in a new era of immense possibilities and abundant resources. It’s not going to be easy, but then again GenXers are used to making it work with whatever we got.

In a nod to @GregSwan, this was written while listening to the songs of my youth, including Hunters and Collectors “Bettys Worry (the Slab)”, fIREHOSE (a live concert from 1989; so good!), Minutemen and Midnight Oil (“10,9,8..”)

1. I have such strong memories of seeing homemade band stickers and buttons, wondering how they figured out how to make that stuff. All the knowledge was out there if you asked and kept looking.

2. Yes, i get the irony of talking about the ease and abundance of talent due to a lot of unemployed Xers