STYLE OF LIVING-WORKING OF FIVE GENERATIONS

This article will have broad outlook of style of working of five generations living-working which I have seen and experienced as I belong to second type of generations-Boomers II.

Defining Generations as on year 2021 Boomers I born in the year 1946-1954, Boomers II born between 1955-1964, GenX born in the year 1965-1980, Millennials born between 1981-1996 and Gen Z born between 1997-2021.

Those who were born in Post War period 1928-1944 they have seen fairly bad period in the history of mankind .Experiencing pandemic, Great Depression and World War 2. Boomers-1 had many avenues and opportunity to lead simple and healthy life as the basic needs like food, water and shelter could be acquired by optimum efforts.

Boomers II had luxury of base platform laid by previous Generations and will look into details of their Living-Working style and environment they have experienced and continuing.

Take the case of Sunder who worked in regulated entity and continued in the same organization for four decades which is not so in this Gen Z with eye on clock and terminal benefits like provident fund and pension. He had convenience of leading good work-life balance because of directives and guidelines applicable to employer and strong Association protecting the rights of employees.

Prahalad was not so lucky as he shifted from Organized sector to Private sector. In his days private sector was not that much regulated and working condition was not conducive and he had to switch jobs and ended with not much progress in wealth.

Boomers II have seen in their working life a paradigm shift from standard of living to transportation to digital environment. It is because of liberalization economy in our country improved in all spears you can name it from agriculture, manufacturing, hospitality and financial world. Digital services are widely used in all the fields including service sector.

Naturally Boomers II have opportunity to experience a new revolution born in the form of digital environment in all fields of working. It has also its share of redundant where people quit voluntarily as they could not update or reluctant to adjust or to priority of their life needs. Suma quit her lucrative job to support her children and elders in the family. 

Shankara left his secured and well paid job in financial sector as his mind set did not allow him work in computer age as he did not trust the machine and was comfortable in manual entries.

Gen X has the solid platforms build by previous Generations Boomers I & II.

Ground realities and experience of Tumkur Giridhara will give insight about living work relationship. After finishing the studies joined MNC and had couple of stint abroad and entered into wedlock and has family with lovely daughters and due to his priorities to be with aged parents he had to return from foreign assignment and struck to his place of  birth and has undergone his mid-age crisis who usually undergoes in their forties.

In case of Prashant who started his carrier in highflying and lucrative job in foreign country in one of top Fortune Global 500 company and for more than a decade after upgrading the skill and qualification he took up many assignments in various foreign locations across the Globe before returning with fatigue of work pressure as on the same day he had to work in five different time zone across the continents in one of top 3 Fortune Global company and put the papers to look after his ailing parents and looking for lesser taxing assignment as he is comfortable  financially and leading good life.

Millennials are born between 1981-96 and age between 25-40. Millennials have advantage of platforms laid down by  Gen X, Boomers I & II whether it is financial, education or any logistical requirement. We will see the life journey of Sony who completed her undergraduate course in professional college and was teaching there for some time before completing the post-graduation. In the right time she got married and took sabbatical for sake of baby. Now happily settled with husband Shastry.  Shastry is also well settled working in leading software company had stint in small company and struggled initially with small remuneration and loads of work which helped in getting laterally placed in global company.

Gen Z are  bold , open minded and tech savvy generations and born amid television, computer and smartphone. They are far more intelligent, hardworking and competitive. Competiveness for Atal has started at very young age due to environment and peer pressure. He utilised his opportunity in every stage to develop his personality totally in academic, sports and extra-curricular activities.

He could not only completed his studies with honours and now settled in good job and leading comfortable life. The Gen Z unlike earlier generations who saw stability , regular income and improving the living standard in stages, Gen Z will look for quality of work- life balance at all stages.

We will look into the case of Hamsa who after commerce graduation is perusing professional course where it very tough to get through in Pan India competitive exam. She represents the dream of Gen Z who wants to lead quality life both professionally and personal life and is ambitious, hardworking and will not stop till she finds her niche.

In nutshell we have seen the priorities and style of living in various generations from survival to acquiring education and wealth to upgrading the standard of living to for leading quality work-life balance.