46 | theceomagazine.com

Less interested in job-hopping than their younger

colleagues, generation X workers want to commit to a

workplace, and they want to feel that their experience is

being valued and that they can safely share their

knowledge without being herded out the door the

moment they do.

“We found the opposite to what we were expecting,”

Cutcher says. “We thought we would find lots of younger

workers saying of their older colleagues, ‘Oh, they’re old

fuddy-duddies; they don’t know what they’re doing.’

“Actually, we found the opposite. And when you get

people saying things like, ‘Young people don’t know what

they’re doing,’ then instead of it being about a culture of

sharing knowledge it becomes almost like you’re hoarding

knowledge. It becomes your currency. You can’t really

blame people for doing that if they don’t feel like they’re

going to get recognised for sharing. If people feel like

they’re just handing over to the next group coming

through, and then they’ll be pushed out of the door,

where’s the incentive for them to impart their knowledge?”

Workers who belong to generation X want the

traditional linear career path shifted to something more

flexible, so that those approaching the halfway point in

their careers, and beyond, can feel their knowledge is

valuable and appreciated, and that sharing it with their

younger colleagues won’t be a shortcut to redundancy.

If the only way to move in an organisation is up, it

doesn’t leave a lot of options for the people nearing the

top of the corporate tree.

“You’ve got to allow people to move across and move

back, as well as go up – and without having any of those

negative connotations that this often has,” Cutcher says.

“They want to be able to contribute; they want to

share their knowledge and experience. But their managers

are saying, ‘There aren’t any systems within the

organisation that allow me to recognise an older person

and the contribution that they’re making to the team,

because I’m only able to recognise ambition.’

“Organisations need to think about it in a different

way, because it goes to attracting a diverse workforce. And

our research shows that in organisations where there’s

diversity of age, as in people are doing all that sharing of

knowledge, they are more innovative.”

GENERATION

(BORN 1965 TO 1976)

X

Task-oriented, self-reliant,

work–life balance

46 | theceomagazine.com