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I spotted this article this morning and I realize that it was directly talking about my crowd.  Besides myself, I know quite a few of my generation who fit this distinction.  I won't go into specifics about myself (as this situation certainly applies to myself recently).  However, the keys here are the fact that my generation saw problems arising from the economic bubble burst of the Dot Com period and have not seen any career mobility.

For myself, this is a truism.  I've been in the industry for 10 years now but have not made it into management yet.  That isn't to say everyone around my age has not made it into management.  But the rapid rise of technology advancements, where most of my GenXers comrades are located, the layoffs, the recent recession and general lack of stability in our environment have caused us extreme discontent.

One of the key phrases used in the article is "soul searching."  This is a direct result of the long hours, and time we've put into our so-called careers.  At this point, after doing these long hours without seeing any true benefit, I think many of us (especially like myself) have begun to ask what our long term prospects are.  We've seen the success of the Dot Com period and hints of success from the recent resurgence in technology.  And while our pay has risen, I don't think it's matched inflation and the increase in taxes as well as other living costs that companies are seemingly nickel and diming us.  Instead, we "well, what's the meaning behind all this?"

Here's my conclusion: for the vast majority of people out there, there is no meaning.  The best thing you can do is view your job as a job, not a career.  To do anything better, you'd have to become upper management, which is virtually impossible without having your insiders at the top pulling you along.  For those who have families, to be honest, you're practically screwed, at least psychologically.  In theory, you could take a high risk by having the more creative member go independent, but you must sacrifice all materialism along the way.  I think for most people, this is an impossibility.

Another key point this article makes is that besides salaries, most upper management are completely unaware of other issues that persists, namely that of career advancement.  I don't know if they're unaware of this issue or whether they care or not.  My theory is that the recessions has allowed upper management to employ scare tactics to force high degrees of productivity (i.e. longer hours) while using rhetoric like, "Well, at least right now you have a job."  It's possible too that people in management have remembered the days of the dot com period, which has for the past 4-5 years forced them into a hard driving mode.

I honestly don't know if this issue will be addressed any time soon.  My guess is that it won't and probably is not in most companies' favor to do so.  The problem that my generation is facing is burn out, while younger, cheaper labor step up to hungrily get into the workplace.    While that segment of the workforce is available and progress is made for those companies employing scare tactics and employing cheaper, hard working labor, my generation's only chance of survival is to bandy together and form circles of employment that support each other in an ecology.

I see as a major roadblock in my generation that most are probably married and not concerned with helping our generation out in a social manner.  We have alienated ourselves by surrounding ourselves with materialism and not doing a better job of supporting each other.  I'm talking about if your company has a position open, you get your friend in so you have a lieutenant, a supporter, a yes man backing you.  We need to make sacrifices for each other in order to survive the next 10-20 years.  It's not the Obamas of the world that's going to make changes here.