I was raised by silents. I am not nihilistic or hateful. I am old-school.and I realize there is nothing more important in life than hard-work and decency.

Frankly I think people like myself who were not raised by Baby Boomers are going to be critical to ending the myopic age that has destroyed this country.

The past 20 years has been characterized by a monumental failure of leadership. Thankfully someone is going to step up and save this country from itself. We need an amazing man to step up and he will at some point….and he will most likely be a “Gen X Slacker” who loves his country….

This change will force more boomers to stay in the workforce because obtaining health insurance at a reasonable cost is almost impossible for people 55 and over. Most people in that age catagory go into the high risk pool which is extremely costly.

When you add that factor along with the exploding entitlement deficit, and unraveling of defined benefit plans most boomers will need to work longer to survive. In order to really help the younger workers, we need to secure our entitlement programs for future generations, and this means immediate reforms in both Medicare and SS for those under 66.5 year of age. Boomers are not being selfish by staying in the workforce longer, they are actually helping younger workers by not collecting entitrlement benefit when they are first available.

Is Gen Y missing the common sense gene?

In my industry in particular, Gen X and Y folks are not willing to do the labor necessary to keep our homes warm in the winter or climb a pole in 20-below temperatures so the hospital or your iPad can have the energy to serve you. They’d rather take “all that tech talent” and create a video game, or sit in an office decorated by Google. Our industry requires people dedicated to their jobs. The possibility of them dying or getting severly injured in the midst of doing these jobs also exists. They have to be willing to get up at 2 AM – leave their family, so they can protect the public and keep them safe and warm. Gen X & Y seem too self-absorbed to find this work a noble occupation. And it is a very steady industry – people will always need heat and lights! Thank God we haven’t lost the Boomers who have the knowledge how to do this job safely and are willing to make the sacrifices necessary! My organization has been doing all it can to capture their knowledge and successful practices before they leave.

It’s also a misnomer that younger workers will somehow “have the latest job skills”. In case you’re not aware, studies have shown that the majority of the jobs needed in 5 years don’t even EXIST today! Someone graduating from College in 2006 could not find a “Social Media Expert” job – because there weren’t any in 2006. And that’s been true for decades – I got out of school prepared with Word Processing, which changed to Computer Mainframe and various software programs, then Desktop computing, which changed to Client-Server and Object-Oriented systems, which is now changing again to open architecture and cloud computing… learning – by experience – all the way – and yes, I’m a Boomer! Adaptable, Driven, Productive, Innovative… just another typical Boomer.

My mother is 86 years old and still plays the organ in church and teaches kids piano in her home. She was “let go” by her previous church for “being too old to play” – that was 35 years ago. Perhaps the list of church organists in the Gen X or Y crowd is long and distinguished – my guess would be it’s zero. My mother states that to take away her opportunity to play is like taking paint brushes from an artist. As long as her spirit is willing and her body is able – I say Rock On Mom!

As a Boomer I also consider myself very well educated, extremely technically savvy and very adaptable. At 50 I will not see one dime of the tens of thousands I have already invested in decades of my worklife into Social Security and/or Medicaid. But I also NEVER counted on it being there either! Again – from experience – I know to rely on the government for my well being is folly. I am not “entitled” to anything – you’ll never hear a Gen X or Y say that! I am responsible for myself and the choices I make. My decisions provide my family with a good living and myself with a decent retirement. I am also responsible for choosing when I decide to retire. My decision will have nothing to do with who is “behind me” or feels slighted because I’m staying. As Erma Bombeck put it: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, “I used everything you gave me.”"

Yes – let’s hope they make “the right choice” by never putting any one group above another (that’s called discrimination). Gen X & Y need to accept responsbility for their own life – it is the very definition of “Character” and is the source of self-respect.

At a conference I attended a few weeks ago (for IACET), one of the presenters–a self-recognized Baby Boomer–talked about how her generation was holding onto their professional lives and positions with all the strength in their fingernails–providing a visual of someone clinging onto the top of a wall or ledge. It was a great description and refreshing to have someone admit that this “holding on by their fingertips” was a factor in the current situation we are in: which is, until Baby Boomers do retire (and in this economy, many are now planning on delaying it five and even 10 years) or otherwise open up the leadership positions to the next generation, GenXers are going to struggle with “what’s next?” in existing companies.

Another factor that could help is providing assistance to the Baby Boomer generation in finding meaning and passion outside of their work lives. Retirement, scaling-back, or moving on is a major life change, and for many in the Baby Boomer generation, their entire identities are wound around what they do professionally. Perhaps if companies–while building succession planning for Xers–could also address the challenges faced by Boomers in these areas, we’d have a change in the culture and growth for Boomers, GenX-ers, and Millennials.