All posts tagged: GenX

Gen-X Learned The Hard Way That Company Loyalty Rarely Pays Off

Gen-X Learned The Hard Way That Company Loyalty Rarely Pays Off

Published by Jenni Sidey

My dad worked for the same company almost my whole life until he retired. Yes, he was actually able to retire — even though he was always an hourly blue-collar employee — because he’s a Baby Boomer. It wasn’t a bad deal. He worked his tush off, the company paid him for every hour he was there, and he was eventually able to retire. True, there was a highly contentious 1976 strike that I will never forget, but for the most part, both sides got what they needed from each other. As a burnt-out Gen-X worker, I was told: Show loyalty to work, and you’ll be rewarded — turns out, that was a scam Ravi Sharma / Unsplash I worked and didn’t protect my time at all, which I started thinking about when I read Toni Crowe’s excellent piece, Companies Are Having a Hella Time Getting Younger Generations to Work Unpaid Overtime. She notes that Millennials and Gen-Z employees refuse to make themselves available to their employers during their time off, and I’ve noticed the …

Gen-Z Woman Asked How Enormous 80s Hair Stayed Perfectly Frozen. Gen-X Responded With 2 Words.

Gen-Z Woman Asked How Enormous 80s Hair Stayed Perfectly Frozen. Gen-X Responded With 2 Words.

Published by Jenni Sidey

Recently, a new trend has emerged on TikTok: 20-something Gen-Zers who are obsessed with the 80s, and it’s not just about streaming The Breakfast Club and listening to some hot Kajagoogoo jams, either; many of these young women are full-on transforming themselves into the kind of looks that a lot of Gen-Xers might rather forget.  But one of these influencers, makeup artist and TikToker Rachel O’Cool, ran into a bit of a snag when it came to styling herself in the iconic and hilarious looks of the 1980s. And boy, did Gen-X women deliver with the solution. TikToker asked Gen-X women how to do 80s hair after trying everything to get the hilariously sky-high hairdos of the era O’Cool’s TikTok channel focuses on all things beauty and style, and one of her favorite looks to turn is the brightly-colored, shoulder pad-bedecked aesthetics of the 1980s. But in her quest to transform into the ultimate 80s woman, one thing eluded her: how to get those sky-high, frozen-in-place, crispier than a slice of burnt toast and bigger than a lion’s …

Avenue Q review – A Gen-X time capsule that should have stayed buried

Avenue Q review – A Gen-X time capsule that should have stayed buried

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Think back to the turn of the century. Political correctness had “gone mad”, so it was said, and the cutting edge of comedy was a battleground for the busting of new taboos. Gen-Xers, weaned on the ironic, pop-culture-literature nectar of The Simpsons, were making their own stabs at transgression. It was an era that gave us Family Guy, South Park, and, on stage, Avenue Q, a musical that dared to ask the all-important question: what if the puppets in Sesame Street were all professionally listless, sexually active young adults? Audiences, cynical and pop-culturally savvy themselves, ate it up. Avenue Q beat fledgling box office behemoth Wicked to the big Tony Award win that year, a victory for the snarky contrarian. But that was then, and this is now. Twenty-three years have passed since Avenue Q premiered (in its initial incarnation, off-Broadway), …

As A Gen-X Kid I Was Taught Success Meant My Career, But Nearing 50, I Finally See The Problem

As A Gen-X Kid I Was Taught Success Meant My Career, But Nearing 50, I Finally See The Problem

Published by Jenni Sidey

Halfway through her emotional interview with Ellen DeGeneres in 2016, human fighting machine Ronda Rousey started to sob. And it wasn’t any of this fake TV ratings stuff, either. The 29-year-old began to weep as she recalled her mindset right after she was knocked out while defending her UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship title against Holly Holm in November of 2015, a fight she was wildly favored to win. “What am I anymore if I’m not this?” Rousey recalled wondering in the locker room immediately following her upset loss. “I’m nothing.” She admitted that she seriously thought about taking her own life. “What’s the point now,” she remembered thinking, “people will hate me.” As a Gen-X kid, I was taught success meant my career, but nearing 50, I finally see the problem: Even the most successful have doubts. It was a rare human glimpse into the mind of the sort of person we all expect to be fiercer than us, stronger than us, and tougher than we’ll ever be.  And yet, there she was: Ronda Rousey, the definition of a self-made modern woman doing exactly what she wanted to do in this world, revealing how she …

I Tried Parenting Like It Was The 1980s — And Wow, Gen-X Was Built Different

I Tried Parenting Like It Was The 1980s — And Wow, Gen-X Was Built Different

Published by Jenni Sidey

“OK, so first we’re going to make Sprite, and then we’re going to compare it to regular Sprite and see which one is better. Then we’re going to bake cookies and maybe something else, too.”  My 12-year-old and his friend Emma have independently planned a camp-free week together, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Where we live, camp options range from one trillion dollars per week to one gazillion dollars per week. I was digging into the prospect of saving the equivalent of eight million mortgage payments in one week. I excel at math. I tried parenting like it was the 1980s — and wow, Gen-X was built different. The first day of don’t-come-home-until-the-streetlights-turn-on 1980s summer week involved cooking. Indoors. At our house. Where three days a week my husband and I work from home.  Emma is one of my son’s best friends. Sometimes, I wonder if she actually lives with us. One time, I came downstairs on a random school day and discovered her eating lunch at our kitchen table, alone. …