As Published in Business 2 Business, July 2008

Busting the Gray Ceiling

Gen X stuck between Boomers and Gen Y

By Ira S Wolfe

Warnings about the near apocalyptic "brain drain", when baby boomers would leave the workforce en masse to travel, play golf, visit grandchildren or consult, has made nearly every executive and business owner feel like they were standing on a track with a locomotive barreling toward them.

But suddenly over the past few months the locomotive seemed to slow.  From the tracks you could hear a huge sigh of relief and shouts of joy - the boomers are staying, the boomers are staying!

Boomers are staying in their jobs longer for a whole host of reasons.  Topping off the list is a lack of money to retire in a style in which they are accustomed. According to a recent McKinsey & Co. report, nearly two-thirds of Early Boomers – who are aged 54 to 63 – are financially unprepared to retire.  The second reason is that many boomers do not know what a life without working is.  Eighty-five percent of the boomers in the McKinsey study said it is at least somewhat likely that they will continue to work with 38 percent saying it is extremely likely they will continue to work.

So what’s the problem?   What's so wrong with boomers staying in place longer? Managers should be celebrating and shouting from the rooftops. All this brain drain stuff was just a bunch of hype, just like many said it would be.

But just like a medication that eliminates an infection, it sometimes creates a side effect that may be worse than the cure.   At least for companies that are thinking long term, the workplace side effect in this case is that twenty- and thirty-something managers are in trouble. That big promotion from middle-management into the senior ranks has just been put on ice. Bosses who aren't focused on how to keep Gen Xers happy will inevitably find that somebody else is. The risk of losing these experienced 30-somethings is huge. Eventually the boomer will retire and when the coach turns to the bench, it might be empty.  So much for the "future of the firm."

Increasingly, younger workers are finding that no matter how many hours they put in or how much their bosses rave about their work, they're just plain stuck. An entire generation is bumping against something called the Gray Ceiling.  Just a few years ago this term meant something very different: older workers who couldn't get promoted because they could be replaced with less expensive younger employees.  Today, Gray Ceiling takes on a new meaning: In today's leaner companies, executive jobs are fewer, and boomers who have hung on to them are in no hurry to let go.  

The Gray Ceiling is purely a function of mathematics. Between 1946 and 1964, the U.S. experienced the baby boom, a demographic surge of 76 million new Americans.  The children of these boomers, known as Gen Y, are forming a second demographic bulge. But sandwiched in between is the baby bust, or Generation X. Known variously as the laziest generation and the most entrepreneurial, they are unambiguously the smallest generation since the Great Depression.  

The affect of this go-stop-go demography is that it is causing hiring and retention fits for employers.  The workplace makeup has changed dramatically from just a decade ago. In 1996 there were 64 million U.S. workers between the ages of 30 and 39 and only 43 million ages 40 to 59. Now the situation has reversed. As of June 2006 there were only 40 million ages 30 to 39 and 69 million workers 40 to 59, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

What worked to the Gen Xer's favor just a few years ago is what is holding them back today.  Fortune Magazine in its August 21, 2006 issue described this workplace dynamic: "Generation X, it would seem, is in danger of turning into the Prince Charles of the American workforce: perpetual heirs apparent awaiting the keys to the kingdom."  More and more 30-somethings harbor growing resentment of boomers who are blocking their path and the Gen Ys who are leapfrogging them into desirable positions.

Many Xers tell me that they feel like they've been waiting for years for Boomers to vacate the really "good" jobs. Now, just as the prize is finally looming into sight, Boomers are being advised (granted, by me among others) to "retire retirement." Meanwhile, the workplace is flooding with a new crop of highly talented, upwardly mobile and technically savvy Generation Y's. And, to top it all off, these two huge generations, the Boomers and the Y's, are quietly enjoying a workplace love fest, with the much smaller cohort of X'ers often feeling on the outs and sandwiched in the middle. The longer the Boomers stay in place, the more time the Gen Ys have time to develop.  Feeling like the fair-haired middle child, many Xers, long known for their fast-track careers, free agency, and need for continuous stimulation aren't waiting around anymore.

Many Xers have decided that the fastest way out from under the Gray Ceiling is to ditch the tried and true career path entirely. Gen Xers don't talk to their boomer bosses about it. Instead, they just quit. Employers in kind have said good riddance, breathing a sigh of relief when these uppity, independent workers leave.  But then the Boomer turns and finds no one qualified waiting in line to fill that now-open position.

Retaining aging boomers longer may not be all it’s cracked up to be without some talent management planning.  Is your business at risk?  Maybe not, maybe so.  The quickest way to find out is to do a workforce audit. Start with a study of  your demographics. How many boomers are lingering on and how many are likely to exit the business in the next 2 to 3 years?  How many Xers are patiently waiting to move up?  How long are they willing to wait?  By planning ahead, you might just be able to get out of the way of the locomotive when it begins to pick up speed again.

For more information about workforce trends and hiring the right people, contact Ira S Wolfe at 717.291.4640 or iwolfe@super-solutions.com