{"id":105135,"date":"2026-10-02T04:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=105135"},"modified":"2026-10-01T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T16:09:20","slug":"generational-incomprehension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/generational-incomprehension\/","title":{"rendered":"Generational incomprehension"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Substack Notes<\/em>, GenX Anecdotes<\/a> expresses the frustration a lot of Gen X\/Generation Jones folks have felt in their dealings with Millennial and Gen Z co-workers, supervisors, and managers:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Experience tells me that I need to add an eye-catching graphic to every non-video post, but finding appropriate<\/em> images is sometimes difficult. I hope GenX Anecdotes won’t mind me using yet another meme instead of something more sober and appropriate to her point.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the things people tell you when you are young about getting old is how quickly it sneaks up on you.<\/p>\n

What they don’t tell you, is that it’s not linear or obvious. It’s not like you have a specific moment where you think “OK. NOW I am middle aged”. It doesn’t work like that. You remain “you”.<\/p>\n

You might change your outlook over time. You might get wiser (hopefully) and more content with who you are. You might have more serious responsibilities. More experiences and memories to draw upon. But you’re still YOU.<\/p>\n

For me, I don’t really feel like I’m that much “older” going about my day-to-day business doing my thing. I actually still feel quite young in myself in many ways.<\/p>\n

It’s how the world greets you that’s different. And that’s when little things will remind you. It gives you a kind of shocking “jolt”.<\/p>\n

Being around younger people is what really brings it home. And I don’t mean kids or young teens. I mean young adults. Or even adults in their 30s who tell you they feel “old”. <\/p>\n

I am in my mid 50s.<\/p>\n

When someone in their late 20s or 30s tells me what year they were born it blows my mind. <\/p>\n

When they were born in a year that I clearly remember, feels like last month to me, and when I was well into adulthood, that’s when it really hits home.<\/p>\n

Also, it’s how younger people view you and act around you.<\/p>\n

In my last job, most people were in their 20s and 30s. <\/p>\n

I won’t lie. Some of them treated me like garbage. Like I didn’t exist. <\/p>\n

I was a bit of a “cute” novelty to them. Like “aaawww bless her”.<\/p>\n

I had the misfortune of being “trained” in one of my part-time jobs I had when my daughter was in junior school, by a 20 something. The job was a local convenient place holder during school hours. <\/p>\n

What she was showing me was very “basic” and tedious. But if I questioned anything about it like “why can’t we just do this instead? Surely that would make more sense?” <\/p>\n

She looked at me, not like someone who had 30 plus years experience working in different industries who might have a point. But someone “old” and passed it, who didn’t understand.<\/p>\n

Like a silly backwards old woman who had no idea. <\/p>\n

The amount of times I would say “Yeah. I DO get it. I am just wondering why it’s done this way? It seems a bit impractical?”<\/p>\n

She looked at me blankly. Like I was asking her why water is wet …<\/p>\n

I learned to just shut up and do the bloody tedious thing in the convoluted, dumb way. Because … because … that’s how it’s done.<\/p>\n

Then I knew all those 20\/30 year olds just saw me as an annoying old relic who “didn’t understand” how things worked. <\/p>\n

I was there about a year before moving house. <\/p>\n

I couldn’t wait to leave. <\/p>\n

One of the HR women hauled me in at one point to give me an “appraisal”. There I was with a 20 something asking me if I was “happy at work” and going through other annoying questions on her ipad.<\/p>\n

She obviously was irritated that I wasn’t taking the whole fake charade “seriously” enough. She wanted me to give her bullshit standard answers that she could tick a box to.<\/p>\n

But I kept saying things that weren’t “tick box” worthy.<\/p>\n

And that just signified further to her that “I didn’t understand” what was going on. <\/p>\n

Oh I understood. <\/p>\n

I just didn’t want to play along. <\/p>\n

And just to emphasise how insane this whole scenario felt. <\/p>\n

She still lived with her Mum and Dad and had soft toys on her desk. <\/p>\n

That’s what getting “old” feels like. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Substack Notes, GenX Anecdotes expresses the frustration a lot of Gen X\/Generation Jones folks have felt in their dealings with Millennial and Gen Z co-workers, supervisors, and managers: One of the things people tell you when you are young about getting old is how quickly it sneaks up on you. What they don’t tell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,831],"tags":[598,1610,1205,1106,95,956,139],"class_list":["post-105135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureaucracy","category-business","tag-aging","tag-generationjones","tag-generationx","tag-genz","tag-jobs","tag-millennials","tag-psychology"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-rlJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105137,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105135\/revisions\/105137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}