3 Major Trends with Upcoming Generations

1. Emerging Adulthood

There are five major rites of passage into adulthood in American culture. In other words, “when someone is an adult” is defined by these five events. These are debatable, however, for the majority of Americans these have remained consistent for the last 100 years or so.

‍

These five have crossed generations. They were the same for my grand connection with management becomes difficult.

2.  Digital Natives

Most of our current work force are digital immigrants, meaning we traversed from an analogous age to a digital age. We weren’t raised with computers, or smart phones, or even digital cameras. Today’s adult entering the workforce is a digital native, meaning they do not know a world with all the aforementioned digital amenities. In fact, calling them amenities is a misnomer. To these workers, they are necessities. “How in the world would you navigate life (or your car) without a smart phone?” is a practical statement for Generation Z. For the Gen Xer or Boomer, “How in the world can you NOT make it without a smart phone, we did for decades?”

This dichotomy of opinion reveals the basic nature of how each faction thinks the workplace should operate. What is obvious to one is absurd to the other, and vice versa.

3. Instant Gratification

Now, more than ever, we are a society built on convenience. In almost every facet of our life we can receive what we desire nearly immediately. From entertainment (think Netflix), to communication (think text messages), to information (think Google) we receive our what we seek with relative ease and opportunities in the workplace, just like previous generations.