Last week, just for fun, a few of us at the Times Free Press took an online, work-style quiz.
It was supposed to tell us whether our work personalities lined up with the traits of our generational cohort: for example, Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X or Baby Boomer.
The quiz had questions such as this one: Shall we set up a meeting?
The possible answers to this question were:
A. No. No. No.
B. Sure, what's the link?
C. Yes. Would you please turn off your devices and sit up straight?
D. Sure. Let's go. Who has ideas?
I answered D, which was my honest impulse. What can I say? I actually enjoy brainstorming.
Evidently, answers like mine did not match the quiz designers' expectations for my 60-something age group. I expected to test out as a 100%, bonafide Baby Boomer, but I didn't even come close.
Based on my responses, I was deemed most closely associated with attitudes held by members of Generation X, those born from 1965 to 1979. But I also apparently have a bunch of Generation Z traits, too. Our two sons are center-cut, Gen Z'ers (born between 1997 and 2012), so maybe that explains it.
Still, I found my test results curious. I felt as if I had taken one of those DNA tests and discovered that despite my Irish-presenting skin tone and eye color, I was actually half Korean, half Brazilian.
Maybe this is why - despite my Boomer blood - I feel comfortable around today's young adults. I teach a class at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and often find myself boosted by the students' Gen Z optimism and sunny dispositions.
If Boomers grew up with anti-authoritarian tendencies born of 1960s, Gen Z kids are more chill. What some see as softness, I interpret as a healthy drift away from Boomer-style anxiety. Actually, I think the Boomers and Zoomers (as members of Gen Z are sometimes called), make complementary team members.
On a work team, Boomers can be the designated worriers while Zoomers are the team builders. Boomers can obsess about climbing (or staying atop) the corporate ladder while Zoomers can contemplate whether the ladder is even worth climbing.
On the other hand, I also see some throwback Boomer impulses in today's young adults. In my class at UTC, one student said her dream job would be working at Rolling Stone magazine; another said a position at a newspaper would be her heart's desire. Sounds refreshingly old school to me.
I'd like to propose today a Boomer-Zoomer consortium, sort of a multigenerational think tank in which each generation downloads knowledge to the other.
Here's how it might work.
- Zoomers could teach Boomers about the song stylings of Billie Eilish, and Boomers could teach Zoomers the lyrics to "The Beverly Hillbillies" theme song.
- Boomers could teach Zoomers how to play Trivial Pursuit, while Zoomers could school Boomers in the fine points of "Minecraft."
- Zoomers could teach Boomers how to take a proper selfie, while Boomers could teach Zoomers how to pull out your cheeks and stick out your tongue in a photo booth.
- Boomers could teach Zoomers how to make stiff cocktails, and Zoomers could teach Boomers about the joys of a vegan diet.
- And finally, Boomers could teach Zoomers how to tie-dye T-shirts, and Zoomers could teach Boomers how to shop at thrift stores.
Seriously, if Boomers would turn off cable news and Zoomers would occasionally put down their smartphones, there's a lot of common ground to be found.
Email Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com.
View other columns by Mark Kennedy
Mark Kennedy / Staff file photo