In his novel, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, Douglas Coupland defines the generation in a number of ways. In fact, his novel effectively renamed the generation formerly known as the Baby Bust Generation.
Coupland, and many other scholars, saw a generation of young adults who viewed careers and the workforce in an entirely different way than older generations.
The novel shares a wealth of new vocabulary words and their definitions, fitting of this group in early adulthood. Here are some of the work-related terms.
McJob: A low-pay, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector. Frequently considered a satisfying career choice by people who have never held one.
Veal-Fattening Pen: Small, cramped office workstations built of fabric-covered disassemblable wall partitions and inhabited by junior staff members. Named after the small preslaughter cubicles used by the cattle industry.
Sick Building Migration: The tendency of younger workers to leave or avoid jobs in unhealthy office environments or workplaces affected by the Sick Building Syndrome.
Recurving: Leaving one job to take another that pays less but places one back on the learning curve.
Ozmosis: The inability of one’s job to live up to one’s self-image.
Power Mist: The tendency of hierarchies in office environments to be diffuse and preclude crisp articulation.
Successophobia: The fear that if one is successful, then one’s personal needs will be forgotten and one will no longer have one’s childish needs catered to.
Anti-Sabbatical: A job taken with the sole intention of staying only for a limited period of time (often one year). The intention is usually to raise enough funds to partake in another, more personally meaningful activity such as watercolor sketching in Crete or designing computer knit sweaters in Hong Kong. Employers are rarely informed of intentions.
Air Family: Describes the false sense of community experienced among coworkers in an office environment.
Occupational Slumming: Taking a job well beneath one’s skill or education level as a means of retreat from adult responsibility and/or avoiding possible failure in one’s true occupation.
For more of Coupland’s vocabulary terms, check out: Generation X “isms” and Their Definitions.
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