What Do We Want Out of Work?

Jennifer Zurko

When you work for a business with at least 100 employees, and you have a mixed bag of employees of various ages, the differences between generations are apparent on a daily basis. The young employee new to the company is always thinking about how he/she can contribute and be recognized during the staff meeting, while the seasoned veteran, who’s starting to contemplate retirement, agonizes about how to be the best mentor to this young professional. And the Gen Xer is stuck in the middle, waiting for the veteran to retire so they can move up the ladder before that younger employee swoops in.  

Here at Ball Horticultural Company headquarters in West Chicago, Illinois, it’s a common topic at the lunch table, which is made up of Gen Xers and Millennials. The Xers tease the Millennials that they’re unhappy because they haven’t made it to VP in three months and the Millennials joke that we’re bitter and jealous because we’re the forgotten generation.

But the longer the Xers and Millennials have lunch in the Ball café (and socialize outside of work), we start to realize that, when it comes to what we want out of our careers and the challenges we face, there is some commonality.

Because there’s a wide range of employees of different ages in various departments, I decided to conduct a little experiment using Ball as my “lab.” (Don’t worry—no Ball employees were harmed during this process. And last names were omitted to protect the guilty.)

And instead of putting them in the too-broad categories of Baby Boomer, Gen Xer and Millennial, I separated them into age ranges—starting from those in their 70s to the youngest employees in their early 20s. I sat down with some individually and some in a group, and asked them about their career goals, what they want to get out of their professional lives and if anything has changed since they first thought about what they wanted to be when they grew up.

70-somethings: Rolling with the changes     
Working full time since the early 1960s, Shirley recalls that her first job paid $63 a week and a bus ride to work in downtown Chicago only cost 15 cents. Some of the stories she tells could have been used for an episode or two of “Mad Men,” complete with the workplace harassment, which Shirley said “has changed dramatically,” thankfully. “Men respect women more now than they used to,” she said.

During those 50-plus years, she’s always been an administrative assistant (or secretary, as it was known then). Back then, there weren’t a lot of job opportunities for women—you could either be a secretary or a teacher—before you got married, of course. Then after that, you became a
wife and mother, staying home with the children.

But for Shirley, that system didn’t work for her. She didn’t really want to get married and didn’t want any children. And when she did marry her husband, she kept her maiden name for a while, so her life was very different from a lot of women’s in those days because she actually had a career.

“When I first started, all I wanted was to have my own apartment and a car,” explained Shirley. “That was something unusual in those days for a woman to want to have those things.”

Chuck’s a laid-back guy, so his career path never included solid plans; he just waits to see what the next opportunity will bring. And that’s been his MO since he started in the workforce in 1966. This mindset has allowed him to be flexible when it comes to his career choices, which includes his current part-time gig offering technical growing assistance to customers. For now, he’s enjoying the best of both worlds—working, but still having time to pursue his other interests and hobbies (he and his wife take dancing lessons twice a week). “They’ve been very good here about being tolerant of my weird schedule,” said Chuck.   

Being in the oldest age bracket, Shirley and Chuck have definitely seen a lot of changes through the decades, from more career opportunities to the obvious technological advances. And they’ve adapted to the changing times. But neither Shirley nor Chuck feel the pressure to retire anytime soon; they both like to work, and as long as they still enjoy what they do, they will continue to come into the office every day. Chuck smiled and said, “When you’re 75, you don’t really plan 20 years ahead.”

60-somethings: Stability and mentoring    
A couple of people I talked to in this age group said the same thing about their original career plans: they all wanted to be teachers. And although none of them ended up in front of a classroom, they’ve all found themselves in a mentorship role, molding younger employees to take over for them when they eventually retire—which for a couple is on the radar. 

Hard work was at the crux of their professional lives, with the understanding that if they put in the hours, the recognition would come and they would move up the ladder, which is what happened. All of my subjects have been at Ball for 25 years or more, so they’ve enjoyed a long career and are all in upper management positions. All of them have seen Ball go through many changes, expanding into a global company and entering into a technological age. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is the customer is the core of the business, said Andy, who’s been in the Finance Department for 37 years.

But it’s not like these jobs fell into their laps when they entered the workforce; they’ve been at other companies and even owned their own businesses before they found something they enjoyed enough to want to stay long-term. They got married and had kids at an early age, so many of their decisions revolved around looking at other opportunities for a more “stable” career, said Steve, that provided a higher salary and better benefits.

As they moved down the career path, they were not only faced with changes in the industry (the rise of the box store, consolidation), but technology was moving at a rapid pace. Debbie has been in the Customer Service Department for 28 years and she remembers when they had to hand-write seed orders. After not ever touching a computer when she first started to becoming one of the “master users” of Ball’s WebTrack online ordering system, Debbie’s amazed at how once-simple tasks are now all done on the computer. 

Other people may view the tenure these employees have had almost as a negative, but you have to look at it as they’re the reasons why Ball is so successful. They’ve been able to use their experiences watching the company evolve to be better managers, said Jan, who celebrated her 40th anniversary with Ball this year.

A few of them are in the midst of transition periods, where there’s a plan in place for an up-and-coming employee to take over some of their responsibilities. “I remember when I was their age and position within the company that I was ready for new challenges,” said Jan. “It’s great when we can make some of those opportunities open up for them to continue on their career path, while those of us are still here to give them those roles and support them in the process.”

50-somethings: Meeting every challenge
Out of all of the age groups, this one is the most diverse when it comes to career paths. There are people with Ph.Ds, people who didn’t go to college, people that have been in the same field (marketing, IT) their whole careers and people who ended up in a completely different place from where they started.

Their main career goal: to be challenged and learn on the job. They’re the problem solvers of the company. “When I started here, I was an idiot,” joked Mike. “I didn’t know what the company was about. Back then, you couldn’t look things up on the Internet. I just walked in and sold myself on the job I was being interviewed for and that was to work in the lab.” As the opportunities arose, Mike took full advantage of them. He didn’t come to the company with a business background, but because Ball offered so many career choices for him, he wasn’t pigeonholed to stay in the lab.

Tim and Jayson moved about a bit within the same industry—Tim in advertising/marketing and Jayson in horticulture.

Tim said he was more title driven in the beginning and wanted to be one of the first to get promoted. To him, titles were important, but he soon realized that they don’t really matter. “The respect you get is not from a title; it’s how you work with people and the relationships you develop with them,” he said.

Jayson came back to Ball at the start of a lot of organizational changes within the company. The first time, he spent 12 years with Ball. He was offered the chance to take a risk with his career and move across the country to the West Coast. At the time, he knew it was something he needed to do for his own personal growth, so he decided to take the plunge. Two years later, Ball called him to come back and he’s been here for 14 years now, as a part of an industry and a company that continues to change and evolve.

When Jayson first started, they told him he’d be bored during the summer because it was the “slow” time, but he said when prime pansy seed was introduced, all of that changed. It wasn’t just technology like computers and smartphones that put the company on fast-forward, but innovative products and new methods to help growers be more successful. The industry was changing, so the customer was changing, and that meant the company had to change, too.

40-somethings: Using experience to shape our lives
(Note: Your editor falls in this age group, so I’m going to use “we” for this part—JZ)

This age group is smack-dab in the middle of Generation X and the main theme that kept coming up in our discussion was experience. For us, the natural progression after high school was college, period. And that was different from our Baby Boomer parents, when there were still plenty of blue-collar jobs to go around. So many Gen Xers were the first ones in the family to attend college and our eyes were “opened” during that time. Scott said it best: “Everyone in their 20s discovered everything for the first time.”

As we grew into young adults, we realized we wanted other things that were different from what our parents had: We wanted to actually like our jobs and to have a work/life balance.

 “[A work/life balance] is one of the hallmarks of Gen X, I think,” said Bill, which means that more companies started allowing their employees to be more “mobile,” with flexible hours and the ability to work from a home office. Because of this, we were the first generation to be able to attend all of our kids’ tee-ball games and be Hallway Helper while also working full time. If our jobs don’t allow for flexibility, we’re not happy.

“I’m not going to go to work every day if I don’t like what I do because your life’s happiness revolves around so much of your time spent at work, which you also take home with you,” said Karen. “So I still believe if you don’t like what you do, you need to move on. Regardless what you’re making.”

That happiness also includes our personal lives. Our social calendars are full of get-togethers with our friends (with kids and air mattresses in tow) and family vacations to Mexico or Hawaii. Our parents toiled away to save for that one “big vacation” after they retired; we’re not waiting for that. (My 7-year-old has been on a plane four times.)

Still, there are some old ways of thinking that were passed down to us. We have the same mindset of putting our heads down, doing the work and waiting for the recognition to come. We still have a “pay-your-dues” kind of mentality to earn respect.  

At this point, now that most of us have already taken large risks with our careers—like moving across states or countries (Carlos packed up his young family and moved to Chicago from Guatemala) or completely changing jobs—we’re now in a place where we can sit back and see where the ride takes us. 

“Something about turning 40 is what did it for me,” said Josh. “One of the things that happened was I thought, ‘I’ve got 40 years of experience now.’ So I feel like what I have to say does have a little bit more cred to it because of the fact that I have
experience.”

30-somethings: Confident and flexible  
The 30-somethings have a lot in common with the 40-somethings in that going to college after high school was a given and that their view of the world was “this small,” as Tracy showed by making a circle with her hands. “The world was so much smaller for me than it is for my kids,” she said.

So if you were from a small town, like many of them were, college opened the door to endless possibilities. And most of them knew exactly what degree they wanted to pursue, even if that changed later. Out of all of the groups, this one was the most confident when they were in college and entered the workforce, even if there have been a few regrets since then. Once they saw what was out there for them, they went after it with gusto. Most took the first job that was offered to them right after graduation.

They also look at being promoted as something you have to work at to earn. And that, for those employees who have been in a position for 30 years, they don’t scoff at them for being “stuck”—they look at it as, “Hey, that person earned the right to be there. It’s not the company’s job to push you up, it’s yours.”

But they also don’t find fault with the thinking of younger age groups who think being at a company for more than 10 years is crazy. Scott said it isn’t that different from any of the other age groups; that of course you’re idealistic when you’re younger. John said when he was in his 20s, he didn’t think he would be at one company for more than a few years.

They did admit that upward mobility is more of a slow-moving creek than a rushing river, so all of them have used that time to try different roles and even move departments, which is easier in a company like Ball that allows them to do that.

They’re also open to trying new things and have the view that if they lost their job tomorrow, it would be fine. Whereas their parents felt their jobs were just a means to a paycheck—so if they lost that, it would be the end of the world—they would look at it as an exciting opportunity to do something different. You can’t wake up in the morning and look forward to going to work, if it’s “just a job,” said David.

The mindset of this group reminded me of Play-Doh: their career plans are pliable and can become anything they want them to be. They all agreed with Katie when she said she plans on continuing down the path she’s on until she doesn’t enjoy it anymore. All of them have a longer-term plan beyond two years, but are still willing to keep their options open.

20-somethings: Big dreams, different opportunities   
This group had high aspirations and big dreams for their careers going into college, but during that time, those objectives changed as they were exposed to more options that would help them achieve the ultimate goal of landing a job that paid well. “I don’t know if, at this age, there are people still trying to follow that dream and make it a reality,” said Mason. “Whereas, I would imagine that the people in this room either didn’t want to do that or realized quicker that money was a bigger priority.”

The problem wasn’t that their dreams were unrealistic or not achievable. The problem was that landscape design job for $50,000 a year with a company car no longer existed. The economy crashed right when they were graduating from college, so many of them had to ditch their dream job for a more “practical” one.

Anna was lucky because her degree is in business, so she had more career options than those in the group who have a hort background. (Mike joked that a communications or business degree is like a Swiss army knife—you can practically do anything with it.)

Adding to the difficulty of finding a job was the lack of direction they received from some of their advisors. “I knew about Syngenta and Ball, but I didn’t know there were all these types of jobs available [in hort],” said Allison.

And this meant a lot of bouncing around from job to job at first. “It was kind of a tough start,” said Stacey, who went on several different interviews before pursuing a job at Ball. 

But they’ve come to accept that it’s okay to try on a few jobs before you find the right fit. “One of the questions the interns asked me over the summer was, ‘What do I get out of this?’” said Rachel. “I told them, ‘Figure it out and accept that this may not be something you want to do.’ It’s okay to learn what you don’t like so it helps you decided on the path you want to take.”

This group is at the peak of the Millennial generation, so it’s true that they came into the workforce wanting to climb the ladder as quickly as possible. But they also admitted that as they continue to learn, they’ve realized that it’s going to take some time to get where they want to be and that’s ultimately in upper management. They carry the stigma of not being a very patient bunch, but as long as they have a plan on how to get there, they’re willing to put in the time to take each step of the ladder as it comes.       

Early 20-somethings: Learning and finding their way  
There were five in the room and all of them had very different backgrounds and different career goals, with Ball being their first “real world” job out of college. Four of the five were Ball interns and actively pursued full-time jobs with the company after graduation. They liked the people and culture, and wanted to be able to be a part of it on a more permanent basis.

Since it’s their first-ever job, they’re looking to be challenged and learn as much as possible. They’re hoping that it comes with the chance to make an impact with new ideas, and from what they’ve seen, Ball gives them an opportunity to do that, said Sarah.

I asked them about the perception that their generation isn’t willing to work their way upwards, with the expectation that it shouldn’t be that hard or take that long to get ahead. And they admitted there are probably some Millennials who feel that way. But in their eyes, it’s not expecting things to be handed to them; instead they want companies to provide more opportunities for them to be successful.

Right now, they’re looking for their jobs to provide them with the most experience possible so that they can use what they’ve learned for their next endeavor. They said that the label of being “disloyal job-hoppers” isn’t a fair assessment. It’s not that they don’t want to remain with one company—it’s just that their first job isn’t something they’re going to do for the rest of their lives and that may mean moving companies. They already know this is a stepping stone to other, greater things.

At this point, they’re taking it day by day, learning, earning new experiences and figuring out how they can be the best at their current jobs so they have to skills to be successful as their careers move
forward.

“I just want to get the experience,” said Peregrine. “I do enjoy my job, but it’s not something I want to do for the rest of my life. I don’t quite know what that is yet, but I do know that I need the experience to get there.” GT