Voices Carry: GenX Speaking up at work

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to What's Next Gen X. I'm Nicole. And I'm Anne-Marie.

And What's Next Gen X is a podcast for Gen X by Gen X, where we bring together the Gen X community so that we can provide information and inspiration so that you can level up your career, life, and impact so that you can find your next. All right, Nicole, who do we have today? All right. Well, first of all, you know, we like to kick off with a song.

Yes, we do. You know, there's a few songs we've used a couple of times. this is a song from a group this is the first time we're using them yeah and i am and what's funny is i had to actually laugh and call my sister about this because this is a song that when it first came out i hated it i was like this is like the worst song ever i've gotten to appreciate it as i've gotten older but when it first came out i was like uh even the video drove me nuts so do you guys remember the group till tuesday voices carry hello i know it's gonna be But this is yes, till Tuesday voices carry.

So with that, and you'll know why this song fits so well with our guests. So today's episode is going to hit different. If you've ever felt like the quiet workhorse in the office while everyone gets the shine, or if you found yourself asking, do they even see us? Well, this one's for you.

Our guest today is Erin Mance. She's a Gen X commentator, workplace communications expert, and founder of Gen X Girls Grow Up, which I love because that's us, a community celebrating our small but mighty generation. She's here to remind us that being adaptable, independent, and quietly resilient was never the problem. The problem, we let whatever become our default response, and Erin's here to help us shake that off.

So let's get into what it's like when Gen X turns the volume up, and let's welcome Erin Mance. Hey, Erin. Hello. Thank you for having me.

We are so excited to have you here. Like I said, first of all, you had us at Gen X and you had us at Gen X Girls Grow Up. For sure. Yeah.

So, Erin, we're so excited. So let's start with a little bit of your background. Tell us, how did you get here today with the Gen X Girls Growing Up? Which I know we all look at the calendar and we're like, I can't be that old.

But we share that sentiment for sure. Yeah. I mean, I've always been a writer and creator at heart. And, you know, I used to write a lot of parenting articles.

And as my kids grew up and I got all said, you know what? I found myself writing more and more about the 80s and Gen X as a generation. Like some of us are parents, but a lot of us are more than that as well. We're, you know, workers, we're friends, you name it.

And I started writing more and more for Huffington Post about Gen X. And it kind of rang a bell. And I saw a real gap out there online, despite all the platforms of Facebook and Instagram and you name it, MySpace going back. there was really at the time no fun light-hearted community for gen x women there are a lot of great 80s sites out there at the time this was about five years ago um talking about music or movies specifically which is a big part of our content and very popular by the way but i wanted a place really women could connect not necessarily about serious health stuff though that's important and there's a lot of experts that are better to speak to that than i right they have medical degrees but more nostalgic and more about kind of the fun and memories, the music and the movies and just things that bring us together.

And I really decided to launch and build a community on Facebook because that was a sweet spot for our demographic. And I know continues to be a lot today. And so I had a lot of content ideas. I wanted a platform of my own so I could run with ideas and not necessarily have to always pitch to an editor and wait and see and tweet.

still a place for that too but I really wanted a place to bring people together and have fun and that's how how Gen X Girls grow up on Facebook was formed and it's grown to about 33,000 people mainly across the U.S. but some from outside the country as well. Ah that's amazing and one of the things you talked to and Nicole Nicole mentioned it in the intro but she didn't do the full 80s of whatever.

Right. Like, like, and like when, when I read that in like about like on the Gen X girls grow up site, I was like, Oh my gosh, because it's true. Like Gen X, like we persevere, but we're also kind of invisible because we do have that whatever mindset, right. Which might've served us well in the past, but it actually might hurt us today.

Tell us a little bit more about, let me like double click into your idea of that idea of like the whatever mindset. Yeah. Yes, yes. And you may have, this might have resonated with you.

I recently wrote as 2025, I did an article on LinkedIn, basically saying it's like, it's time for Gen X to stand up and be counted at work. And basically, whatever doesn't work anymore. It worked well for us for a long time. And now in the workplace, I feel like Gen X is getting overlooked, forgotten.

Again, we're kind of used to that. But now it really matters. You know, a lot of us are struggling and facing a really difficult job market, not just us, Gen Xers, but like these poor Gen Zs who are just graduating are also coming into the job market, right? But they're pretty good at like standing up and vocalizing and making themselves known.

Gen X has never really had to do that or maybe hasn't had a desire to do that. and now I feel like we really do so not just at work but I find talking with a lot of Gen X friends whether it's on the pickleball court or in like high school like zoom chats over over coffee or cocktails which my high school friends and I try to do once in a while across the country everybody's kind of feeling it and not only does whatever not necessarily work anymore at work but I think a lot of us are getting to the point where like, we want to be more intentional and deliberate about what we want, how we want to spend our time, what's important to us, how we're going to spend the day.

And so I really am unfortunately saying whatever doesn't work anymore. I feel like it's true. That is so spot on because if you think about one of the things that make us great is that idea of whatever like we will we will adjust to it and we have and we have a track record of that But then there also a point where it like I can whatever this anymore right I need to stand up for myself right like why do I keep taking this right like it's just sort of like hold on I'm not going to take whatever happens again yeah yeah well I think there's a difference too that's such a great point between what whatever and adaptable so like when you just said like yes we are very adaptable and that's great and like we shouldn't lose that.

And yes, that is a perfect example of something that should be more appreciated in the workplace, right? So I think we should stay adaptable, but we should be more intentional. And maybe that's where I like that. Whatever doesn't work anymore with our time too.

I mean, I carve out time right now, my knee is injured, so I can't do it as much, but I carve out time to play pickleball. Like I didn't really do that a year. You should exercise more. Oh, whatever.

Like I didn't have time. I was driving my kids to basketball and football and lacrosse and working like you guys know. But like now we have to intentionally carve out time. Yep.

They have to intentionally like reprioritize ourselves instead of just saying I miss the gym, whatever. Right. Or like, oh, I didn't get my vegetables in or whatever. Right.

Like you have, I didn't get to call Nicole today. Oh, whatever. We'll catch up tomorrow. Like, no, you have to make sure to do this now, both personally and professionally.

I love that. I feel like there should be an alarm for whenever I say whatever. It's like a zapper. If someone could create an app or a gadget for that, they're going to be very well off.

Yeah. Right. Well, wouldn't you all agree? I think a lot of that comes from, I feel like, especially with our generation, for so long, we were kind of like truly the new kids on the block, right?

For like a long period of time, especially in the workplace. and because we were patiently waiting for boomers to do something before we could move up or whatever and then it seems like one day we woke up and we were like oh wait are we in our 40s and 50s like when did this happen you know what i mean so i feel like it just kind of it's like oh we're not the new kids on the block anymore because then we got those other folks like kind of rushing up like when are you guys gonna move and we're like we're not old enough calm down it came out of nowhere right a lot of us feel like yeah wow and you know there's i'm not a math person so i'm not going to do the exact quote but you all probably seen there's some meme floating around um online about like something about like the you know 1980s this is far away from now it's like some ridiculous things seem to us in the eight like when we were in the 80s like the 1900s or whatever 1920s probably seemed so weird but and again i'm not a math person but right like put things into perspective like whoa and you know we see these celebrities that we loved getting older too which kind of freaks me out.

Some are aging really well, like a Rob Lowe. He's aging. People on Gen X girls grow up and say, oh, he's aging like a fine wine, which is true. But you see a lot of people aging along with us.

We're like, wow. Yeah, especially our rock bands. I mean, some of those bigger bands, all their hair's gone. I'm just saying.

Yeah. They might have lived a little wilder than most of us. I'm just going to say. Yeah.

In your work as a generational advisor what's one of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to gen x that you're like i want to shut this down once and for all i the this is a thing that really bothers me um that we don't know how to adapt to technology or that all the new technology scares us thank you and you're probably right well yeah because when i because when i hear like my nieces and nephews or whatever friends are mine who are younger talk about the technology and they treat us like we're 80 years old.

I'm like, who do you think created this technology? I know. Like most of the technology that's out today, Gen X created it. Hello.

You know? Yes. Yeah. So interesting, a little fun fact.

So I started my career actually at America online and I still have my AOL email address, by the way, which is debatable by some, but I'm, I'm real attached. I mean, you know, talk about, we were there in the beginning, like not only was I a consumer and of all the new technology, I was like inside AOL trying to craft the communications to tell people how to shop online, like what's shopping online. You know, we were like partnered with like big companies and buying, you know, buying books online, buying sweaters from the Gap online.

Like it was very cool. Shop in your pajamas. Like we all aren't able to do that. Right.

And then we went to our internships, many of us and had to figure out like the fax machine. That was the scariest thing to me in my internship. Like I looked in the room. you never did you put a face down do you put a face up how do you know if it actually went through which is the worst it could be like a critical memo you know oh my gosh stop that's hysterical i'm having flashbacks yes and even our internships were different you know i tell i have two boys one who's um hopefully doing an internship in communications this this summer but i was like you know we used to like take coffee orders as interns and i'm sure they still do but we would like write it on post-it notes like walk around and go to the post-it note and then try to like wait for the order of six drinks carry it back these now if they have apps they collect everything and when we interned it was free we truly entered now i remember now i remember the last company i worked at interns were like well how much are we gonna get paid and i was like what but they get paid 23 an hour it's it's wild like yeah it's really wild i mean and i hate always finding when i was your age i often play myself wait that wasn't that long ago that's right it's like it's like how we used to tease our parents they're like oh you went to school uphill both ways in the snow right like right it feels like that like when i was when i was your age i had to use this thing called a fax machine and they're like i have no idea what that is yeah well erin when you're talking about the memes i love the funniest ones they talk about the people who were born in the late 1900s yes yeah like you guys need to calm down you know it's like all you people from the late 1900s.

I'm like, really? I know. I know. And so it really does.

So how do you make this transition, right? Especially if you're at work, especially if you have that misconception. And I know we actually had a number of AI experts on as well that approach like how like and once we sort of see as Gen Xers oh we gone through all these digital transformations already AI is just another element to that It's how we approach it differently. Like how can a Gen Xer at work amplify their voice and get over some of those barriers that those are the misconceptions about our generation and our age, right?

Because it is ageism at the end of the day. Yeah. I mean, I go back to like, show them, don't tell them, right? So, you know, just do it.

you're doing we're doing it already like we're using ai we feel i mean look no one's an expert yet by any means but um give advice to the younger generation show them what you did right the ai um you know keep yourself updated on conferences and training you know not everyone has to get that from their employer there's a lot out there and there's a lot of and like just talk to different generations you know whether you have kids or nieces nephews people at work people who are in the same space or industry as you are and just go on LinkedIn.

There's a lot to learn and a lot to share. So I kind of think, you know, share your knowledge, show you're trying, show you're experimenting, show how it helped you voice some concerns, you know, as a writer, right? I'm a writer at heart. And there are definitely concerns out there that AI can help people do some things that before only really, really strong writers could help do.

But there's a lot that AI can't do. And that ranges from judgment to creativity and on and on. So, you know, show how we're integrating it because it's not enough to be like, we were there when the internet began and email launched. People are like, what?

Are you finding in your catalog, excuse me, Aaron, are you finding in your community that folks are, one thing Amory and I talk about all the time, especially with a lot of different guests is I feel like Gen X is finally getting it to the where, you know what, I'm going to need multiple streams of income because first of all none of us are really looking at the r word retirement i mean try to be realistic you know i always say i'm an og mom i have you know i have a 10 year old so it's like you know and you know he's going to be in the house for a few more years even if i even thought of it it's just not going to happen um and i have friends who have kids who are college and middle school or even if they had maybe the kids who are in their 30s but then those kids have moved back are you finding in your community that gen x especially women are embracing that, you know, there's multiple things that I'm good at that I could do that I could actually get paid for instead of just like the one thing.

Absolutely. I'm finding that a lot. And it comes back, I think, to that, like that carving out intent, things with intention and being more intentional and like passions that you used to have that maybe you put aside, revisiting those. Like I used to like perform on stage, which is crazy playing my guitar at like age 10.

I don't know why oh my gosh amazing but like i didn't pick up a guitar again until like maybe five years ago and i'm so glad i did making money at it as a gig like trust me that's not where i'm headed but that's just one example so people are like revisiting their passions i think of of youth um or they're using their talents to do things like monetize it right whether it's art i mean i can think of just this week alone of like other Gen Xers, someone's now like selling their artwork.

And then it's like good, right? And they probably had that talent all along. Maybe it's been buried. Maybe it was untapped because they didn't have time.

But yes, people are, I think, turning to look at themselves and think, what do I enjoy doing? What am I good at doing? And how can I monetize that? Because hopefully we will be around a long time and we cannot afford to be forced out of the workforce.

So, you know, look out for yourself and actually have some fun doing it too, because hopefully folks are launching these side gigs based on their interests. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, like you have to, like, I think, you know, everyone needs to start thinking about that now, right? And it's just one of those where one thing about GenX is we've seen the loyalty to corporate America, right?

We've seen what this can be. I'm not saying everyone's that bad, but it's just one of those where you've seen what it could be. And you've seen so many of your friends, in particular, like in the IT industry, so many of our friends get laid off, right? And haven't found anything, right?

Because that was the hot thing. So we all grew up in the industry and then everybody's just gone, right? It's the steel mill of our generation, but nobody, it's not as dramatic. You don't have the closing of the plant in Bethlehem as a sort of a big thing, right?

And it's like, if you don't start now with figuring out what a plan B is, what a side hustle is, right if something happens you need to have that right and we i think nicole and i gosh we've probably said on every episode of just trying to find something else because you need it like you need it and it's just you need to start exploring while you have your day job yeah and that's where that adaptability and resilience independence comes in of our youth and like how we would entertain ourselves for hours you know running around outside and yeah without electronics and all the crazy like imaginative games we did I remember like in elementary school you all probably do too um we have a lot to tap into and a lot to build on and see traits that are gonna I think carry us through and make our lives richer like literally and figuratively yeah yeah absolutely um that's why with the with the storm that was coming on and people are like oh if we run out of electricity I always told my son I said we'll be fine he's like but mom we won't have we won't electricity don't have the internet anything i'm like i got you boo get out the board games and maybe even a book in your hands like thank you thank you i'm like this is called my childhood having said that wait i have to admit something so when the storm in dc was coming to dc well you know earlier last week i actually i think i need to find a book do i have an actual book in the house I felt guilty it did because so if we do lose electricity I want to like entertain myself yeah where's a book and I was like I need to really read more often and I'm still one of those people that like the books like when I do order books I order actual books I like to hold it in my hand I know I still go to Barnes and Noble I a geek I go to Barnes and Noble still so well and Barnes and Noble is having a resurgence if you heard So I actually was talking about this late last year They opening like 60 more stores I think in 2026 which is so exciting And people are so they reacted with such excitement and shared stories about like how Barnes and Noble was a part of their life, like through every decade.

I mean, it was for me too. Oh yeah. And people are going back to those kind of in-store experiences. And won't that be fun?

So Aaron, on something, because I don't know if you guys saw too, guess what else is making a comeback and you guys are going to bust out laughing? Malls. Yes. So what's happening is, Ann Marie's like, what?

I'm going, I got to go. You have the store, or you have like the show, like Stranger Things and things like that. Yeah. Yeah.

They're putting in like real live experiences in malls. Experiences. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So and more pop ups are showing in malls. And so, yeah, like Gen Z are thinking malls are cool again because then they get there and they realize, oh, all my friends are here and they're not on the phones. And they like the idea of like we can be in person talking.

And I'm like this. Oh, that's so cute. Don't you take pride in it, too? I was talking about this last week, like the Netflix house.

Netflix identified this huge opportunity, right? so they took over that's the right term a mall in um one is outside of philly and king of prussia and i can't recall where the other one is maybe dallas but um i can't wait till they expand so they're so smart the way they are approaching this and it's not even just gen z's what's so great i feel like it's a place where all the generations can come together like if i'm visiting my boomer parents and i have my gen z kids i'm like we want stuff to do like place to go yes our favorite show which trust me we'll get that in too but like we can go and have an experience together and i think that's really yes go to the food court right uh and everyone can get what they want and it's easy so i think that really it's going to bring people together which i think is part of what we need now too um but yeah i definitely took some pride and look oh the mall's back.

Yeah. I love that. Right. And it's funny because even you start to think about like, we saw all the iterations of Barnes and Noble, right.

We saw the mall version of Barnes and Noble. We saw the standalones with the coffee shops. Like we've seen, you know, we've seen all of them and it's just like each one, even though, you know, of course we're known for our consumerism as general actors, but it's one of those things where it was more than that. It was an experience.

It was an experience of being there and, and then finding each other's community. It's like, oh, hey, Nicole, have you gone to the new Barnes & Noble on X, Y, and Z? Yeah, let's meet up, right? It was part of that, or even the mall.

Like, it wasn't necessarily about buying a new top from Express. Like, it was literally... Express? The limited sweater, right?

Oh, the limited sweater in three colors. They were so great. With our stirrup leggings, which are back, as we learned from one of our guests the other week. I was like, she's like, stirrups are back.

And I'm like, no, I don't know. No. We don't want to take pride in that research. Like some things we can just leave.

Exactly. But it really is about that experience. And now we can share those memories and have fun with it. That's right.

And that is a perfect segue, and I didn't plan this, into your Amazon shop, which I love, the Gen X Girls Grow Up Amazon shop. And I also, like, so on Facebook, you're the Gen X blog, right? And we'll have all the link in the show notes and everything. Definitely follow her on Facebook and subscribe.

and then in the Amazon shop you have so many fun things like so many fun things it's fun for it's fun for everyone I feel like there's something for everyone there right like yes even like the Jake the Jake Ryan mugs you know if you want to get that there's just something my one of my favorite things that I think and maybe it's like it's winter well for those of us who actually have a winter season I'm sure I know folks live all over the popcorn maker the popcorn machine that that was like yes so exciting um so i love that 80s trivia games i mean i really feel like too like a lot of these 80s products are making a comeback too so i feel like we're having a moment you guys i feel like gen x is having a moment or on the verge of having a moment and we all need to make the most of it because we're the small one of the smallest generations yeah yeah yeah i love it and you also have something exciting coming up uh february-ish we'll say by the time all that good stuff on YouTube.

Tell us about it. Cause we love supporting our Gen Xers. Happy to. So I am launching a YouTube show slash podcast with Jennifer Bassman and it's called Gen X MTV to midlife.

And we're going to be chatting a lot about how do we get here and what do we want now? Love it. So, you know, there's a lot, a lot that could fall under that. so yes awesome love it and just again where everybody can connect with you on facebook and the facebook group name is gen x blog yeah yep correct yeah perfect perfect and i have also a website um gen x girls grow up.

com where you can learn more about me and more with about what the show that's coming love it i'm so excited for this um make sure to stay connected with gen x with with us at what's next gen x too like especially over on linkedin where we post a lot of things and of course with Miss The Nicole Gray at thenicolegray.com to learn all about her amazing coaching over there. Yep. All right, well, Erin, thank you for being the voice that we didn't know we needed.

And thank you for taking us back from everything from MTV up until the Barnes & Noble News. So we appreciate that. Thank you. I'll meet you there.

Moms are back. So to everyone listening, remember this, you're not invisible. Your experience, you survived massive change, adapted, endured, and stayed true to yourself in the process and that's power. It's not too late to speak up, to step forward, to take credit, to change direction.

And it's definitely not too late to show the world what Gen X can do. So with that, thank you, Erin, for being our guest today. And this has been fun. And we're so excited about your story.

Let us know about, too, about your new YouTube channel and everything. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. Thanks, Erin.

Bye. Thanks, everybody. Bye.