Feeling Like Screaming in '90s Boomer Work Culture
Working as a GenX nurse assistant in a medical office filled with Boomers, including "The Golden One," who got away with anything—no matter how many people complained.
Learning how to adapt to a Boomer world was a necessary skill as an always outnumbered Gen Xer entering the workforce.
I first learned this while working as a nurse assistant in a medical center, filled with Boomer doctors. It was like a microcosm of the Boomer culture that ran the world.
There was the friendly former hippie, with his plant filled office, always chatty, running behind.
There was the old money one, wearing Brooks Brothers and a Rolex, seeming distantly above.
The do-it-all “working mom,” unintentionally thin from being stretched in every direction.
The always popular, athletic one who was a magnet for the drug reps. Flush with samples, his office was like a mini pharmacy.
And then there was The Golden One, who got away with anything because he was so damn special and important. He made his bad day, your bad day. Always surrounded by women helping him, sometimes saving his ass. And all he did was disrespect them. Were you lucky enough to work with him? Pretty enough? Thin enough? Unsure? Well, he’ll tell you.
No matter how many people complained, nothing was done, ever.
I remember driving home, cranking up "What’s Up?" by 4 Non Blondes, feeling that same angst in the PC 90s that perpetuated the male hierarchy. What's more, the status of alpha males was growing even bigger.
Alpha males were pumped up by America’s new superpower status, their own expanding portfolios and those little blue pills—for everyone else, there was a growing feeling of impotency. So might as well “scream from the top of my lungs, what’s going on?” cause that’s all you could do.
I knew I couldn’t change any of that, but I did change my major from nursing to pharmacy, where I could mostly work alone.
During my final rotation in pharmacy school, the Boomer male preceptor complained while standing between me and another female student, as he put his hands on our lower backs “I don’t know how I’m going to get through the day surrounded by you two.” I guess he thought we were PHAT in our Dockers and lab coats.
Yeah, working alone sounded pretty good.
But as it turned out, I ended up working alongside so many amazing Boomers. And I’m starting to feel like a latchkey kid again without them in Millennial world.
