By Lisa Taylor

Generational jabs  

It’s so tempting to quip, share, and circulate the messages contrasting Generation X’s rapid rush to take the first vaccine available to them with boomers’ hesitation.

As a Gen Xer, I know we get very little notice or mention. We don’t have the numbers, eclipsed by large boomer and millennial populations, and that means we’ve never had the buying power or influence of our parents and younger siblings. 

But as I wrote in a 2012 article, Gen X’s “challenge is to facilitate, translate, mediate, influence and innovate. We must lead from the middle.”  

The pandemic has presented new generational stories on almost a daily basis. The lack of care provided to our elderly. The so-called lost generation of new graduates. The very young who are learning to talk and socialize without playdates or in-person contact. Through it all, Gen Xers have been balancing work and home, volunteering in their local communities, and addressing the needs of both parents and children. We’ve been leading from the middle. Gen X leadership has never been boastful. Yet make no mistake, it is powerful. 

But, our strength as a country is not in celebrating one generation over another. It is in noticing the impact one generation has on the others.  

Throwbacks to our Blockbuster cards aside, the story isn’t about how much faster and better Gen X is in navigating the maze of vaccination sites. The story is that our “get the job done” focus is a useful model. And with new tools like @vaccinehunterscanada emerging to fill obvious gaps, this focus makes things easier for everyone.  

It’s just what we do, stuck in the middle with you. 

Learn more about intergenerational teams.