Generational Perspectives on Employment: A Contrast between Baby Boomers and Millennials

The world of employment has evolved significantly over the years, with different generations experiencing and interpreting work in distinct ways. Baby boomers and millennials, What Generation Am I? A Guide to Generations by Year (parents.com)separated by several decades, have grown up in contrasting socio-economic, technological, and cultural landscapes. These factors have played a role in shaping their perspectives on employment. In this article, we will delve into the divergent viewpoints of baby boomers and millennials regarding work, examining their values, priorities, and approaches to careers.

Work-Life Balance

Baby Boomers:

For many baby boomers, work was often seen as a means to provide for their families and secure a stable future. Many were part of the traditional 9-to-5 work culture, where long hours at the office were considered necessary for career advancement. The concept of “putting in the time” was deeply ingrained, often at the expense of personal and family life.

Millennials:

Millennials, on the other hand, tend to prioritize work-life balance. Work Life Balance | Mental Health America (mhanational.org)They witnessed their parents’ dedication to their jobs and the toll it took on family life. As a result, millennials often seek flexible work arrangements that allow them to balance their careers with personal interests and family time. Remote work and freelance opportunities are particularly attractive to this generation, enabling them to integrate work into their lives, rather than the other way around.

Career Loyalty

Baby Boomers:

Loyalty to one’s employer was a hallmark of the baby boomer generation. Many individuals spent the majority of their careers at a single company, viewing job stability and benefits as vital components of their employment. Climbing the corporate ladder and staying with the same company until retirement were common aspirations.

Millennials:

Millennials tend to value personal growth and skill development over long-term loyalty to a single employer. They are more willing to change jobs and even switch careers in pursuit of new challenges and opportunities. This fluid approach to employment can be attributed, in part, to the economic instability witnessed during their formative years and the rise of the gig economy, What is the gig economy and what’s the deal for gig workers? | World Economic Forum (weforum.org) which has normalized job hopping and freelancing.

Purpose and Fulfillment

Baby Boomers:

While many baby boomers found purpose and fulfillment in their work, these aspects were often secondary to the financial stability that employment provided. Career choices were frequently influenced by practical considerations rather than a quest for personal passion.

 

Millennials:

Millennials seek meaning and purpose in their careers. They are more likely to prioritize jobs that align with their values, allowing them to make a positive impact on society and the environment. This generation places a premium on job satisfaction and is willing to make career decisions that reflect their personal beliefs and goals, even if it means sacrificing higher-paying opportunities.

Technology and Adaptability

Baby Boomers:

Baby boomers adapted to technology as it emerged, but their careers were not as intertwined with digital tools and platforms as those of millennials. They often had to learn new technologies later in their careers, and some may have viewed technology as a disruptor rather than an enabler.

Millennials:

Having grown up in the digital age, The Digital Age: The Era We All Are Living In – DZone millennials are comfortable with technology and its rapid evolution. They readily embrace new tools and platforms, which has contributed to the rise of remote work, digital nomadism, and the gig economy. This adaptability allows them to navigate an ever-changing job market with relative ease.

In conclusion, the differing perspectives of baby boomers and millennials on employment reflect the evolving nature of work and societal values. While baby boomers often prioritized stability and financial security, millennials place greater emphasis on work-life balance, purpose-driven careers, and adaptability. Understanding these generational differences Generational Differences in the Workplace [Infographic] (purdueglobal.edu) is crucial for employers, policymakers, and individuals seeking to thrive in the modern world of work, fostering collaboration and harnessing the strengths of each generation.

Coach versus Mentor

A coach and a mentor are both valuable resources for personal and professional development, but they serve different roles and have distinct characteristics. Here are the main differences between a coach and a mentor:

Purpose and Focus:

Coaching: Coaching The Role of a Coach in The Workplace | EZRA (helloezra.com) primarily focuses on performance improvement and goal achievement. A coach helps individuals identify their goals, develop action plans, and provides support, guidance, and feedback to enhance their skills and reach their desired outcomes. The emphasis is on short-term objectives and specific areas of development.

Mentoring: Mentoring 10 Reasons Why You Need a Mentor | Indeed.com is more about long-term personal and professional growth. A mentor is someone with extensive experience and knowledge in a particular field who offers guidance, advice, and wisdom to a less-experienced individual. The focus is on sharing insights, imparting wisdom, and nurturing the mentee’s overall development.

Relationship:

Coaching: The coach-client relationship is typically formal and structured. Coaches establish a professional relationship based on trust, confidentiality, and clear boundaries. They work collaboratively with clients to explore their goals, challenges, and strategies for improvement.

Mentoring: The mentor-mentee relationship is often informal and built on a foundation of mutual respect and trust. Mentors usually have a personal connection or shared interest with the mentee. The relationship tends to be more flexible and can involve discussions about various aspects of life and career.

Expertise and Experience:

Coaching: Coaches may or may not have specific expertise in the client’s field. They focus more on coaching skills, such as active listening, questioning, and providing support. Coaches help individuals develop their own solutions and perspectives by drawing out their strengths and potential.

Mentoring: Mentors possess extensive experience, knowledge, and expertise in the mentee’s field or area of interest. They share their wisdom, offer advice, and provide insights based on their own professional journey. Mentors may also provide introductions to their network or offer career guidance specific to the industry.

Duration and Intensity:

Coaching: Coaching engagements are typically time-bound and have a specific duration. The Four Stages of a Coaching Assignment (coaching-focus.com)Coaches work with clients for a defined period to achieve their goals or address specific challenges. The frequency of coaching sessions can vary depending on the individual’s needs and availability.

Mentoring: Mentoring relationships tend to be more open-ended and can last for an extended period, sometimes even spanning years. How Long Should Mentorship last? (mentorloop.com)Mentors offer ongoing support and guidance as the mentee progresses in their personal and professional journey.

Approach:

Coaching: Coaches use a structured and goal-oriented approach, employing various techniques and methodologies to help clients gain clarity, set objectives, and take action. The Best Ways for Coaching an Employee in the Workplace | Indeed.comThey facilitate self-discovery, encourage self-reflection, and help clients overcome obstacles.

Mentoring: Mentors take a more informal and nurturing approach. They provide guidance, share experiences, and offer advice based on their own successes and failures. Mentors often provide a sounding board for ideas, offer perspective, and encourage the mentee’s growth.

It’s important to note that these distinctions are not always absolute, and there can be overlap between coaching and mentoring depending on the specific context and the individuals involved. The terms “coach” and “mentor” are sometimes used interchangeably, and individuals may fulfill both roles to varying degrees.

Competencies versus Skills

Many organizations are transitioning from competency-based to skills-based job descriptions.   You Need a Skills-Based Approach to Hire and Developing Talent (hbr.org) One of the primary reasons for this growing shift is that while competencies are broad-based requirements, like innovation and team building, and are more qualitative in nature, skills are more easily quantifiable. Skills are requirements like knowing how to perform pivot tables in excel or having demonstrated the ability to lead a culturally diverse team across multiple global locations effectively. You either possess the skill, or you do not. The Future of Work 2022 | Accenture. Recruiters and search firms are finding this approach to yield better results and candidates from different backgrounds than they would have typically approached.

While this shift sounds easy in concept, creating the job descriptions to transition from a competency-based approach to a skill-based one is an arduous and lengthy initiative that could span multiple years. Not only does each job need to be broken down into granular task requirements, but for the job descriptions to be most helpful, they must be able to vet both external and internal candidates. Employees need to be able to review the job description for a position they would like to have and see clearly why they are or are not qualified. There needs to be a skills repository on your HCM to assist managers in choosing the necessary skills for each position. Likewise, employees have to complete personal profiles listing all the skills they believe they have so that a gap analysis can be automatically conducted between the requirements and the employee’s current skill set. Then comes the conundrum of being able to vet the skills. Just because someone says they have the talent to install a garbage disposal and can talk you through the steps does not necessarily mean they can complete this task in real life. Who is responsible for the vetting? L&D? Talent Acquisition? Hiring managers? How Recruiters Evaluate Candidates With a Skills-Based Lens

One of the benefits of using skills-based job descriptions is that you no longer need to depend on job titles. It opens up your positions to people from various backgrounds, positions, and titles who may far exceed the capabilities of someone from only one title. Your application flow is improved, as is the quality of your candidates. This approach also ends employees’ perception of favoritism when awarding promotions to new assignments. Both managers and HR can quickly point to the reason(s) that one employee was ready for promotion and one not quite ready.

For employees with a gap in their skills to reach the next level, HR must be prepared in their LMS to have courses, content, books, and other learnings tied to the required skills. The most frustrating scenario for an employee is being told they lack certain skills but do not have a clear path laid out in order to obtain those missing skills. Skills Development Training: Must-Have LMS Features (elearningindustry.com)

Thanks to the new approach of skills-based job descriptions, companies can attract and hire the best talent for their job openings. Job titles and degrees are not always the best indicators of a candidate’s abilities, and focusing on skills can lead to better outcomes for both the company and the employee.

Skills or Competencies? But wait…. There’s more!

It has been hotly debated over the last decade as to whether the focus of job descriptions should be on skills or competencies.  Skills Skills vs. Competencies: What’s the Difference? | Indeed.comare the specific learned abilities that you need to perform a given job well. Examples, depending on the specific role, range from paying invoices to writing code to installing a garbage disposal or writing communication. Competencies, What is Competency? | Meaning, Definition & Types | HR Glossary (darwinbox.com)on the other hand, are the person’s knowledge and behaviors that lead them to be successful in a job. Examples of competencies, then, include the improvement of business processes, innovation and data-based decision making. Competencies effectively explain a trait a candidate has to have in order to do the job well.

The growing concern with a competency-based approach is centered around the fact that a competency, or lack thereof, is hard to quantify.  How do you determine if a candidate, internal or external, has the proven capability to plan strategically or to innovate?  And, if they don’t, how do you provide training to ensure that they ever will?

Most job descriptions 3 Most Overlooked Elements of Writing a Job Description – Workest (zenefits.com)can be broadly considered to be either skills-based or competency-based. They differ in that skills-based job descriptions typically consist of the job title, responsibilities and skills required, whereas competency-based job descriptions tend to take a more holistic approach by also considering the traits that will lead to success in the job.

The concern is that neither approach fully captures all that will be required of any person to be successful and they do little to quickly develop talent. A fundamentally different solution is needed if we want to grow better talent faster. Enter Experience Designing. We know that experiences accelerate development and demonstrate a person’s capabilities. If properly utilized, experiences will develop  better talent faster. How to Develop a More Stable and Talented Workforce (workplaces.org)

Unfortunately, despite widespread recognition that experiences accelerate development, few companies use them as their development framework. Instead, managers and employees are left to struggle with complex and difficult to apply competency or skill based models.

Those models rely on managers to determine how to best develop employees, which leads to training-based development plans. They don’t prioritize which capabilities are most valuable to the company, so development efforts are often misdirected. They don’t easily fit into a larger career framework, so employees don’t understand how today’s development contributes to future career growth.

In short, typical competency or skills based approaches don’t help managers to accelerate development or provide employees with a guide for managing their careers. 

Offering employees a hybrid approach of specific skills needed ( i.e. demonstrate the capability to create pivot tables in excel) and experiences ( have created a successful strategy for a $100M business unit or have created a college recruitment program and successfully recruited 50 new hires)  provides a tangible and easy to understand framework for their future development needs and ensures the company has a plethora of viable candidates poised for success.

The Greater Good

We contribute a portion of each paycheck to an employee assistance fund, we support  struggling artists and the homeless population 10 Things You Can Do To Help The Homeless | Ripple  Kindness Project. We attend fund raising events and give generously all while patting ourselves on  the back about what a good corporate citizen we are. Not only do we care about worthwhile  causes, but here we are donating our time, money and other resources to these important social  causes. We are truly making the world a better place.  

Then, in the same breath, we demand we be treated differently “better” than others. 5 Egotistical  Personality Traits (And How To Handle Them) | Well+Good (wellandgood.com)Our anger over not having  our needs met or being disappointed by an outcome leads to a raised and irate voice with a  colleague. Clearly our needs are more important than the person with whom we are speaking.  Our right to throw a tantrum, to share our opinion, to talk “down” to someone is justified by the  position we hold, the money we make and the level we have reached.  

There is a difference between caring about the greater good and caring about each individual. It  is fine to make the grandiose statements, gestures and financial contributions but what really  sets us apart is our daily interactions with people. Do we take the time to listen or are we so full  of ourselves that that we only listen to respond and not seek to understand? Do we treat each  person with kindness and respect or do we hold ourselves above others believing our needs are  somehow more important than someone else’s? The former allows us to feel good about  ourselves; the latter has a ripple effect throughout all humanity. How To Treat Others with Respect in the Workplace | Indeed.com

Humility at Work

A modest or low view of one’s own importance is also described as modesty, meekness and unassertiveness.    This sounds like the things long therapy sessions are made of.  Then why has humility become a trait attributable to the best organizational leaders?  How To Be Humble at Work | Indeed.com For the simple fact that humility also means that you’re free from egotism and arrogance, that you look to others for good ideas, that you understand how your actions can affect those around you and that they may have a better way of doing things than you do.  Contrast that with the leader who always thinks her ideas are the best, is not interested in what others have to say, and lacks the curiosity to explore better ways of doing things.

One characteristic of humble people is that they are open to and ask for the opinions and ideas of others. When you do this, you can learn more and discover new perspectives, and you may find that the workplace becomes a more innovative space. 10 Ways to Be More Innovative and Creative at Work | The Muse Innovation can leapfrog you in front of your competition and focus the team on a common goal.

Workplace humility is also likely to contribute to increased productivity as employees want to do well, collaborate with each other more and desire to produce high-quality work, whether it’s focused on a product or service. Humble people are also more likely to seek resources and give others the help they need to complete their tasks without thinking about the credit they should receive.

A humble work environment contributes to an employee’s job satisfaction. Leaders who practice humility by asking employees for their opinions, accepting ideas for how to better serve customers and acknowledging team members who have made a difference can make an employee feel empowered and validated. In turn, when employees have these positive feelings about their leadership and the company where they work, they tend to be more satisfied with their role, stay longer and have positive things to say about the organization they represent.

An organization may experience lower employee turnover when humility is a part of the company culture. Increased employee loyalty comes from having members of your team who appreciate the chance to be heard, feel like they are an important part of the organization and know that their work and ideas matter to the company’s success. Employees who are happy at work often choose to stay employed at the organization for longer, and may even refer other high-quality candidates in their network to the company’s open positions.

Humility often leads to collaboration because employees and managers alike realize the strengths of those they work with. You can better appreciate the experiences, education and skill set your coworkers have that balance your own, which can help grow your professional relationships into ones that improve output for the business and make the work environment more pleasant.

The goal is confident humility. Confident Humility: A Way to Lead so Everyone Wins | by Alana 🌴 | Personal Growth | Medium Not the type of humility that has you giving away credit constantly for the work you do, but the kind of humility that has you saying “ thank you.  It was a lot of hard work, but the team had some great ideas which got the project over the line” Constantly downplaying the role that you have and what you have accomplished, is a recipe for someone picking you first in the lay line.  Confident humility Confident Humility: Paradox of Successful Leadership – TechTello allows you to be open to others thoughts and ideas, work collaboratively and still feel a great deal of pride for the work you have accomplished.

Sometimes It Is Just Old Stuff

Recently we moved and everything came down from the attic.   Years’ worth of memorabilia from my parents, grandparents, aunts, and great uncles.  Treasures that had been carefully saved over the years.  It was the proverbial walk down memory lane, reminiscing about different life events from before I could walk and taking a peek into a life that was lived long before I was born. Life in the 1800s (morsesociety.org) At the end of multiple sorting weeks, though, came the question of what to do with it now?  Store it back up in the new, tiny, and insulation-filled attic?  Place it around the house fully realizing it wasn’t going to accentuate my mostly transitional/modern vibe.  Or make sure it got into the hands that would truly cherish it, the way I was supposed to? After a few guilt trips and another week of ignoring it, door #3 won and I started a campaign of picture taking and editing to showcase each treasure in its best form.  Then I advertised them everywhere and I waited…. and waited.  Finally, one person reached out to ask if I would take $10 for all three antique Kodak cameras Kodak No 3A Folding Pocket Antique Bellows Camera with Anastigmat Lens WORKS V11 | eBay and could I please package them up and send them to Oceanside.  For $10?  I don’t think so.  I felt inundated, defeated, and overwhelmed.

The moral of this story is that sometimes, it is just old stuff or even just stuff.  And it really isn’t of value to you or to anyone else.  Not unlike the myriad of messages, we get in our inbox every day.  Some thinly veiled advertisements for something, some hawking wares like the latest seminar, and some actually the news of the day or more likely, someone’s interpretation of the news.  We feel inundated and overwhelmed, but hesitant to let any of it go for fear we might miss something important or let go of something of value. Declutter Your Inbox In 5 Easy Steps (forbes.com) Our day is full of should’ s.  I should flag that to read later.  I should spend more time determining strategy.   I should ( you fill in the blank).  Sometimes, we have to realize that maybe it is just like old stuff.  It is really not of value.  Not of value to you and not of value to anyone else and we just need to let it go and move on.  If something is critically important it will come back around or someone else will have added it to their to-do list and will forward it to you with bullet points. 

We artificially determine what to spend our time on by allowing the shoulds to intrude on what we already know we want to do.  Strategic plans for 2022 have long been established and it is unlikely, barring another pandemic type of event, COVID-19 pandemic – Wikipedia that those will become derailed by the latest e-mail communication. Focus on what you want to do- what you want to have accomplished-whether it is an attic cleaning session or an Outlook inbox.  Control your time, add value and let the clutter go.

The Key to Success

We have all been there.  Should we buy the house or not?  Should we go back to school or put our energies into our current role Should I Go Back to School During a Recession? – Kenzie Academy (snhu.edu)?  Should we hire the candidate or move on?  We, more frequently than not, choose to stay the course.  We choose not to buy the house and to stay where we are, we choose not to return to school and we choose not to hire the candidate.  We pat ourselves on the back for making a great decision.  The house was too expensive, and we probably couldn’t have sold our current home, we probably couldn’t have managed to further our education and continue to work and that candidate that we decided to turn down was lacking in at least 6 different ways.  You have avoided what was certain to be a failure.  The question is, whose failure are you actually trying to avoid and what are you giving up when you are unwilling to take a risk? The Incredible Power of Taking Risks in Life – The Daily Positive

The fact of the matter is, the greatest achievements require going outside of your comfort zone and taking a well thought out risk.   Many of us have a difficult time dealing with the uncertainty that goes along with taking risks. We grow uneasy not knowing the outcome and we fear potential failure. What if I cause my family financial ruin?  What if I lose my job because I can’t put in as many hours as before? What if the candidate that I hire isn’t perfect and I am blamed? At the root of most of these questions is the questions “What if I’m not good enough?”  

One way to combat the fear of risk taking is to ask yourself “What if” or “So what?”  These questions can diffuse the negative self-talk by providing alternatives. Taking a risk to achieve a goal requires courage to face the fear of uncertainty. No matter the outcome, either way, we grow through the process and become more resilient and confident.  There is no right or wrong answer to many of life’s questions and avoiding them all together ensures that you never allow yourself the opportunity to grow.

Another way to combat the fear of uncertainty is to remember that in almost every situation, you are allowed to make a U-turn.  If the decision you made does not work out as you expected it to, then make another decision.  Figure out what your learnings are, what experience you took away from the situation and move on.

One of the more obvious ways to reduce the fear of risk is to learn as much as you can about the experience you are considering embarking on. Career advice: How to get better at taking risks (usatoday.com) Find other people who have done what you are considering doing and get their advice, listen to what they have learned and what they would have chosen to do differently.

Successfully taking risks The Importance Of Taking Risks (7 Reasons To Take More Risks) (eightysixfourhundred.com)can lead to very positive outcomes including:

  • Standing out form the crowd
  • Helping you to feel alive and empowered
  • Enabling you to think more creatively
  • Helping you to learn about yourself

Risk taking can be healthy and help people develop confidence. Any failure you experience is part of the success process, not the antithesis of success.  If you aren’t willing to risk failing it is likely you will never be willing to take the risks necessary to experience great success!

The Great Resignation Becomes The Great Regret

It is no secret that employees have been quitting in droves, leaving the safety of positions where they have built up political capital for new positions that promise greener pastures and can come with 25%, 50%, and higher increases. Employees say they are leaving to work for employers who are more people-centric, where they feel like their work has a purpose and can add meaning to their lives. According to Pew Research Pew Research Center | Pew Research Center in a new study, “low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement, and feeling disrespected at work”, are the top reasons why Americans quit their jobs last year. But are all these workers leaving their jobs for new jobs finding that the new jobs are that much better than their old jobs? That their new employers are that much better than their existing employers? In many cases, the resounding answer is “No”.

That theory has been echoed by another study released this week by the job search site the Muse. Muse Jobs (Hiring) – ItsMyCareer Its study of more than 2,500 workers found that almost three-quarters of them (72%) experienced either “surprise or regret” that the new position or new company they quit their job for turned out to be “very different” from what they were led to believe. Nearly half (48%) of these workers said they would try to get their old job back thanks to a phenomenon that the Muse is calling “shift shock”.

“They’ll join a new company thinking it’s their dream job and then there’s a reality check,” the company’s CEO, Kathryn Minshew told FOX Business. “It’s this really damaging phenomenon where people are brand new in their role, and they suddenly realize it’s not at all as advertised.” They have given up the solid relationships and reputations built over the years at their previous positions, to chase the next best thing.

Much of this confusion is being driven by Gen Z, Generation Z – Wikipedia those generally born after 1995 who make up more than a quarter of the workforce. According to a recent study by career counseling provider Zety, Zety – Professional Resume & Cover Letter Tools For Any Job those workers report that the factors that are most appealing in a new job include, of course, a good benefits package (67%). But just as important to them is a company with “values that match their own” (62%), that has a purpose for being that “goes beyond merely making a profit” (61%), offers “plentiful career development and progression opportunities” (59%) and has a “strong brand reputation” (49%).

Ask any baby boomer who’s been in the workforce for a number of years and they’ll tell you that the grass is often the same color at the new job. But few, if any Gen Zer’s are seeking the advice of boomers.

The good news is that companies have a choice and research firm Gartner Gartner | Delivering Actionable, Objective Insight to Executives and Their Teams urges employers to adopt a more “human-centric” work model that includes better working hours, more productive meetings, and greater flexibility to reduce this turnover. Having clear growth opportunities and career paths are a must for a generation that grew up with instant gratification. Neither the great resignation nor the great regret is in employees’ or employers’ best interests. A strong people-centric philosophy will likely cure both.

The Future of Hybrid Work

I was on a Mediterranean cruise recently where the average age looked to be 75+, the majority of the people were retired and I engaged a few in conversation about the status of work.  The vast majority said that work will be back to the pre-Covid normal within 5 years, meaning that employees will be required to return to the office 5 days/week.  The prediction stunned me as most of the colleagues I speak with, albeit, they are much younger than the cruise crowd, believe that hybrid work is here to stay, myself included.  We believe this is a fundamental shift in the employer/employee relationship that will drive increased flexibility in how and where we work for years to come.

It would seem that we are in good company given that a recent Robert Half survey https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/05/hybrid-working-your-office-future
indicated that  one-third of professionals (34%) currently working from home due to COVID-19 would quit if required to be in the office full-time. Nearly half of respondents (49%) said they prefer a hybrid work arrangement, where they can divide their time between the office and another location. Hybrid Work Is Here To Stay. Now What? (Back to Work, Better) (hbr.org)

According to the 2021 Work Trend Index, The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work—Are We Ready? (microsoft.com)over 40 percent of the global workforce considered leaving their employer last year, meaning a thoughtful approach to hybrid work will be critical for attracting and retaining diverse talent. Over 70 percent of workers want flexible remote work options to continue. Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing to drive career advancement for every worker, including frontline and knowledge workers, as well as for new graduates and those who are in the workforce today. All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work.”

I could not find supporting data anywhere suggesting that my new cruise friends were correct in their contention that employees would be “required” to return to work in an office 5 days a week.  That got me to thinking about the rate of change and how much some of them have experienced in the last 75-85 years. According to Futurism A Look at How Much Humanity Has Advanced Over the Last 100 Years (futurism.com)

World Literacy Rates

  • 1917: The world literacy rate was only 23%.
  • Today: Depending on estimates, the world literacy rate today is 86.1%.

Travel Time

  • 1917: It took 5 days to get from London to New York; 3.5 months to travel from London to Australia.
  • Today: A nonstop flight gets you from London to New York in a little over 8 hours, and you can fly from London to Australia in about a day, with just one stop.

 

Coca-Cola

  • 1917: On July 1, 1916, Coca-Cola introduced its current formula to the market.
  • Today: Today, Coca-Cola has a market cap of about $178 billion with 2015 net operating revenues over $44 billion. Each day, over 1.9 billion servings of Coca-Cola drinks are enjoyed in more than 200 countries.

Billionaires

  • 1917: John D. Rockefeller became the world’s first billionaire on September 29.
  • Today: There are approximately 1,810 billionaires, and their aggregate net worth is $6.5 trillion. For context, Rockefeller’s net worth in today’s dollars would have been about $340 billion. Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, is worth $84 billion today.

Traffic (Horses to Cars)

  • 1917: In 1912, traffic counts in New York showed more cars than horses for the first time.
  • Today: There were approximately 253 million cars and trucks on U.S. roads in 2015.

Innovation

  • 1917: The major tech invention in 1917? The toggle light switch.
  • Today: The major tech invention of today? CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology, which enables us to reprogram life as we know it. And we are making strides in AI, robotics, sensors, networks, synthetic biology, materials science, space exploration and more every day.

Speed Limits

  • 1917: The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
  • Today: The maximum speed limit in (or around) most cities is about 70 mph.

So, perhaps rather than a prediction they were making a plea, for the rate of change to slow down, for things to revert back to “the way they used to be”, however unlikely that may be.