The 90s is back! But please! don’t apply it to management and career advice
During stressful times, people often find refuge in nostalgia. People – and societies. So.
Welcome to the world of 90s nostalgia and a surge in Britpop throwbacks!
It started with GenZ falling in love with 90s fashion while listening to music their parents loved. Said parents, GenX, my generation, is now finally relaxing into their power and refusing to grow old the way our parents did. And now, ta-dah, the Oasis reunion.
Oh yes, the warring brothers of Oasis are reuniting and we swiftly lost our mind about it – in the best possible way. National news in the UK for days, and heated discussions on whether they were REALLY that big in the 90s, which doesn’t really matter because they are now:
25 Oasis songs are on the UK’s 100 most-played songs on Spotify.
Globally, there’s been a 690% increase in daily streams of their songs.
The Spotify-curated list This is Oasis playlist is the most listened to in the UK – even Taylor Swift didn’t get this much listen.
It is rare to see people get a feel for and tap into the zeitgeist so fast, and so successfully.
I wonder if Taylor Swift might be partly responsible for this reunion, not just for the economics of putting on such a ridiculously successful, sold-out, money-making tour. The excitement, the togetherness, the joy that radiates from Swifties. You couldn’t escape it over the summer. Be honest: everyone wants in on that feeling. Get those Oasis friendship bracelets ready (preferably without swearwords).
The change we’ve experienced in the way we live, work, communicate, love, commute, get our news, listen to music and watch movies, all this and more, has changed dramatically and the pace of change has been so fast we all seem to suffer from whiplash.
Of course, we can’t (and I wouldn’t want to) turn back the clock but we might feel we need to hold on to something. Even those who love the progress and its direction. So when a band that was such a big deal in those “more peaceful” idolised times decides to put on a show for us – we’re happy to wrap ourselves in the warm comfort of their music that was the soundtrack of those happier times.
We all just want to feel good, get together and not throw hate at each other, right? Wait, hang on, that’s not the Gallagher brothers’ way. Anyway.
If you look carefully, 90s nostalgia is evident in so many places beyond fashion and pop. Perhaps because for so many people the 90s, with the Cold War over, seem like nicer, happier, more optimistic times, with exciting technological advances but before our every move was recorded and put online. Even rom-coms are back, though with a twist (watch a few of this year’s and you’ll see much less misogyny). I’m just waiting for someone to bring back that GenX leading man John Cusack.
The one place where I hope we don’t go back to 90s practices is work and management.
Or the old views of people’s careers and lifespans. Like this particular nonsense, which looks straight out of 1991, or rather 1978:
Yes, this was posted in the year of 2024.
Thanks to Maureen W Clough for bringing it to my feed, it was a perfect eye-roll-inducing picture. First, 45-55 is not a late-career stage. Not in 2024. Sure, it was that in say 1978, but it’s very much not the case anymore.
People live longer and are active longer. For example, most successful startups are founded by this age group of 45-55.
I wouldn’t even call “55-65” the late stage of a person’s career as a generalisation, and I find the word “decline” used for this age group particularly nasty in 2024.
Have they met any 60-year-olds recently? The ones I know are very much active both in and outside of work. They don’t resemble my grandparents’ generation for sure. They might not be climbing a fixed career ladder in a big company, though some do, but many have portfolio careers or just in general do various other things. They are starting companies, writing books, lifting weights, giving talks, travelling, getting their first or n-th CEO positions or transitioning into non-exec or investing careers. And making viral videos. Or starting modelling careers.
I know someone who is over 65 and runs prolific Tiktok and YouTube accounts with millions of followers where he posts engaging, slick videos about how to be a good manager. He’s great and doing great.
Oh, and please, do not listen to Indeed and DO NOT ever stop learning new skills and adapting to the changing world. You don’t want to spend the second half of your life isolated, bored and talking about how the world doesn’t make sense anymore when you could be out there doing great, fun things. Some you’ve only dreamt of before.
And this is important: job security does not exist in any age group anymore, and not just because ageism is alive and well. Keep up or you’ll be left behind. There is no other way.
Right.
So while we all fall head-first into nostalgia for simpler times (as people during very stressful times tend to do), our lives, societies, norms, lifespans, technologies and so on have moved on irreversibly.
Take, for example, the parents of GenZ who turn up for their children’s job interviews. Really, some of them do. Please stop doing that. You really need to let those young adults go and do it alone. They’ll be fine.
I also have a gripe about some Gen Z creating content out of being laid off and posting videos of the meetings on social media. There is a lot wrong with this practice, even though many tech companies do need to take a serious look at their HR practices - a little empathy and better communication, please. But for employees, the notoriety won’t help your career. The managers who are delivering the bad news can’t always tell you everything or they don’t know more themselves.
And the thing is, career setbacks happen. We’ve all been in difficult situations. Sometimes it is the boss’s fault and sometimes it is your fault and other times it’s no one particular person’s fault and there wasn’t one particular thing that caused it. Self-righteousness doesn’t work in the long term. Resilience does.
If someone wants to take something from the attitude of the 90s (or rather GenX), make it resilience, resourcefulness, and the ability to think for yourself without expecting anyone else to care.
Right, I’m off and someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide in a champagne supernova in the sky.