I was thinking about…

The Lost Art of Having a Thick Skin: A Generation X Perspective

By Andy Lee

Anybody else from Generation X feeling utterly baffled by how damn sensitive everybody seems to have become nowadays? I’m talking about the overwhelming atmosphere of manufactured outrage and perpetual tip-toeing around people’s delicate sensibilities at every turn. When did the ability to withstand occasional slights or insensitive comments without going nuclear become so rare?

Back in my day, having a thick skin and letting bullshit roll off your back represented essential life skills. Nobody got participation trophies just for showing up or demanded emotional hazard pay administering kid gloves 24/7. You either developed the resilience to endure harsh realities and imperfect humans, or celestial spheres above brutally instilled them through experience.

As the saying goes, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it.” This mindset of personal accountability and grit in the face of difficulties feels increasingly antiquated. Instead, society treats mere feelings getting hurt like criminal assaults worthy of litigious scorched-earth campaigns. Any perceived microaggression prompts mass meltdowns with everybody scattering for fainting couches despite heartrates remaining admirably unchanged.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating abuse or intentional denigration. Despite that gruff GenX exterior, basic human decencies matter, and justifiable insensitivities exist worth calling out. But the current hypersensitivity pandemic? No thanks!

See, back when entering the workforce and management ranks, addressing employee “behavior” simply wasn’t a thing. Performance and results reigned supreme – nothing else! If somebody demonstrated a bad attitude correlating with subpar output, you coached up the results and left feelings out of it. Easy peasy.

But these days? Grads get debriefed on deescalation tactics and therapeutic critique methodologies. Having to treat every slight like threatening emotional eruptions. Boss moves like “Fix this shoddy work or get fired” get you writeups and authority limitations until earning empathy certifications!

It’s all become so utterly emasculated as accountability steadily erodes into competing grievances. Forget demanding responsibility when everybody prepares dissertations over hurt feelings first! Companies now hire specialists like everybody got PTSD simply from imperfect job conditions.

Which speaks to generational disconnects. One side nostalgic for assertiveness-rules-all office epochs requiring thick skin development. The other worshipping fragility and portraying resilience itself as traumatic.

Except avoiding every unpleasantry teaches zero preparation for inevitabilities. As I heard someone say: “Don’t take constructive criticism from someone who has never constructed anything.” Real strength means enduring difficulties, not dismantling roadblocks preemptively.

So if critique catches you off guard, digest and respond constructively. But then expose yourself to more grist, upgrading that thick skin capacity. Because perpetual fragility leaves you brittle when demanding steadfastness. Occasional insensitivities aren’t the enemy – recognizing true disrespect from benign imperfections represents the prize. Those unwilling simply remain diminished by oversensitivity’s self-paralysis.

Stay resilient, keep bouncing back! 🤼‍♂️