Gen Xers, are you sick of being grouped together? Stereotyped by our high school yearbook pictures with mullets, high hair, flannels, Doc Martens?

We’re told we’re underachievers, the forgotten generation. Studies overlook us, marketers talk around us, focusing much more on the larger Millennial and Baby Boomer generations.

It’s all marketing bullshit, actually.

During this quarantine, we’ve been touted as the generation that takes its role in flattening the curve most seriously. Like we’re a superlative in our high school yearbook, singlehandedly helping the country win a war — while all the non-Gen Xers waffle and flail.

It’s like we're…

With nearly half of American adults worried about their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic, the emotional intelligence of leaders within the workplace is more important now than ever.

Data released by KFF in late April shows that more than 40% of adults have lost a job in their households due to the pandemic. Just under 30% report having trouble paying bills since the pandemic began.

Clearly, these are stressful times.

Have leaders stepped up? Can they?

Not All Leaders Are Emotionally Intelligent Leaders

Social isolation stresses. Our worlds have shrunken. We’re working from home. Our kids are remote-learning. The technology isn’t there yet. …

Navigating Hard Realities with Compassion in a COVID World

I used to work with this guy, Brad. When he got frustrated, he would just pound his keyboard.

You’d hear the furious clicking and clacking of keys in the next row of cubes, across the office, on the far side of our cube farm near the windows … even if you called into the office from the road.

When the keys went quiet, we’d wonder what was going on with Brad.

But, he had one of those pole cubes. It was really hard to see Brad without peering around the pole…

We tell stories. It’s part of who we are as people and societies — now and in the past.

More than 35,000 years ago, an ancient storyteller picked up a piece of charcoal and drew a bison on the wall of a cave in what is now Spain.

Today, we’re still telling stories. They’re everywhere. We tell stories about:

• Where we live and how we got here.
• How we’ve spent this quarantine.
• How nobody will mute themselves at the right time on Zoom calls.

And more.

We All Tell Stories

I’m a writer. I tell stories.

But, I didn’t appreciate the history hidden in…

We're in a bit of a mess. The United States faces a crisis against a common enemy. Americans are suffering and dying. We’re afraid to leave our homes. We face uncertainties about our health, economy, and future.

We’ve been here before. In 2001.

On 9/10 in 2001, we were talking about Congressman Gary Condit and Chandra Levy, talks between President Bush and Congress to jumpstart a softening economy, the ethics of stem cell research.

We weren’t much removed from worrying about Y2K, debating those hanging chads in Florida, and Clinton’s impeachment. …

Most family historians have THAT box, the one brimming with old family photographs. You know it’s there — in the back of the linen closet keeping company with a pair of phone books and a few regal-looking photo albums, the ones with the magnetic pages and gold-stamped covers.

In times of great pause like these, the box calls to you. Maybe you inherited it from a grandparent, or assembled it yourself as one of those I’ll-save-it-for-later types of projects. There’s something about that box that guilts us — all those fading color photographs, Polaroids, black-and-white photos, or even cabinet cards…

We’re a few weeks into flattening the curve. We’re already debating whether the cost is too great.

Sports are cancelled. Malls are closed. The hospitality and travel sectors have fallen off a cliff. Yes, this does feel apocalyptic.

But, relax, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick is here to save us. His plan? Ask seniors if they’re willing to risk death to stave off the economic upheaval we’re facing right now. Apparently, he is. He told the FOX News Channel’s Tucker Carlson so just yesterday.

And President Trump wants the US economy “opened up and just raring to go by Easter.”

…

Pick a worse time to post your first article on LinkedIn. I dare you.

In the waning hours of the longest bull market in history, I wrote about the growth of freelancing/the gig economy/online platform workers, whatever you want to call it.

Days later, coronavirus turned a corner and the S&P 500 slid hard, posting a close 25% lower than its record high in mid-February.

By the middle of last week, we were talking bear markets and recession.

The Midas Touch of Bull Markets

When you propose an idea in a raging bull market, it instantly turns to gold.

Well, not really, not always.

But, you…