Boomers Vs. Zoomers: Mark Cuban Calls This One 'The Most Disappointing Generation'

Dallas Maverick’s owner and billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban believes the boomer generation started out with the right idea, but has only gone downhill since the 60s and 70s.

"Boomers are gonna go down in history as the most disappointing generation ever, from sex, drugs, and rock and roll to what we have today," he told Adam Grant on the "Re:Thinking with Adam Grant" podcast.

See Also: Mark Cuban Praises Coffee Company Pitch On Shark Tank, Argues Against Kevin O'Leary, But Did He Get A Deal?

What You Need To Know: Boomers went “from fighting the man to being everything that was hated in the 60's and 70',” Cuban followed up in a tweet on Sunday. He was responding to one of his followers, who referred to a Fortune article on the podcast episode as “distorted.”

“The basic technologies that Cuban used to become a billionaire and zoomers use to 'quietly quit' were largely created by boomers,” Cuban’s Twitter follower, @GoGreen566, wrote.

While the two agree that boomers set the path for zoomers (those born between 1995 and 2010), it’s the latter that Cuban believes will become known as the “greatest generation.”

“They take all the ingredients into account when they’re making decisions, and I think that’s beautiful,” Cuban said.

Speaking about work culture, Cuban attributes the paradigm shift that’s occurring, with employees gaining more power by seeing themselves as “free agents” and organizations having to regain employee trust “every single day,” to Gen Z.

It’s due to the “fiscal, financial and personal health balance, right, because either you accommodate it for your employees and your customers or they’ll find somebody who does,” said Cuban on the podcast, as reported by Insider.

The fiscal, financial and personal balance Cuban referred to is a phenomenon strongly associated with Gen Z employees, who largely choose to define themselves less on what they do for work and more on what they do while not at work.

“Whereas other generations thought that their identity started at 9 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m., Gen Z often feels that their identity starts outside of work,” said Jason Dorsey, a Gen Z expert and founder of The Center for Generational Kinetics, to Fortune in August.

The new way of thinking has ignited a rise in “quiet quitting,” where employees do only what is required for their job in order to maintain their mental health and work/life balance.

Cuban believes the way Gen Z views work, life and the importance of “placing a premium on mental equilibrium,” is putting more pressure on organizations to reevaluate their practices.

"I think organizations will have to understand that more and more and more as we go forward. Not only for how you treat your employees, but what your customers expect as well."

See Also: Mark Cuban Celebrates Closing $5.7B Deal With Middle Seat Flight To Vegas: 'This Is Just Perfect'

Originally published Sept. 19, 2022.

Photo: Courtesy of Gage Skidmore on flickr