Which of the following is a characteristic of people of the baby boomer generation?

A. They surrender to establishments.

B. They lack social conscientiousness.

C. They do not conform to rules.

D. They are considered to be workaholics.

E. They focus on maintaining a hierarchy even at the cost of justice.

D. They are considered to be workaholics.

Explanation:

For baby boomers, work is a way of life. Unlike the younger generations, they prefer stability (lasting decades in their jobs) and think in the long term, since they believe that hard work is the guarantee to enjoy good years of retirement.

Their rigorous work ethic leads them to think that success in life is largely defined by their professional prestige and the positions they occupy in their workplace. It is so much their commitment that they often reproach young people for their culture of immediacy and (perceived) laziness.

For this generation, authority within the workplace is linked to the time, experience and contributions made to the corporation. Naturally, the more time, experience and contributions, the greater the authority should be.

The origin of this mentality has to do with the time in which they were born and grew up (1946-1964), a time when competition in work and education was very intense. So this generation learned that hard work would be rewarding for the gain of positions.

This obsession with work goes hand in hand with a strong feeling of independence, which often makes them question the establishment and hierarchies, even in their workplace. Thus, two options would be ruled out (A and E). Likewise, they grew up during a time of profound social changes (the postwar period, the beginning of the Cold War, the advent of the hippie movement), which has led them not to conform to rules and develop an important social consciousness. With this, we discard options B and C.