Last week I listened in on an online meeting all about Gen Y in the workplace. It was a very informative meeting talking about all the uniqueness and quarks that make up Gen Y. A link was given to a website that lists of the 10 ways that Generation Y will change the workplace. Check it out:
http://www.employeeevolution.com/archives/2008/05/23/10-ways-generation-y-will-change-the-workplace/
Written by Kaileigh Maguire, Gen Y
The reason why Gen Y act the way they do in the workplace is because of the way they were raised. Our rapid, fast paced, “go, go, go” attitude can all be attributed to our upbringing. Growing up I was constantly doing extra-curricular activities while attending school and then later in life; working. I was constantly busy, always on the run, and always working with others. I have always thought that this was just normal life and didn’t think anything of it. During a recent online webinar about Gen Y, they pointed out that the reason Gen Y has such different work styles is because of the way they were raised. We are so used to be being on the go and working with others that this make our work style completely different than any other generation.
Written by Kaileigh Maguire, Gen Y
Jul
Being part of the Y Generation I see our uniqueness as being normal, our differences as being similarities and our way of life as being the norm. I am constantly surrounded by fellow Gen Y’ers that I don’t see the big picture and how we really do differ from the rest of the generations; especially when it comes to the workplace. Recently, I listened in on a free meeting online all about Gen Y in the workplace. Hearing this I found some very interesting points about Gen Y that I would have never thought to step back and take into consideration myself.
The first point being that people refer to us as the “trophy” generation. This means that we expect to be given a trophy just for participating, not even for winning anything. We expect the best to be handed to us on a silver platter without doing any work. After hearing this it made complete sense to me. Being a Gen Y’er myself, I can clearly see where this mentality comes into play and how it rings true in more than one of my fellow Gen Y’ers.
Written by Kaileigh Maguire, Gen Y
I was interviewed this week by a group of Gen Y interns. They are interning for the Center for Women in Enterprise and on their own they decided to have a summer project that all of them could work on. The project is to interview women business owners who are clients of the Center and then post these interviews to the Center’s website.
As part of the interview, I explained about our new Managing Gen Y curriculum. They wanted to know how I had learned so much about their generation (I am a Gen X) and I said I had viewed learning about them the same way I have studied other cultures in the past. I have looked at their language, behaviors, beliefs and attitudes and tried to decide how best to understand them.
At the end, they asked another question which belies the myth that Gen Y’s don’t care about other generations. They asked “Knowing what you do about our generation, what would you tell us about how better to understand other generations?” I thought this was an excellent question. My reply was that they needed to see other generations as part of another culture. I said that they needed to know that when Gen X and Baby Boomers don’t understand them, it is not because they are being difficult, it is as if they are from a completely different culture and the X’ers and Boomers are going through culture shock when they interact with them. They may not realize that they are going through culture shock, but they are.
Working across the generational lines is about being patient and understanding from both sides of the generational divide.
I just returned from a women business owners conference in San Francisco. While there we launched a new product which is a self-study/training program for managers called Managing Gen Y. The Gen Y population is currently between the ages of 10 and 30. As they have come into the workplace, managers have discovered that they are hard wired very differently than previous generations. At the conference, where the materials were very well received (check out www.GenYTools.com to see them) the comment I heard the most was “Gen Y employees don’t want to work.”
While there may be some people who don’t want to work in any generation, I think people are missing the point with Gen Y employees in general. Gen Y employees want to be engaged. They want to know why what they are doing matters. They want to be involved. They do not want to be told “do this” and when they ask why “because I said so.” While that might have worked with previous generations, it won’t work with this one. As an example, while I was away, I left my office in the capable hands of three Gen Y women. Not only did they follow up on details, ensure that materials for the show were finished, they also launched a new website. On Wednesday, one came in two hours early to ensure that all of the deadlines had been reached. I didn’t ask her to do it, she just did. What I saw in my office last week wasn’t people unwilling to work. What I saw was a team of talented women who were engaged, were trusted to make things happen and they stepped up to the plate.
Perhaps it is time that we Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers started thinking about how we define “unwilling to work” and start to provide these new employees with a framework that engages them and helps to know what they are doing is important. Is this harder than saying “do it”? You bet. Is it worth it? You will have to try it and find out.
It worked for me.