In my previous blog post on Obama I wrongly quoted the numbers of fans he had on Facebook. It was/is actually 13.4 million according to Don Tapscott who, back in September, correctly predicted Obama’s victory in an interview with Stefan Stern of the FT.

Anyone who doubts the power of such social networking sites and of the internet in general should think again. I sometimes hear people questioning whether Gen Y are that different from the rest of us. YES THEY ARE. They are wired differently because of the technological landscape that has always been a very comfortable home for them. They are natives to this world. Us Gen Xers and Baby Boomers are immigrants and always will be.

Sally

I have become increasingly aware of a number of different mind sets that are emerging around Gen Y in the workplace. They broadly fall into the categories of those that will move organisations forward and those that won’t. I have observed three predominant mind sets:

"Gen Y are a pain and they ought to change their ways"

This is the ‘I don’t see why we should change for them folk’. It’s the recruitment manager who has experienced much more demanding Gen Ys in the last couple of years who want to know what the company can do for them as much as what they can offer. It’s the HR manager who has a view that Gen Ys should have more realistic expectations towards work life. And it is the manager who is resentful that when they were in their 20s they knew their place and would not have dared challenge their employer.

I have noticed a certain amount of anger and resentment amongst this group. They are stuck in complaining mode and struggle to understand the underlying motivations to the behaviour let alone want to respond to it in a way that is useful to all concerned.

" Gen Y are the future opportunity and must be embraced or there will be big problems"

This attitude resides at the other end of the spectrum. It is those who feel that Gen Y are the answer  to all organisational problems and that things should change according to their view of the world.  This view is held mainly by the supremely self-confident Gen Ys who know they are talented and have a lot to offer and feel that they are the ones with all the power in the employment relationship.

"I struggle with some of Gen Ys attitudes but want to understand them and find a way that works for all of us"

The individuals and organisations who are making the most effective steps to attract and retain Gen Ys fall into this camp. They are the ones who realise that we all see the world through our own particular generational lens and that gain is to be had by understanding the others perspectives too.

Most of us do struggle with difference, whether the difference is generational, gender or whatever. The trick is for all parties to understand the others. With understanding comes the creation of possibilities. Possibilities give us choices.

A refusal to consider other possibilities of ways of working is a core barrier to positive change. For example, working time. The 9 to 5 culture only exists because in the industrial age factories had to be run on schedules that meant workers had to be at work between certain hours. There is no reason for that rigidity today, especially in the knowledge sector. The third category of mindset:  "I struggle with some of Gen Ys attitudes but want to understand them and find a way that works for all of us"  is the most productive one. If I were to give any piece of advice to companies about how to tackle the challenge of Gen Y in the workplace, my starting point would be to be clear about your mind set first. Change only happens when you really want it to.

Sally

This is a question that we get asked time and time again. Our Gen Y research tells us that there are some clear and distinguishing characteristics which are mainly to do with the fact that Gen Y are much more driven by self development and growth eg opportunities to be mentored, doing work that plays to their strengths. Whereas Gen X were/are much more concerned with security-based motivators ie secure job, salary, status, career ladder.

However it is also true that Gen Y is demanding from work things that Gen X would have quite liked too but we were not bold enough to demand.

I like this blog post from Ryan Healy. He is talking about the USA but what he says is applicable elsewhere. He says that Gen Y have the opportunity to make the workplace better for all of us for these three reasons:

Y Has Better Demographics

Generation X was simply too small to force any kind of change. There are about 50 million Gen Xers in the United States compared to nearly 76 million baby boomers and 77 million Millennials. When Gen Xers graduated college, the jobs were not there. With only 50 million people to fill the positions, and plenty of boomers around to fill the middle management jobs, companies had their pick of candidates. Employers took advantage by hiring only the top candidates and paying them as little as possible.

Generation Y is 50% bigger than Generation X, and with Xers dropping out of the workforce to take care of their children, employees, not management, have the power and even a recession won’t slow down the job market. Generation Y has the same confidence, the same ambition and the same savviness as Generation X had in their twenties, but the demographics are in Gen Y’s favor. Y can ask for change and actually get it.

Y Has Better Technology

Generation X came of age when the internet was just coming into common, public use. There were great new technologies and plenty of opportunities to strike it rich in Silicon Valley, much like there are today. But the 90s were still a time of traditional media and marketing to the masses. So if you wanted to make your voice heard, you had to pay thousands for a TV commercial or somehow become a celebrity. Today, anyone with a bad job can start a blog and tell the world why work should be better. Plus, where there was no easy way to create a collective Gen X voice, the Web is now all about community. And Generation Y embraces the idea of community like no other generation.

Y Has Better Teamwork

Generation Y is the ultimate “team” generation. Despite what the media says, it’s not about us versus the rest of you. It’s about how can we all work together? How can we all be happy?

We’re not competing now and we never were competing with the Baby Boomers. We’re the entry level grunts and they’re the big shots in the corner office. We don’t threaten their jobs and they don’t make us work long hours because we don’t report to them. But Gen X hated, and still hates, the Boomers. It makes sense. The baby boomers were directly managing the Gen Xers, and because of the demographics I pointed out above, the Gen Xers had to work the long hours or risk being fired and (easily) replaced.

Ryan is right. Unfortunately, some employers are still thinking of Gen Y as a problem/risk/challenge. Wrong. Gen Y presents a fantastic opportunity for positive change in the workplace: they are great collaborators, they are prepared to challenge the status quo, they have passion and they won’t put up with some of the nonsense that people like me (I confess I did!) did when I started out.

Sally

I know I am supposed to be more understanding than most on the subject of generations and the differences between us. But last night I struggled to keep my Gen X work values to myself.

I was speaking to a 17 year old about his problems with college. He is doing a 2 year course that will allow him to do work that he is passionate about. But he hates the course, isn’t keeping up with it, doesn’t like the way the tutors are teaching and has, so far, handed all his assignments in late. It indeed sounded like the teaching methods are very old fashioned and uninspiring to Gen Y.

But the young man in question told me he messes around in class, can’t motivate himself to do his work on time and is thinking of dropping out of the course, even though he really wants the qualification. I felt like saying a number of things including: “you have to work hard for what you want”, “struggle through now and the reward will come later”, ”just stop messing around and apply yourself”, “the teachers are unlikely to change their teaching methods for you, get over it”, and all sorts of variations. 

The killer was when he huffed and said “they just don’t realise we are a different generation” - the subtext being that the older generation should make allowances and change their ways. It’s unlikely to happen I reckon. It is more a case of each generation needing to understand the other and meet half way. Maybe I will email the college and offer them some help…..

 Sally Bibb