The 60 Minutes Segment has ‘workforce bloggers’ buzzing about Generation Y.
Penelope Trunk and Employee Evolution are great bloggers who wrote about millennials, this week. Their thoughts are insightful and kindhearted — but I thought Generation Y was all about ADHD and text messaging while driving?
Turns out that most workforce bloggers believe that THIS GENERATION IS THE GENERATION THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORKFORCE. FOREVER.
(Although the media will say that about every generation, right??)
As a woman born at the tail-end of Generation X, I have key messages to deliver to anyone born after 1981:
- Stop asking me for praise. If I wanted to spend time with the needy, I would volunteer more frequently.
- You don’t get a parade for going to work and doing a good job. You get a paycheck.
- Who told you that it’s okay to buy stuff you can’t afford?
- If you live with your parents, you can’t afford an iPhone.
- You can’t change the world if you don’t vote or don’t do your own laundry.
- Do me a favor and read a novel or visit a museum, this weekend.
- I know the education system failed you, but I’m tired of talking about Halo 3.
- When in doubt, take some initiative and figure it out.
- I’m not personally invested in your success unless your potential failure impacts my own salary or performance review.
- Don’t rely upon the team to bail you out of a project or an assignment unless you give us part of your salary.
- Stop trusting upper-management.
- The CEO is not your father, and he’s not going to look out for your best interests.
I’m exhausted by all this Gen Y talk. Mama needs a martini. Class dismissed.
amen, especially to the last 2:
# Stop trusting upper-management.
# The CEO is not your father, and he’s not going to look out for your best interests.
Priceless, its already printed up to take home to my brats.
cols: I wish my CEO was Jack Donaghy. Oh man, I love that guy.
Bob: Tell those brats to move out. Sheesh.
Amen to the CEO not being your father! It took me awhile to figure that out though, I’ll admit. Live and learn!
Oops…someone else already said Amen to that one. How embarassing.
Believe it or not, I really enjoyed reading your post. Like your 1st commenter, I wholeheartedly agree with the last two bullet points. Of course, as a millennial, I don’t agree with everything you said . Here are a few of my thoughts:
I don’t think Gen-Y is looking for a “parade” when we go to work. That whole clip in the 60 Minutes segment just made me laugh…who does that? I will say, however, that we are looking for more than a paycheck. We’re looking to learn, have a chance to express our visions and truly enjoy what it is that we do. Is that an unfair desire?
I think any manager that has no personal investment in their employees is not really doing their job. Good management requires you to know what your employees are all about. Taking the time to understand what they are after is crucial if you want to retain them.
Now, this all assumes that you’re in a management position. If you’re not, and you’re having problems with the millennials, I guess just suck it up. They’re not going anywhere and either are you, so the best thing to do is embrace their values and try to teach them a few of yours.
The 60 Minutes segment was great for my website, but sucked for our generation as a whole. Like most news magazines, they totally went over the top. I assure you the changes you need to make to accommodate Gen-Y, is far less extreme than Morley lets on. Hell, it probably won’t even cost you a dime. The most important thing is that you talk to them. You’ll discover things aren’t as bad as you think.
I could use a drink too…cheers Laurie.
“If you live with your parents, you can’t afford an iPhone.”
“You can’t change the world if you don’t vote or don’t do your own laundry.”
Oh, thank you, Laurie!. I’m actually the parent of one of those Millennials (although I’m MUCH TOO YOUNG for that to be true). He graduated from college last spring, got a job related to his major, and got his own apartment 3000 miles away. Granted, there’s no guarantee things will STAY that way, but the workforce bloggers are giving me the impression that he’s quite unusual for Gen-Y. If so, I’m glad he is.
And I’m happy whenever someone other than me goes off on this topic - I’ve devoted way too many blog posts to it this year.
Emily - No worries! I don’t like your CEO, either.
Ryan - Of course you’re right about Gen Y, just like I was right 10 years ago when I told my supervisors that Generation X wasn’t a group of cynical, dim-witted slackers. (Oh, wait a second..) Ryan, we’ll be best friends in no time. I like your style, and I like to watch young guys in the workforce who are all positive and excited about future opportunities. It’s fun to watch them grow cynical & jaded.
(Yes, I say that as a Human Resources leader and as a snarky blogger.)
Florinda - Your son could be president with that track record. You must have done something right with him. xxxooo
thank god i look exactly like avril. i mean, thank GOD.
hey hey you you i don’t like your co-worker.
I like your bullets, but I had to chime in that I regulary read the “experts” on Yahoo and have to admit that Penelope Trunk is one of the biggest idiots to own a keyboard. If she ever murders Robert Kiyosaki, she may have a shot at the top position.
I really like Penelope and I think most of the experts on yahoo are tools. She’s actually refreshing and right about many things.
I find a strong correlation between the quality of the experts’ writing and whether or not they have advanced degrees. Ram, Wheelan, Siegel and Guttentag tend to write some quality pieces (although Wheelan has been a ranty of late). Trunk often strikes me as being a correspondent from BizarroWorld. And based on your opinion, I guess that might just be synonymous with corporate America.