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Are Gen Y Workers Good for Business? In his new book The Future Arrived Yesterday: The Rise of the Protean Corporation and What It Means for You (Crown Business), business and technology journalist Michael S. Malone argues that a new generation of young Americans entering the workforce -- Generation Y -- isn't the best choice if you want loyal, hard-working, long-hour employees on your team."Managing this generation may not only be a nightmare, it may actually be impossible," Malone writes. "It is quite likely that some sizable percentage of these new workers (and, being the so- called "echo" of the Baby Boom, their numbers are huge) will never work in a steady job on the payroll of a single employer. And an equally large segment may never know a career different from that of a 'permanent part-timer,' contractor, or consultant." Malone cites a piece written by Jake Halpern in the Boston Globe Magazine in which that author says evidence might suggest "this generation, which is flooding into the workplace, will create chaotic, unpleasant, and utterly unproductive work environments that will drive many a good business directly into the ground ..." The caveat, though, in Malone's mind, is that Gen Y's fierce independence will accelerate the nation's evolution form a corporate economy of worker bees to an entrepreneurial one of innovative thinkers and rapid change, one where a majority of the Gen Y workforce is self-employed or even part of an ever-widening proprietary class. "This cohort, many with parents who have always worked at home, has little interest in ever taking an office job, or working for a business that doesn't change," he writes. The Gen Y group will be fiercely start-up oriented, and "by 2013, perhaps two- thirds of all adult Americans will be classified as entrepreneurial." The introduction and first chapter of The Future Arrived Yesterday are excerpted here.
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Realistically a lot of my peers, and I am 24, think that upon graduation from college they will get a 50-75k a year job and be makign over 100k within their first 3 years. I think the author of this is simply stating that y'ers do not want to wait their turn, they want to accumulate wealth at an early age, and that they are not willing to put in 20 or 30 years of hard work to attain it. They want to start a business become a self made millionaire and retire living a star studded life like the ones they see on tv everyday before they are 30. The realism of this is that maybe 1% of the American population can attain this, while the others fail. I believe the author was simply trying to convey that y'ers are not as willing to work hard for their money anymore (by hard I mean grind out a career like most of our parents did) We have a sense of entitlement to us that makes us act like the world is ours for the taking which is a great thing, but not for the future of companies with aging baby boomer employees looking to retire and replace their hard working long term employees.
I am in this category (probably a little younger, actually) and disagree. While there are plenty of people in my generation with this attitude, the same goes for others, too (e.g. baby boomers who are just putting in their 8 hours at a call center somewhere, usually found hovering around the water cooler).
From what I can tell, these are very vague and generalized stereotypes. I do have to say, though, that our generation DOES want to have a good work/life balance, one where we can work hard and play hard.
I am 25 years old, graduated with a degree from a great business school, and have taken every opportunity from the last four years in my career to learn as much as possible about my industry. The end goal, for me, is to take that knowledge and start a business this year.
The future is exciting and there are a lot of brilliant minds out there in my generation (and we are eager to learn from you, too!). Just talk to a few of us before making these sweeping generalizations...
But what do I know? I'm just a kid.
I think most people working towards a college degree always want to finish what they started, especially as it give them multiple options for jobs and future opportunities.
If all gen-y youths are dropping out (which I think is not true, especially when the economy demands them to be the best to get a choice job amongst competition) then they will never be the leaders of tommorrow. Sometimes it takes a mentor to make sure they are living up to their potential, but that means your leadership must be prepared to be a mentor.
Check out this article to see what I'm talking about (http://leaderskillstraining.com/categories_interacting_with_employees_article.htm). If you can't mentor gen-y people who are like the author suggests, then they could be a waste of time. I think if you target people who actually "do" receive a college degree, then that says something.
Vic, that is not true. I have never witnessed, read, or heard of this being practiced--it sounds like someone was attempting to tell a joke you didn't get.
Don, "these kids want to drop out of college". Do you know how many "kids" are graduating from college? Close to 80,000 a year. Don't be an ignorant knuckle-head.
I hear that Gen Ys bring their parents in for the interviewing/job negotiating process, and the whole process is coddled by corp America, as HR provides guidelines & training to managers for dealing with this. Being an aging baby boomer, naturally this is incredulous and I can't believe it's happening. any truth to it? Say it isn't so!
It's obvious that all this author used primarily anecdotal information to write his book--and all the typical, stereotype information at that. We've done actual research--sat face-to-face with this generation and dug beneath the surface. He's got it all wrong and it's time that someone give these kids a break. Please tell me--was your generation perfect? Did everyone in your generation excel at entrepreneurialsm? I doubt it. These kids are bright, talented, have plenty of ambition and are highly motivated to succeed by making things better. Too many Boomers, unfortunately just expect them to do thing their way--conform--wait their turn. Those that take time to really understand some of these bright young people will be the one's to soar in the future. People who chose to believe books like this, will not. wake up and smell the coffee--they ARE the future. It's time to get wise about which one's will build it best and stop the constant criticism.
What crap.
If I had a direct report that behaved like some of these mamby-pamby 'coddle me mommy!' crybabies, they'd be gone by day 2.
These kids want to drop out of college (can't usually cut it THERE, either...) and walk into a high-six-figure salary and a corner office, because their helicopter parents instilled way too MUCH self-esteem into them.
Work, or get out of the way of those who can and will work.