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1
05/20/08 | Report as spam
Helicopter Parents
This is so true! I have two Gen Y daughters, both working and completing
their studyies. There is no issue regarding their work, or study, that they
wouldn't ask me for advice. I help them put together application letters, role-
play interviews, brain storm issues and possible scenarios, ensure they keep
work/life balance etc. I read the report on Helicopter Parents to my daughter
and she said "Yes, of course we'll ask you. You've been there before and done
it."
And I do check out the company if they want to apply for a job. One of the
first things would be for me to look at whether the company has employee
friendly policies (flexible hours, work from home, gender equality etc.).
Everything I wanted at work, but had to fight for it. If not - I'd say 'Don't
bother'. And they don't have to bother if it's not suitable, because they both
live at home and have our support for as long as they want. Which would be
reflective of many Gen Ys these days. I guess, behind every Gen Y is a Baby
Boomer parent.
Dina
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2
05/21/08 | Report as spam
helicopter parents
hang on - I'm a boomer in my fiftees - my mom used to help me out in this way over 30 years ago! is it really that new
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05/22/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
Your right. Military style management techniques do not work with this generation. They need to feel heard and that they matter. One of the most important things a manager of young people can do is make sure their employees feel they are making a contribution and that they are valued by the company. Here is new article by motivational speaker Garrison Wynn on how managers can help http://www.keynote-speaker-motivational.com/article-generations-working-better.htm">generations work better together:
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4
05/23/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
It's amazing to hear the great lengths prestigious companies are taking to
recruit Gen Y. Bending over backwards is putting it lightly.
Based on the examples given in this article, these companies are enabling
their behavior and following the exact foot steps their parents beat out for
them - to expect everyone, including their employers, to do I say or be gone
with you.
I believe these strategies are doing more harm than good - they're retarding
their growth and developing self entitled/absorbed people who will be inept
at dealing with adversity when they don't get their way.
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06/17/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
I am 41 and CEO of a startup company ( http://www.productify.com ). We have dealt with the 20-somethings that are constantly texting, and feel truly put upon to not socialize on the Internet while they work.
We have turned it around, and put this out to them like its a perk. Some social trends we block (IRC) and some we allow (Yahoo IM). We have contained another aspect that drives us [older] managers nutz: If they work sub-hours, we pay sub-salary. We dock by the hour.
The only motivators we've had that work are A) weekly bonuses (attendance, calls handled, sites signed up) B) small raises, lots of them.
Start them out at 75% pay, treat a hire like a probational hire, and then raise them into their pay bracket as they "get with the program".
(Still, the cell-texting not-here-on-Mondays-keep-the-pay attitude is going to murderlate the US...its bad)
G.
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6
07/16/08 | Report as spam
Time To Grow Up
When will all this playtime end? Gen Y was raised to believe they are equal to adults...problem is, none of them know how to communicate. Texting, iPods and portable gaming is not about a cool way to live, it is about avoiding the real world.
Someday, somehow, you will all be required to grow up and actually work without all those gadgets...no more flip flops, no more iPods at work, and no more scheduling meetings around Yoga. Especially when Germany suddenly took the lead last year with a GDP that put the United States in second place. They have 83 million people and the USA has 350 million.
What was that about being more efficient because you multitask?
When Germany, China and India start producing more goods for a LOT less, the USA will have to crack the whip to compete. After all, there is something called ROI, and Gen Y doesn't seem to know anything about it.
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7
08/06/08 | Report as spam
Seriously - This is getting out of hand!
I am a gen Xer that was taught by my parents that hard work is admirable and required to succeed. Without that in your bones, you do not have competition which is healthy and makes employees grow through challenge. Now that everyone wins a trophy in base ball, will they all get the same pay and the same promotion at the same time? How will these twenty-somethings deal with conflict as they rise through the ranks? Every day business decisions require conflcit resolution and I have not seen one of them negotiate successfully. I personally am disgusted by our complacency with their behavior.
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08/13/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
I agree with those who have expressed the idea that continuing to coddle this generation will ultimately lead to increased problems for US competitiveness in the world economy.
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08/27/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
I work with a group of gen Xers. Recently we've (management) been bombarded complaints that we don't consult them when making decisions: as though decision making is a shared responsibility...While this very same group, does not meet deadlines, constantly needs to be chased after to produce the goods. Granted some of these younsters are hardworking, eager to learn and they have some bright ideas too. However all it takes is for your organisation to have two "bad" ones', then you've got your hands full. That's when we military style works best. We try to accommodate them (time-off, long lunch breaks etc)as far as possible, however that seems to be met with the same attitude all the time...consult consult consult. I wonder if China and India would have made the strides they've made if they had consulted all their workforce with every decision they made.
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10/02/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
I am a graduate student writing a thesis on Generational Differences in the Worplace. I am focusing on the Millentials/Gen Y and the varying communication & management styles necessary in today's workplace. This is a timely subject since the entrance of the Millenials into the U.S. workplace at the turn of the century, marks the first time four generations are working together in the U.S. workplace.
I will be conducting a survey in the near future on this topic. If you are interested in participating in the survey and/or have any information you would like to share, kindly contact me at NYUSummaGrad@verizon.net to be added to my survey e-mail list.
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10/23/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
I have to say, this article was well-written, well thought-out and I appreciate the think-tank research and great examples. It reeled me in.
Then... I scanned the comments. From Helicopter parents to get-a-lifers, etc. I can see both sides, but really?
What 20-year-old DOES have a work ethic? Who DOESN'T "want" the world/employer to cater to your every need and desire? That's simple human selfishness...
I say, nip it in the bud, before we wake up 10 years from now with another 700 billion dollar "bail out" for those amazing and fast-paced 30-year-old entitled CEOs that got there because we were afraid their "talent" might go somewhere else. It's a large country you can find someone better, faster, stronger. I promise. I'm talented, but I have a work ethic too and I may have never gotten there if I wasn't well-mentored early on in my career.
Leaders SHOULD do so by example. This is not a new concept. Parents SHOULD be involved in children's lives and every 20-year-old that has not yet lived in the "real world" "thinks" they deserve it all. Perhaps more now than ever, but just because three companies made changes that worked for them, it doesn't make this the next greatest business model. Perhaps those companies were too extreme to begin with...
I wouldn't appreciate someone yelling at me straight off a bus either, but what does a new recruit expect?? they're going to experience much worse six-months later when they get shipped off to war. The military owes it to them to prepare them as soon as they step off that bus. If that 10% couldn't handle boot camp they probably SHOULD go home... I haven't read the new 350-6, but I don't think calling the obstacle course a "confidence course" changes how hard it is. Whether they yell or not, leading by example made all the difference...
I think if every company makes this one change to "cater to the millenias" instead of molding them to affect your bottom-line and become a good ROI, ten years from now we will find a lot of 30-year-olds still living in their parents basement doing Wii Yoga between their flex schedules of "come-in-when-I-want" telecommutes that have somehow become the "norm." Just because they can.
what a world, what a world... if millenias are the next big baby boom then have we got a whole lot of hurt coming our way...
Anyone have a case-study for strategy number 4?
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10/29/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
I have read the article and comments. Being a 34 year old operations manager myself, I have to say I agree that coddling is not the solution. I am currently working in the Middle East and do a lot of recruiting. I have to say that this problem seems to be a generational one on the surface, but I personally believe that it is a cultural one at its core.
I have experienced the same techniques of flex time being used here in the Middle East to attract new young hires. It just doesn't work. When you have to perform in an ever increasing competitive environment, you need go-getters. You need to be able to make use of your resources and ensure that the resources are getting the job done. You just can't do that with flex time or coddling non-performers.
Leading by example, while a fundamental requirement, is also not the whole solution. You can take a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
During my recruiting campaigns, I have interviewed and hired people from India, the Phillipines and Egypt. It all comes down to character. Character is something that is built into a person during their upbringing and their culture. You need to hire the right person. Its as simple as that. However, with more competition in attracting qualified candidates due to the shortage of certain professionals, the problem is increased. You end up getting an over-inflated, ego-istic candidate that thinks they are truly qualified as a result of the offers they receive, when in reality the offers are only made because the candidate possesses maybe 50-60% of the required qualifications which seems perfect given the fact that the norm is 20-30%.
My personal belief is that character is a key ingredient to the hiring process. In addition, what I called "people-centered" companies (where a particular process or business units revolves around a person) should be changed to a "process-centered" company. In "process-centered" companies, you can lower the bar a bit during the recruiting process focussing on general skills and character, then train with the process itself doing the performance monitoring.
In either case, this problem doesn't just exist back home in the states, but in many countries and, based on my travels, I see it a result of upbringing and culture. One poster mentioned India - which is interesting. One day I was asked my impression about Indian Candidates. My answer was simple: "Indian candidates seem to focus on the long term and are ready to sacrifice in the short term to prove themselves and reap the rewards of their work through growth. Others are purely focussed on the short term - what will I get now, what is my vacation, what is the bonus scheme, etc."
Culture, Culture, Culture.
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10/31/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
The drill sergeant paradigm is clearly inferior to an engaged mentoring leadership program.
It is the same difference between a vision of human talent as available for so much per hour, and human talent as something you nurture and reward and inspire with enlightened leadership.
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12/11/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
For the record, I am a GenX/Millenial hybrid, because I was born in the latter half of 1979. (1980 is the cutoff). I have to say that there must be some sort of middle ground. My experiences certainly did not lean in the direction of having my parents find or approve my job for me after college, so I will leave that piece of the article out. However, I still do come up against what I call the "old school military" mentality, which involves unnecessary verbal abuse in the office, designed to break me down as a person and make me "do my time" so that I can "deserve" a promotion. I agree with the changes that the military has made. They haven't made softer soldiers, they've made loyal ones who are loyal out of respect, not fear. For me, if I fear someone, I do not respect them. The two are not synonomous. As to the issue that DeLoitte experienced, on some level I agree with that too. Pay scales have not been able to rise with inflation over the past twenty years, and most people in their twenties, working in an office, are salaried, not hourly. Asking these people, at the last minute, to work overtime for no extra pay, is an abuse of power in my opinion. Asking them to work overtime is not, but making the assumption that they are available for the taking like a toy or a machine is unreasonable. If last minute overtime is asked for, then additional compensation should be offered, to sweeten the deal. In the early part of the twentieth century, it was behavior like this that led to the formation of unions, which, sadly have been abused in the past and present, but the basic concept is the same. Asking people to work more than is reasonable for no extra pay. We would do well to truly think about these issues, instead of instigating knee jerk reactions that simply place the blame on the "other".
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12/22/08 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
If you are interested in participating in a survey on generational differences and having your generational voice count, please write NYUSummaGrad@Verizon.net for a link to the survey.
Thank you!
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16
03/23/09 | Report as spam
earn more money
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03/31/09 | Report as spam
However, with more competition in attracting qualified candidates due to the shortage of certain professionals, the problem is increased.It's a large country you can find someone better, faster, stronger. I promise. if I fear someone, I do not respect them. The two are not synonomous.
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04/06/09 | Report as spam
Generational Differences in the Workplace
The link below is to a short survey in relation to my thesis research. It should take you less than 5 minutes to complete.
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/survey-intro.zgi?p=WEB228ZAW339WZ
I would appreciate it if you would forward this link to your friends, family and colleagues.
Thank you!!!
Best,
E
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04/10/09 | Report as spam
RE: Three Strategies for Managing Generation Y
"However, with more competition in attracting qualified candidates due to the shortage of certain professionals, the problem is increased.It's a large country you can find someone better, faster, stronger. I promise. if I fear someone, I do not respect them. The two are not synonomous."
You are 100% correct. And fear is not the tool to be used when trying to motivate Gen Y. However, because others can be found as you have stated, coddling and offering over-inflated salaries, is not the solution - it only serves to compound the problem.
