3 Ways to Connect With Gen-Y Workers

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  bnetpm04/29/08 Report as spam
  1

  Just Gen Yers?

  This restlessness would seem to apply to Gen Xers as well too, no? (or is it just anyone who isn't yet loaded down with a lot of debt and responsibilities that make them resigned to a day of work drudgery?)

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  CC Holland04/29/08 Report as spam
  2

  Some Gen X-ers share those Gen Y traits...

  ...but I don't believe that all do. I'm a Gen X-er myself, and while I do prioritize work and success differently than my parents did -- I'm more fulfilled by personal achievement and new challenges than by long-term career loyalty and slow-and-steady advancement -- I'm not quite the peripatetic thrill junkie that represents the Gen Y archetype. And I'm old enough that I catch myself thinking sometimes that Gen Y-ers have a sense of entitlement that I never dreamed of having when I first entered the workplace. I think it's more of a continuum: Gen X discovered there's more to career than just a paycheck, and Gen Y is learning there's more to life than just a career.

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  bnetpm04/29/08 Report as spam
  3

  RE: 3 Ways to Connect With Gen-Y Workers

  Another interesting statistic to see would revolve around productivity. Does a Gen Yer get as much or more done when they're multi-tasking with social apps? (Or, again, does less responsibility mean that their work day is just longer, but more casual, while older generations compact more into their day in order to get back to home obligations?)

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  CC Holland04/29/08 Report as spam
  4

  Good question!

  It sometimes seems that multitasking ends up with nothing much getting done, at least on my end. Then again, it could be that my Gen X generation just didn't become expert enough at multitasking. Gen Y-ers may have gotten so used to an ADD sort of environment -- everything media-based, instant, and evanescent -- that they can actually handle more thrown at them at once. And I don't think it's less responsibility; look at some of the prominent Gen Y-ers out there who've founded companies and become gazillionaires. I bet they have more keeping them up at night than I do.

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  Jagadeesh Babu04/30/08 Report as spam
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  RE: 3 Ways to Connect With Gen-Y Workers

  GEN yers are always influenced by technology and advanced analysis.
  The main criteria is direction,evaluation and opportunity for knowledge to gain the top up management skills in the organisation.
  thus an employee will be innovative and competent with his skills and possess the crisis management to imagine,solve,build and lead the future technology and welcomes the best GEN Z ers after his innovation is over taken for an upgradation and research.

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  CC Holland04/30/08 Report as spam
  6

  Knowledge is key

  I think you're right that some of the prime motivators are knowledge and gaining competency to move up to the next level. And a high comfort level with technology is definitely a prerequisite for success in today's business world. Wonder what the Gen Z-ers will look like? (And for that matter, what we'll call the generation after them... Generation AA, perhaps?)

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  artist5804/30/08 Report as spam
  7

  RE: 3 Ways to Connect With Gen-Y Workers

  I'm a baby-boomer, who takes college classes with Generation X and Y and I am learning a lot, from both groups.

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  CC Holland04/30/08 Report as spam
  8

  What lessons are you learning?

  Interesting to hear that you're in such a perfect lab environment, so to speak, to get the perspective of all three generations. What specifically have you learned from your younger counterparts?

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  DJPR05/01/08 Report as spam
  9

  Looking back at Generation X (Y is just more of the same)

  I found this old article on the web stating the following on what motivates "Generation Y"
  
  "Value The Individual and Nurture Relationships. Although there doesn't seem to be one description of Generation Y, most will agree that a defining characteristic is that they don't like to be characterized (as I'm doing in this article!).
  ...
  Challenging Work. This generation has sometimes been called the MTV Generation because of their short attention span. Yers want new challenges and the opportunity to build new skills
  ...
  Freedom to Manage Time and Work. Yers don't want over-your-shoulder, in-your-face managers who constantly check what they're doing. "
  
  Now just replace all "X"s with "Y"s and you get the actual quotation:
  http://www.coachingandmentoring.com/Articles/x%27s.html

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  CC Holland05/01/08 Report as spam
  10

  Good points, but...

  You know, you make a good point here -- in many ways, Gen X and Gen Y are closer in traits than Gen X and the preceding Baby Boom generation. But I'd argue that they're points on a continuum, not clones. While Gen X, for example, wanted challenging work, Gen Y is looking for challenge AND a greater meaning...and "freedom to manage time and work" has now evolved into a thirst for greater work/life balance as opposed to merely a desire for individual autonomy. It seems to me that each generation is building on and extending the traits that emerged from its previous counterparts.

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  Siila05/01/08 Report as spam
  11

  Looking back at Generation X

  Generation X and Y are very similar if not the same. Generation X have Generation Y kids, nieces etc., so Yers must be learning the tricks from the old hands!?

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  CC Holland05/01/08 Report as spam
  12

  From a Gen X perspective...

  ...I have to say I disagree. I'm an early Gen X-er, born in 1968 (most definitions say the generational span is from 1965 to about 1976 or 1980), and in my experience there's a definite difference. The role technology and media played in our formative years was much more peripheral. I have vivid memories of learning to program in Basic in junior high and I actually watched the first video played on MTV. Gen Y-ers, by contrast, have technology as their birthright. They were literally raised on computers, cell phones, high-impact/high-action media and the like. I have associates who are true Gen Y-ers and while we do share some common ground, sometimes I really do feel like the proverbial old fogy as I see the ease with which they adapt to the rapid-fire changes of modern life, both on the personal side and in the workplace. But either way, it's a great dialogue to have.

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  Melissa731801/15/09 Report as spam
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  As as Milennial...

  I must say I completely agree with this... I find I get things done in half the time in which I am expected to, leaving me with time to fill. This is a problem for me because I feel like I am not being productive, not contributing, not being taken seriously, as a result of my minimal output.
  
  It is also interesting to me that my management expects me to be in at 8 and stay til 5. I don't log in my timesheet the 10 minutes it takes me to read my blackberry at home and respond to emails, so why should it matter if I'm physically in the office at 8:00 instead of 8:15? I am much more focused on my output and the quality of my work rather than the amount of hours I spend sitting at a computer staring at my screen because I am not challenged enough to be busy.
  
  Just food for thought