How Gen Y is changing the corporate workplace

One part of this article I want to address is 'respect'. Speaking as a gen y, if I give an opinion at work, I do expect it to be considered - but that's not due to some sense of entitlement. If I've taken the time to give an opinion on a topic at work, I'm jepordizing my reputation; I'm giving my peers and superiors a chance to evaluate me. This neccesarily means I've thought about what I said, I believe it's actually a good idea. Young people often times do have good ideas, and it's important not to dismiss their validity.<p>It's unfortunate that <i>some</i> older people can't grasp this concept. In business, where adaptivity is key, I find this not to be so much of a problem. However, academia seems to be the exact opposite. Last year, one professor told me to express my opinion once I "have over 30 years of HR experience". Meanwhile I was thinking, "that'll be 30 years too late."

Related Stores about Gen X:<p>&#62;They don't want to spend a lot of time talking about things or having meetings. They want to get in, do the work, and move on to the next thing. If you're looking for someone to deliver a report every week, you don't want an Xer. I recently brought up the subject of understanding twentysomethings during a coaching workshop. Immediately a manager complained, with a lot of emotion, that kids today don't want to work and will only stay for a week or so and then leave. Well, the job was very repetitive and offered little challenge. No wonder!<p><a href="http://www.coachingandmentoring.com/Articles/" rel="nofollow">http://www.coachingandmentoring.com/Articles/</a> (click on x's at the bottom, link wont display correctly on HN due to the single quote)<p><a href="http://www.newbizs.com/pubs/GenX09-02.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.newbizs.com/pubs/GenX09-02.pdf</a>

It seems a bit odd that a generation of selfish free loving hippies are criticizing their spawn.<p>Folks, you created these princesses then you turned into unethical, money grubbing, conservative capitalists and left a generation of ill prepared people to take over.<p>Stop whining.

While I would love to see things like a ROWE, better maternity leave, a more thoughtful environment, the reality is, lots of jobs are crappy, and really the work environment is about having a semi-skilled warm body at the desk/counter/whatever. I don't <i>like</i> those jobs, but there are a <i>lot</i> of them, and those employers will be happy to find anyone who doesn't give trouble, shows up on time, and keeps their nose clean.<p>I think it will become apparent over time that some people are willing to work hard and will reap the rewards thereof, and others are willing to complain hard and will reap the rewards thereof too.<p>But it's good to work towards having a good work environment when possible.

<i>We even work 59 hours more than the stereotypically nose-to-the-grindstone Japanese.</i><p>Statistically true, but not supportive of the point being made, largely due to the difference in employment by gender in the two countries. (Japan: supporting a 55 hour work week by the simple expedient of not letting the wife work more than 10 and not letting the husband work less than 100.)

The reference to autonomy in motivation reminded me of this Dan Pink TED talk I keep coming back to: <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html</a><p>I completely agree with this article. Perhaps we're the first generation to realize the old style of work and business actually negatively impacts productivity and motivation, and we're going to outright reject it. Everything about that is good.<p>Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. People want them because they're the true ways to success, and they know it. The old fake style of business based on carrot-and-stick mentalities and personal image is going out the window faster than an MBA can climb a ladder... or at least we can hope.

<i>Radical-sounding perks such as unlimited paid vacation — assuming you’ve finished your pressing projects — are more common among companies concerned with attracting and retaining young talent. By 2010, 1 percent of U.S. companies had adopted this previously unheard-of policy, largely in response to the demands of Generation Y.</i><p>This "previously unheard-of policy" has been in practice for much longer than I've been working - it's called "salary". I'm referring to the department head who takes 2 weeks off in July, 2 more in August, 4 in December, 1 in March, and 3 from May into June. The retail store director who takes 3 weeks for New Years, takes his family to Europe from April to June, and still leaves the office early for his kids's events.<p>These aren't straw men, and they aren't Gen Y'ers either.

The key point of this article is that Gen Y'ers are actually demanding and getting a lot of perks, instead of just complaining about bad working conditions.<p>This sounds about right in my experience. I've seen some places where the expectation is that seniority = respect, and that younger employees have to go through a few years of "paying their dues." This is stupid and wasteful, so of course we're demanding more. If someone is producing 10x the value of their coworkers, they shouldn't have to wait two years for a promotion just because they joined recently. And nowadays, they won't.

"They expect to be listened to when they have an idea, even when they’re the youngest person in the room."<p>Speaking as a gen-y-er, I completely agree with this sentiment. From my experience working in offices, there are always two conflicting thoughts I consider when speaking up, however:<p>1. The established politics of the office and who you are "allowed" to speak to and what you're allowed to say, and<p>2. The reality of the actual task/goal you are trying to accomplish.<p>Even if your ideas are good and beneficial to the work at hand, sometimes #1 is more important than #2. If this is true then I will quit as soon as I am able.<p>It's generally true that I consider my elders peers, not authority figures, as the article states. This does not mean I don't have a lot to learn from them! In fact, I want to learn, teach me, guide me!<p>However, like anyone and everyone you run into in life, an elder in the workplace has to earn my trust and respect, they need to prove to me that they are worth learning from. Just because you are older than me does not mean your ideas are worth listening to. Sometimes having a higher rank does correlate to being someone worth listening to. Just as often I have found this to be not true.

I can definitely agree with this article, especially since it echos my thoughts about work at 24 years old. The only unfortunate side of the story comes from the people in my age group who will not step up and do the work that comes with the additional freedom. I have seen those kids, and I despise them. I have also seen the young men and women who put forth the effort, and I am hopeful for the future.

Born in 1984, became a parent at 20, went to tech school at 21, graduated in 2009 (just in time for the recession, yay) uprooted family &#38; moved to northeast for work, lived with inlaws a while, worked worked hustled &#38; worked to stay afloat during recession, now I have a pretty good job where I work from home 3 days so I can live outside the city. My point? <i>Stop saying we're all a bunch of lazy spoiled brats!!</i><p>Guess what? I'm a "gen y"er and it drives me <i>nuts</i> to see my peers pushing 30, directionless and spinning their wheels at shitty food service jobs.<p>I understand there's a legitimate trend and it's reasonable to describe it as such, but as one commenter pointed out re: "whole generation of free loving hippies", these sorts of narratives are just the result of journalistic laziness and don't reflect the nuance of reality in a meaningful way. It's notable that the author removes herself from the "gen-y" group, apparently to make it easier to lambaste them. :)

Article Summary seems to be: Generation Y has different expectations/work ethic, therefore the workplace will bend to their demands.<p>In some cases, employers refuse to provide positions to those who don't fit their current corporate expectations. This might partially be reflected by higher unemployment rates among this age category:<p><a href="http://bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea10.htm" rel="nofollow">http://bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea10.htm</a><p>Not saying this is necessarily a good thing in every case. I work with folks (in Software Engineering) from around the globe. There are many people from other countries who happily work extremely hard and make sacrifices that some Gen Y folks from the U.S. would consider unacceptable.

Being a little older myself, this is just a variation of same thing I've heard 3 times now. My grandparent thought my parents generation was lazy. My parents though my generation was lazy. And now my generation thinks gen y is lazy.<p>This is the same "I walked to school uphill both ways when I was a kid" argument that seems to happen with every generation. Yes, we get it - it was tougher back then old timer!<p>The funnier part for you gen y'ers will be when the next generation comes along and appear to be lazy in some way. You'll catch yourself saying the same things and have a d'oh moment! And I will laugh so hard that I'll poop in my Depends.

I love reading these Gen Y articles. Me being 28, I am the embodiment of this generation. We, afterall, are the generation of the "can do" attitude.<p>We grew up on Captain Planet, Ghost Writer, Harry Potter, etc. We've always felt that if the adults can't get it right, we'll just do it ourselves. Like John Mayer's song says, we're "Waiting for the World To Change". But our version of waiting is totally different from our parents.<p>Waiting means really "until I can get myself in a decent position to thrive". Entry level and beyond are those positions that we're gunning at. Like a virus, we can make a difference once we get past the skin.<p>I noticed this when I first stared 5 years ago. Here I am, only having an A.A. degree and finally getting a position at a Help Desk. The first day was scary. It was overwhelming, but once I got the gist of it I was alright. But that was the start. Once I got the gist of it I realized what was wrong with it. So I, and the rest of us gen-yers tend to do, took the initiative. I received a lot of flak for leaving my post (I had to answer phones, but knew that I could help fix computers, Google yo!), but I single handedly changed the way we operate. It wasn't an ego thing, I just saw something wrong and NEEDED it fixed. 5 years later I'm leading a team of web developers maintaining a very important system for doctors.<p>Now, we'll all won't get to that point. But we sure as hell are not going down without a fight. I believe this is great for the office. I see a lot of barriers being brought down because of our audacity. Its exciting to be a part of this!

Offtopic: I never bother to click through to the second page on those newspaper-gone-blog sites. This blatant cry for ad impressions is just disgusting, IMHO.

Generally the changes are good, but I'm seeing one side effect. Some workers in that group feel so entitled that they feel like they can just come in and work on what they want when they want. If you say "here is a goal for the company" they say "eh, not interested" and feel like you owe it to them to let them keep their job.

&#62; [...] Yep, we’re talking about Generation Y — loosely defined as those born between 1982 and 1999 — also known as millennials.<p>And then 1 paragraph later:<p>&#62; [...] at age 30, I consider myself a sort of older sister to them<p>Ummmm...<p>2012 - 30 = 1982

Gen Y is the wrong answer to the right question.<p>-Gen X

Way to turn an entire generation into a caricature.<p>I think a more important workplace trend is Gen Y managing Gen Y.<p>You're seeing fewer and fewer Gen Y vs. Baby Boomer culture clashes and more Gen Y employees reporting directly to Gen X-ers/older Gen Y-ers with each passing year. Consequently, we're starting to see more openness and flexibility in the workplace but the demand for quality work is (arguably) much higher.

I find articles like these obnoxious and nothing more than Another example of cold readings, so to speak

&#62; Our strength comes from that desire to not be bored, so we come up with creative solutions to bypass them.<p>Wasn't this the war cry of Generation X? The Millennials are very similar, they just seem to get a bad rap for the entitlement part - whether its real or imagined.

I find it odd that the author claims that Gen Y is anyone born 1982 to 1999, and yet that it does not contain herself at age 30.<p>Given that the author herself stands about a 25% chance of being included in her own definition of Gen Y, she sure seems to hate them.