Guest Post by Mike Doman
I was recently talking to a friend of mine who claimed he would never hire a “Gen Y.”
My friend is a fairly senior PR pro in a reasonably high profile company, and his attitude astounded me. When I queried why, he identified a few areas.
I will now lay these out for you, and (as a Gen Y myself) rebut them:
1. Lack of work ethic.
This is out-and-out wrong. My generation has the same number of slackers v. motivated people as Gen X and the Baby Boomers.
To paint all Gen Y’s as unmotivated is an insult to every one of my friends and colleagues who bust their backsides every day to get somewhere.
Add the fact that we’re constantly connection to work and friends simultaneously means that we’re likely to work off the clock.
2. They want everything now.
Since when was ambition a bad thing? There’s a common misconception that our “wanting everything now” attitude means that we’re not prepared to work for it, or we’re going to throw a tantrum if we can’t get it, which is rubbish.
Sure, we want to climb the corporate ladder, and we want to do it quickly.
But that is born out of ambition, not an unwillingness to work for it.
3. They want to do things differently.
Um. If it was a Gen X or a Baby Boomer that wanted to do things differently, you’d call it innovation.
Ezra Pound put it nicely when he said, “when two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.”
Is it so bad that someone new in the organization will try to institute change?
Image by Chris Devers, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
4. They’re too self-centred.
Another rubbish claim, in my opinion. Just because I want to listen to my iPod at work, or dress casually when I can, doesn’t mean that I’m a bad worker.
It means that over the years and years of schooling that I’ve suffered through to get a job, I’ve worked out how I work best.
If that means my productivity increases when I work at odd hours, or listen to a few tunes while I work, why wouldn’t you take the productivity increase and be happy?
I am an individual, and my way of working comes from my own experience. Stifling my ability to work also stifles my ability to be productive and leaves me frustrated.
Which brings me to my next point…
5. No Loyalty to Employers.
This has an element of truth to it, though not in the degrees to which it’s often played.
I’m loyal to my employer. My employer takes good care of me.
My parents grew up in an era of mixed economic conditions, and learnt the value of staying in one place (or in some cases, the insignificance).
My generation has been through unprecedented prosperity (with the exception of the global financial crisis, which didn’t affect Australia too much), and realize that if we have the skills, moving around can be beneficial.
But the moving around doesn’t happen if we’re happy. We move because we need a change, we’re unhappy or we aren’t feeling challenged.
We won’t have a job for the sake of having a job, especially when there are other jobs with more opportunity out there. Sure, we’ll reach a point when our economy tanks and unemployment skyrockets, and we’ll get stung from that.
But while the going is good, we’re going to make the most of it.
The workplace isn’t the same as it was 20 years ago.
It won’t be the same 20 years from now, and perhaps then I’ll be writing about Generation Z and how fat, lazy and awful they are.
I hope I don’t end up that jaded and cynical, preferring to look at opportunity gained than opportunity lost, but maybe if it’s fashionable and “in,” I’ll succumb to the demonizing and patronizing of a generation, as many in the generations before me have done.
I’m not hugely critical of generations gone, but I am passionate about mine.
I’m constantly being reminded that Generation Y needs to earn respect, and I completely agree with that.
But we’re trying, and we aren’t getting a willingness to accept in return.
Mike Doman is an Account Executive at Mulberry Marketing Communications in Melbourne, Australia. In between media calls and writing press releases, he does the occasional guest lecture for RMIT and has guest-written for Australian publications including The National Timesand Crikey.com.au, along with publishing his own (non-PR) blog, Sporadically Pensive. He has also sat on the admissions panel for RMIT’s Bachelor of Communication (Public Relations) and tweets about everything from Masterchef to media relations.
[…] offered an administrative office position as Assistant Manager at only 17. My boss looked past the stereotypes assigned to my generation, and instead focused on my track record as a top earner as well as my personal work […]
[…] week I also read a guest post by Mike Doman over at Shonali Burke‘s blog called “Won’t Hire a Gen Y? Y?”. In that post, Mike related a conversation he had with a “fairly senior PR Pro” who […]
@mikedoman @Shonali Lol, cheeky!
@Shonali @punchakpr I mentioned it to him and he laughed it off. He said that he’ll wait until we’re a little wiser before he hires any of us!
@punchakpr That is a GREAT question! @mikedoman Are you going to direct him to the post?
@mikedoman I’m definitely optimistic! :) But I also maintain that the stereotype of lazy is not warranted. I see too may Gen Yer’s bending over backwards to build their careers, go to school and contribute to society to believe that we’re lazy.
We’re still very much laying down the foundation for our lives and to some, yeah it might look like we’re lazy. Plus because we’re young, so maybe there’s still a few party bugs to work out, but every generation went through that phase. I really do think that as we grow-up (the youngest is only 11 years old after all) that we’ll, at the very least, minimize these stereotypes.
By any chance, did this employer read your post?
@mikedoman I’m definitely optimistic! :) But I also maintain that the stereotype of lazy is not warranted. I see too may Gen Yer’s bending over backwards to build their careers, go to school and contribute to society to believe that we’re lazy.
We’re still very much laying down the foundation for our lives and to some, yeah it might look like we’re lazy. Plus because we’re young, so maybe there’s still a few party bugs to work out, but every generation went through that phase. I really do think that as we grow-up (the youngest is only 11 years old after all) that we’ll, at the very least, minimize these stereotypes.
By any chance, did this employer read your post?
@mikedoman I’m definitely optimistic! :) But I also maintain that the stereotype of lazy is not warranted. I see too may Gen Yer’s bending over backwards to build their careers, go to school and contribute to society to believe that we’re lazy.
We’re still very much laying down the foundation for our lives and to some, yeah it might look like we’re lazy. Plus because we’re young, so maybe there’s still a few party bugs to work out, but every generation went through that phase. I really do think that as we grow-up (the youngest is only 11 years old after all) that we’ll, at the very least, minimize these stereotypes.
By any chance, did this employer read your post?
@mikedoman I’m definitely optimistic! :) But I also maintain that the stereotype of lazy is not warranted. I see too may Gen Yer’s bending over backwards to build their careers, go to school and contribute to society to believe that we’re lazy.
We’re still very much laying down the foundation for our lives and to some, yeah it might look like we’re lazy. Plus because we’re young, so maybe there’s still a few party bugs to work out, but every generation went through that phase. I really do think that as we grow-up (the youngest is only 11 years old after all) that we’ll, at the very least, minimize these stereotypes.
By any chance, did this employer read your post?
@mikedoman @TotalTab I’m not sure, I think kids today are smarter than we were before. I’m sort of in the middle – I’m 30, so I’m Gen X, not Gen Y, and you do need followers. What I’m saying is you can’t just expect people to follow blindly. They need to know what they are following and why. It doesn’t mean more cooks, it means more inspiration, basically.
I think in some ways being able to inspire is becoming a prerequisite for success, at least in many industries (like Tech)
@KenMueller Great to see someone in a similar position to my friend who likes us Gen Ys!
@TotalTab I think you raise an interesting point, but whether a higher level of self-actualisation is a good thing is debatable. Every organisation needs followers or you’ll end up with a “too many chefs and not enough cooks” situation, which is bad for business.
@SoloBizCoach I couldn’t agree more! Though the economy wasn’t hit as hard here in Australia, it’s still an extremely competitive market.
@punchakpr Do you think? It’s interesting that you’re optimistic about the reputation of Gen Y. While I think we’re great, I think that the stereotype of us being lazy and awful will continue, as we’re certainly not going to change the way we do things.
@KensViews I think you make a valid point – it’s not like people can ignore an entire generation of people. Best to stop bitching and start working together!
@KirstenWright I’m in the same boat as you Kirsten – I work hard so the older folk recognise our generation as a valid contributor. The ironic thing is, if I were looking for work, this guy would probably hire me (justifying it, no doubt, as me being the “exception to the rule”)
[…] invested, trained, and mentored them. I read one article last week by Mike Doman titled “Won’t Hire a Gen Y? Y?“. That article was enough to get me to write this post as I’ve had a lot of my own […]
Opinions like this are like me (a gen y’er) saying “all Baby Boomers are old fashioned, can’t use technology, are too stubborn to learn anything new and aren’t worth trying to teach.”
But, I guess it’s people like him that are the reason I work so hard to prove his stereotype wrong…so maybe I should thank him?
The attitude of your “senior” PR pro makes the steam come out of my ears! He won’t hire Gen Ys/Millennials? Does he know of many 50-year old AEs?! I’ve had my fill of Boomers and Gen Ys who would rather bitch about Millennials than learn about their experiences, drives and values, so as to better manage, inspire, and motivate them. Millennials are our largest and fastest-growing labor pool. Now’s the time to stop complaining about them and instead learn how to effectively lead this terrific generation. (For the record, I’m a Baby Boomer.)
Great post! As a Gen Y myself I get extremely frustrated with these stereotypes. It’s disappointing to hear that there are some employers who wouldn’t consider hiring someone based on age.
As a geneartion we’re still coming of age and over the next few years I think our generation will create a really positive reputation for itself.
I think that Gen Ys are great people to hire. Most are technology savvy, and due to the bad economy, they are hungry for work.
Many Gen Yers are having a terrible time finding work. They have gone to college, including some graduate education in hopes of the economy recovering by graduation. Unfortunately, the economy still hasn’t rebounded. This is making competition very fierce for this generation.
I agree, Mike. First off, I think any time we make any sort of broad sweeping generalization we are in trouble.
I’m currently finishing up a semester teaching a “Social Media Marketing” class at an area college. I have 23 students, almost evenly divided between marketing majors and communications/PR majors. about a third to a half of these students are just about set to graduate. I gotta say, I would have no problem hiring most of them. In fact I WISH I could hire some of them. These students are NOT lazy and NOT self centered. They are hard workers, and while in college, many of them are already working with businesses and non-profits as clients. They are extremely active in good causes. They are giving of their time, and I welcome their desire to do things differently. I certainly don’t want to hire someone who just wants to do things “the way they’ve always done them.”
I think the big difference is a level of self-actualization in younger employees. In other words, they are more dynamic than some older generations…. less followers. They need something that motivates and drives them, and they will be productive. Look at them purely as a resource, and they get stifled.
A decade ago there was a big move to “flatter” organizations. I think today, they need to be even flatter than that; but even more interconnected. Everyone relates to everything and employees want to feel connected to a companies mission and goals, not just along for the ride to fill a slot.
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