Posted under Career Management on May 13th, 2007
There’s a great article in HR Magazine this month about the Y generation and how growing up with technology has influenced their expectations about work and brought new challenges to employers. According to the article, millennials are technologically savvy, exceptionally in-tune with global and diversity issues, team-oriented, and great multi-taskers. Growing up in a much flatter world where overseas friends can be made in a “click-beat” and kids and young adults routinely spend time in a chat room while downloading music and watching a You Tube video are proof that Gen Y’ers can excel at these tasks.
But they may lack certain qualities that their boomer bosses take for granted such as discretion, independence, realistic expectations, patience, and basic grammar skills. We may have MySpace, helicopter parents, and spell check to thank for these issues.
Every generation comes with its unique culture and experience and the Y generation is no exception. The takeaway is that over the next few decades, several generations of workers will be in the sandbox together and boomers, Gen X’ers, Gen Y’ers and whoever comes next will need to manage up, manage down, and manage sideways to build a profitable and rewarding work environment.
Posted by Barbara Safani
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