However, I also know people who are very similar to the Gen Y stereotypes. I was hired as part of a large college hiring effort and there have been a lot of growing pains in my group. I agree that parents sometimes have too much involvement in their children’s lives, saving them from ever making mistakes, and making them so careful that they are afraid to do anything for fear of making one. My parents were not over-involved in my life, but I even find myself afraid to make mistakes and bugging my managers and coworkers far too often for feedback when I should just submit something and see what happens. It is true that at the same time I am trying to do it better the first time, but sometimes you just have to try something on your own and see what happens, without the constant input of other people.

What I’m saying here is that I think both types of people exist in our generation. Some of us don’t need as much help, but some do. An organization that recognizes that will be more successful in acquireing and preparing its next workforce.

Too often, managers and corporate America see young professionals seeking of guidance or asking why all the time as at best an annoyance and at worst further evidence of how this group needs to be coddled in the workplace. Millennials simply want to learn how to prevent mistakes and therefore save their company money . Managers should relish employees who do not simply want to come in at 9, sit in his cubicle till 5, and then leave, and instead want to engage with their corporation. These young people have been taught to innovate, they have been taught to think creatively, and when they come into a workplace hoping to leverage these talents they are too often met with this idea that they have nothing to contribute and need to be “weaned off feedback”.

The old management system simply does not work in today’s global economy; it is simply too slow. The world today is all about real time feedback, and constantly having the pulse of the marketplace. Young professionals with their eagerness and tech-oriented educations are in the perfect position to teach organizations how to adapt to this new, fast paced world. Now should Millennials be running the show? Of course not, that would be foolish, and there is much for Gen Y to learn before assuming the mantel of leadership, which is why they are always asking so many questions.

Millennials are pushing to change a system that has put us into the current economic mess we face today. Young professionals want more flexibility and decentralization because technology allows for these methods to create cost reduction, increase worker satisfaction, and stimulate productivity among this generation of worker. Organizations should be listening to this generation now because according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the next ten years a full 40% of the workplace will be made up of Gen Y, and growing every year. If Human Resource departments do not adjust now, then over this ten year period they will be faced with a shrinking talent pool. Millennial attitudes attitudes will not change, but their sheer numbers in the workplace will force corporations to adjust to their thinking.

Additionally, these myths about Millennials having loyalty only to managers who pat them on the back and coddle them are simply not correct. If you go to this news article in the Globe and Mail (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080414.wlmillennial14/BNStory/lifeWork/home), you will find a study by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology that found that Millennials are as loyal and engaged in their work as every other generation in the workplace.

From the article:
“It’s this snowball that keeps going,” says Evan Sinar, an organizational psychologist who led the session on millennial myths. Examining research from four new studies of thousands of job applicants and employees, he said, “we found the differences [between generations] weren’t there, or were smaller than expected.”

I guess that the more managers understand the psychology of this generation, they can meet these kids half-way and hopefully help them grow up and into hardier members of the work force.

Thanks again for a great post.

Tamar Chansky
http://www.freeingyourchild.com