Generationally speaking
No doubt about it. I'm sick of hearing about "Generation Y" and how it's remaking the workforce. In a painfully cloying piece for Fortune magazine, Nadira A. Hirs tells us:
No it's not generational disdain--I get along just fine with some of the twenty-somethings I know, and not so well with others, just like the members of any other age group. I'm just tired of hearing broad characterizations about the revolutionary changes about to be wrought by the latest crop of college graduates.
Fifteen years ago, the new crop of hires came from "Generation X," and writers and consultants made much money analyzing me and my peers to discern what transformations we were about to impose on American culture.
It's not just pop media playing this stuff up either--employers actually buy into the panic. In the early '90s, I temped at a prestigious consulting agency, and while pawing through proprietary documents to kill the time, I came across an internal memo regurgitating all the media warnings about the barbarian horde of Gen Xers then breaking down the barricades at the corporate HR department. It boiled down to: They're here! They have no loyalty! They won't work long hours!
Five years later I was the editorial director for a dot-com where IPO-crazed Gen Xers happily worked twelve- and fourteen-hour days in return for stock options. I actually got into trouble because I refused to work the editorial staff more than nine hours per day.
OK, so I guess I was the stand-out Gen X slacker.
It actually would be a good thing if some of these broad characterizations were true. People should put their families and their friends before their jobs. That's healthy. Working sixty-hour weeks, or longer, is not healthy, unless you really love what you are doing and are being well compensated. Even then, it's a good idea to phone home from time to time to make sure the significant other remembers your name.
My guess is that the members of Generation Y will prove to be much like previous generations that came of age during prosperous circumstances. Without the threat of economic collapse, war or conscription, Gen Yers will negotiate the best deals for themselves that they can get, and renegotiate as it suits them, comfortable in the knowledge that they're not under much pressure to toe the line. If somebody offers them a chance at the brass ring, many will jump at the prospect.
But Generation Z ... oh, those bastards ...
When it comes to Gen Y's intangible characteristics, the lexicon is less than flattering. Try "needy," "entitled." Despite a consensus that they're not slackers, there is a suspicion that they've avoided that moniker only by creating enough commotion to distract from the fact that they're really not that into "work."Gag.
Never mind that they often need an entire team - and a couple of cheerleaders - to do anything. For some of them the concept "work ethic" needs rethinking. "I had a conversation with the CFO of a big company in New York," says Tamara Erickson, co-author of the 2006 book "Workforce Crisis," "and he said, 'I can't find anyone to hire who's willing to work 60 hours a week. Can you talk to them?' And I said, 'Why don't I start by talking to you? What they're really telling you is that they're sorry it takes you so long to get your work done.'"
No it's not generational disdain--I get along just fine with some of the twenty-somethings I know, and not so well with others, just like the members of any other age group. I'm just tired of hearing broad characterizations about the revolutionary changes about to be wrought by the latest crop of college graduates.
Fifteen years ago, the new crop of hires came from "Generation X," and writers and consultants made much money analyzing me and my peers to discern what transformations we were about to impose on American culture.
Xers have no expectation of job security, so they tend to see every job as temporary and every company as a stepping stone to something better, or at least to something else. They have been accused of not wanting to pay their dues. But, in today's changing workplace, anyone who is thinking about doing a job long enough to pay dues is out of touch!Sound familiar? Dress it up and throw in a mention of an iPod, and it's the same nonsense being peddled about kids today.
Because they won't put in long hours at what they mostly term "dead end" jobs (Douglas Coupland coined the term "Mcjobs,") and they don't exhibit the same loyalty as Boomers do towards an organization, they have been called slackers. However, Xers will work very hard for a job that they believe in, for something that challenges them.
It's not just pop media playing this stuff up either--employers actually buy into the panic. In the early '90s, I temped at a prestigious consulting agency, and while pawing through proprietary documents to kill the time, I came across an internal memo regurgitating all the media warnings about the barbarian horde of Gen Xers then breaking down the barricades at the corporate HR department. It boiled down to: They're here! They have no loyalty! They won't work long hours!
Five years later I was the editorial director for a dot-com where IPO-crazed Gen Xers happily worked twelve- and fourteen-hour days in return for stock options. I actually got into trouble because I refused to work the editorial staff more than nine hours per day.
OK, so I guess I was the stand-out Gen X slacker.
It actually would be a good thing if some of these broad characterizations were true. People should put their families and their friends before their jobs. That's healthy. Working sixty-hour weeks, or longer, is not healthy, unless you really love what you are doing and are being well compensated. Even then, it's a good idea to phone home from time to time to make sure the significant other remembers your name.
My guess is that the members of Generation Y will prove to be much like previous generations that came of age during prosperous circumstances. Without the threat of economic collapse, war or conscription, Gen Yers will negotiate the best deals for themselves that they can get, and renegotiate as it suits them, comfortable in the knowledge that they're not under much pressure to toe the line. If somebody offers them a chance at the brass ring, many will jump at the prospect.
But Generation Z ... oh, those bastards ...
posted by J.D. Tuccille at
4:21 PM
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