Attended an interesting seminar today with a guy called Peter Sheahan, who researches, consults and speaks about Generation Y (most of the audience was older – Gen X and boomers like me). Gen Y himself, he started by eliciting from us all the annoying/interesting things we see in Gen Ys in the workforce. All the usual suspects surfaced – always in a hurry, want to start at the top, needing constant stimulation, looking for life/work balance, have a social conscience etc. Most of this is the sort of thing that Tom Peters and David St Lawrence speak about (from the other end of the generational spectrum), and as Peter said – don’t we all want most of that – interesting, stimulating work, not having to wait for promotions, being well-paid …
As he also said, we (speaking as a boomer) brought up this generation to not only HAVE those expectations, but to have the balls and chutzpah to ask for their delivery up-front. Maybe instead of complaining about them, we should follow them through the corporate walls they break down.
Thanks for your thoughts on the Peter Sheahan workshop and the link to his site. I’ll check it out.
And thanks David for your comments. I think it’s true that emerging generations in the workplace will have a huge variety of approaches to work. However they will be reflecting the expectations they have picked up from both their peer environment and from key influencers like Tom Peters.
I am honored that you include my observations in the same sentence as those of Tom Peters.
As a pre-boomer, I have benefitted from multiple careers with boomers, Gen X and Gen Ys. Those who were raised to expect something for nothing (i.e. children of privilege) appeared in every generation and were a pain to work with. They tend to whine a lot and believe that hard work is demeaning.
Thos who were raised to understand the principles of honest exchange were a pleasure to work with, no matter which generation they appeared in. These were and are the people who are constantly building a better world, in spite of the naysayers.
It may be that in some generations there are more children of privilege therefore that particular generation gets tagged as a generation of unrealistic whiners who want everything done for them by others. Patterns of upbringing change as customs and cultures change.
Many though-provoking posts. Keep up the good work!