The Gen Y Myth

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If I had a dollar for every time I hear something about Gen Y or get a jibe for being ‘one’ I would be a very rich woman, and not need to work another day in my life. This is fitting because according to most of the myths around Gen Y we don’t want to work, move out of home or spend any time in the grunt jobs because world domination is just around the corner.

The misconceptions that Gen Y are different and need to be managed differently have fuelled an entire industry and lined the pockets of many industrious trainers.

According to a recent article in HR Monthly, Gen Y is:

1982–1995

• Easily bored, prone to job changing for more satisfaction, stimulation or money
• Highly educated and ambitious
• Very prepared to share their opinions on nearly everything
• Technology is a part of what they do

Well, there you go, I’ve at least saved you $200 on a seminar because you can find out what we’re about from those few dot points which surely sum up an entire generation of people from various countries, socio-economic levels and who have of course had the same life experiences (perhaps, they should include highly sarcastic as well).

Is it simply not that as technology and society has changed we have grown with it? Just as past generations would have moved from written correspondence to typewriters the current generations have moved to a more computer savvy environment.

During this time there have also been changes in business and how business is done, there has been a greater focus on what business gives back and green businesses have started to gain more recognition.

People are spending absurd amounts of money to find out what it takes to manage Gen Y, well here’s the secret, if you are a good manager you won’t have any problems.

Here are the basics (of management - nothing to do with generations):

• Talk to your employees, find out what they want, don’t assume because one thing works with one person that will work with everyone
• Support them, if you know what your employees want in a role help them to get there
• Provide constructive feedback at appropriate times, this means timely (ie. not during a once yearly performance review & not in front of other people)
• Ask, if people are unhappy or you notice that someone starts acting differently, ask don’t assume
• Find out how people learn, visual, by doing, by reading and make sure that training fits with this
• Don’t box your employees, by personality type, generation or any other generalisation, it is alienating
• Give people valuable meaningful work to do, it doesn't have to be 100% of the work, but at least some of it

Grouping people into a generation and using stereotypes to determine how you manage people is lazy, not everyone will fit into a box or fit the model.

Employees are individuals, if you manage them like this, what generation someone is doesn't matter.