generation xI helped consume a few bottles of wine the other night, as I and several friends set out to solve the World's problems.
In our group were a number of people who either own and run their own businesses, or are high up the managerial ladder in one of the big multi-national corporations in Perth.
The discussion got on to the "Gen Y" problem. This apparently has become a major talking point among managers in a lot of Western society. If you go on-line to a bookshop and browse the titles under business management, you will find a growing number of books about managing Gen Y.
First some definitions:
Baby Boomers (the BBs) - generally anyone born between 1946 and 1964.
Generation X - generally anyone born between 1964 and 1980 (say).
Generation Y - generally anyone born between 1980 and 1996 (say).
So that makes me a Gen Xer. Gen Xers and Gen Yers are usually the kids of the BBs.
Most of the comments about the problems in managing Gen Y seem to come from the BBs, but I've heard some from my contemporaries as well (ie, the Gen Xers). One of the people in our wine drinking group said that he thought the Gen Xers felt threatened by the Gen Yers, mainly because of the Gen Yers strong sense of self-belief.
Here's some of the comments made about Gen Yers:
(1) Self obssessed (but hey, who isn't?).
(2) A sense of self-belief as large and as visible as the Sydney Opera House.
(3) Change direction quickly.
(4) Unloyal (in the context of not giving an employer their loyalty).
(5) Averse to conflict, as in jumping ship or changing jobs or changing relationships when a conflict arises.
(6) Can't accept that things can go wrong, that things are not always perfect.
(7) Believes that opinion has as much weight as facts, possibly more (well, they are the first true post-modern generation).
I won't go into this point by point, but there were two points made that night which I though applied to the Gen Yers that I know, as well as to many of my fellow Gen Xers.
(1) Aversion to conflict; what my managerial friends call the "press the replay button" syndrome. This is Gen Yers habit of handling any conflict which arises by breaking things off and starting again from the beginning. So If a Gen Yer has a conflict at work, then instead of trying to resolve the conflict by negotation or discussion, the Gen Yer is more likely to quit the job and find another.
(2) Things must always work and things must always go well. Technology like mobiles, note-books, iPods and broad-band connections are expected to always work. Things at work and at home and in relationships must always be perfect. If things go wrong, then Gen Y gets a new one; a new iPod, a new 'phone, a new boy-friend. Gen Yers haven't learnt that it's ok when things go wrong.
I though that these 2 points were related, and that the second one was important. It is ok when things go wrong. That's part of living and of life. The world around us, and particularly the advertising media, always seems to be telling us that everything is perfect (as long as we pay for it) and that we don't have to accept things not being perfect - if it's not perfect, then buy another, they say. Then that rolls over to non-material things like relationships, work and friends.
My sister and her husband have a marriage that most of us should be jealous of. That doesn't mean they don't argue and disagree. But after they argue, they compromise and they make up, and my sister says that the marriage seems to get stronger and stronger each time that they do compromise and make up. Her comment was that no-one should ever expect a marriage or a life partnership to be perfect - that's not the nature of being human. But what we should expect is that partnerships can work by talking and by compromising. It doesn't always have to be perfect, and it usually isn't.
One of my managerial friends would like to put a big sign in the tea room at his office which says "It's OK when things go wrong."
