Gen Y, why are you the way you are?

This article just lumped an entire generation into a very harsh and unfair stereotype. I know many people who fit this description to a T, and the apathy often displayed by my peers never ceases to amaze me. BUT not everyone is like that. I am a generation Yer. I love my cell phone. I love facebook. I love my ipod. I have piercings. I have tattoos. I'm 19 years old. I will graduate college in 5 months with a degree in Creative Writing, a degree in History, and minors in Literature and Spanish. I am double majoring, double minoring in only 3 years; I have done 4 internships since I've been in college; I am extremely involved in my community; I love to volunteer, and I just spent 4 months working in a rural village in Peru. I got my first job at fifteen, and I have only had a few days off since. I completely support myself, and I am paying for my tuition in loans and scholarships. My parents always taught me the value of a hard day's work, and they truely inspire me every day. Both of them (in their late 50s) work harder than anyone I've ever met, and they have been with the same companies for over thirty years. Sometimes they both had to work extra jobs to make ends meet (they are both teachers), but their loyalty to their employers never faultered. I cannot wait to have worked somewhere long enough to obtain the amount of respect that they have aquired. Honestly, I will be psyched out of my mind just to be offered a job right out of college because I know I won't deserve it. I think that there are a lot of unwarrented assumptions made in this article and by commenters. I agree, there are a lot of Gen Yers that are completely self-centered and apathetic. However, there are so many that aren't. Most of my friends are in the same boat I am. They are young, caring, concerned, down to earth individuals who work hard for everything they have. My best friend is 21, she is a recent college grad and makes an entry level salary. Yet, her and her husband (who is 23) are dedicated foster parents. They are some of the most loving and compassionate people you could ever meet, and their desire to better the world in every way possible is beyond inspirational. He has been working with the same company since he was 16, but he has moved up the ranks (and after getting his degree) has a great job that he is really dedicated to. There have been a lot of comments on here saying that all the Gen Yers people know are bratty little kids that can't handle responsibility. I am asking all the Gen Xers and Baby Boomers reading this to rethink your assumptions. We may walk around with music in our ears most of the time and we may spend an unhealthy amount of time on facebook, but if you can disregard these minor details, I think you will find that the similarities between our generations are mostly fabricated through articles like this. Sure, a few young people go to job interviews wearing jeans and a sporting a nasty attitude, but I'm pretty sure when you were a young 20 something you probably knew people dumb enough to do that. Think about it. You know that crazy kid that lived down the hall of your college dorm? Yep, I bet he did that. I challenge you to look past age. Go talk to a Gen Yer. You may be suprised by how much you have in common.

I'll go one further. In my church, I have occasion to interact with Gen Yers quite a lot. A lot of them are good people, but there are a lot who are very self-centered people who really don't want to interact with anyone who's different than them, especially someone who is older. I frequently see very childish behavior among even people who are in their late 20s who are supposedly "adults." It's very disturbing.

I predict that they''ll come around. Just wait for the mortgages, marriages and children to come along. In the meantime, I think corporate America needs to rethink the expense of retraining and rehiring (or redeploying) the 50-something year olds that have made them very successful over the years and are willing to work and be loyal. Sure, their salaries are higher than a freshly-minted graduate, but doesn't anyone outside of HR understand the tremendous direct and indirect costs of a bad hire (ie: one that isn''t going to stick around)??

Gen Y folks suffer from two things that Baby Boomers suffer from to a lesser extent, and which the Greatest Generation suffers from very, very little: a. The Gen Y folks are the first generation to be thoroughly immersed in the electronic buffers that allow us to avoid most personal contact with folks outside our close circle on a daily basis. We are able to shop, purchase fuel, etc., without ever having to interact with human beings. That's a great step forward for convenience; however, what it does is remove points of interaction with other human beings. It breeds the subconscious suggestion that perhaps we should be able to configure our entire world with folks that we interact with pleasantly, so that there's never a need for us to experience pain, inconvenience, or other unpleasantness. What we fail to realize is that (a) those points of painful interaction help us mature, particularly in being able to interact well with people, and (b) if we come to depend on the tech buffers to eliminate those painful points of interaction, then when those buffers fail (e.g. during an emergency) our ability to interact successfully will be dangerously compromised. b. The Baby Boomers at least had influence from a generation who knew economic hardship and real war / devastation up close and personally. The Gen-Y folks don't really have those connections, and as a result know even less than the Baby Boomers about just how hard life can get, how evil people can be, or how easily people's emotions can be manipulated in ways that lead them to do insane things. The Baby Boomers already have an immature understanding of human nature in all of these areas; the Gen Y folks have absorbed this poor understanding from their parents and will be even more warped in all these areas as well.

Re.: Gen Y, why are you the way you are? from EDN, May 19, 2008 First question: Why use the ?broad brush? on any Generation? I?ve worked for a dozen companies in several industries, in 8 or ten states, since graduating from high school in 1961, and have seen all manner of generalizations about the generation behind ours, about the one following that, and about all the rest up to the so-called Gen-Y. The common theme has always been a variation of ?they?re lazy?, ?they don?t want to work?, ?they?re insolent?, ?they can?t read?, ?they?re stupid?, ?they?re arrogant?, ?hey have no loyalty? etc., etc. Sorry, EDN, I have to throw the bravo-sierra flag on that. Every generation has customs or interests (or clothing or music) that result in the previous generations shaking their heads, as my folks did when we discovered Rock and Roll in the 1950?s. But when we really listen to the members of any generation, and allow our brains to work a little, we find the whole spectrum of human behavior spread over each generation, that there?s no possible way to characterize a ?Generation?. I think it is WE, the older generations who like to label people and fit the younger generations into groups and neat little boxes, perhaps because we have some anecdotal exeriences that reinforce our parochial views. My experience has been that many in each succeeding generation have become wiser than the previous one, in part because, as some wrote here before me, they saw how their parents and grand parents were treated by so many short-sighted American Companies. Perhaps many of the younger folks decided to ?take care of themselves, because no one else will?. And that is good, regardless of how it?s perceived by some who hire or manage, who didn?t learn one of the basics that others learned eons ago: if we try to fit everyone into the same little box, some will leave right away, some will stay but resent it, and some will love the box. But few will thrive, and the misguided will think those who left were wrong! What we all need in our companies is to treat all people with respect, give them responsibilities and work and experience, with balanced work/personal lives and good compensation. It can be done in most industries. Now to my next point, and thanks for reading this far: Many of our Corporations and their ?leaders? support politicians who have only the Corporations? interests at heart. Makes sense, I guess. But no balanced laws, policies or practices result from those relationships; usually Corporations win, usually to the Employees? detriment. I see little difference between the two major political parties on most issues, but at least the dems occasionally mention us in their election platforms! Corporations usually support only the politicians who were ?friendly to business?, almost always meaning ?republican?. I understand that from a Company?s perspective; but as an employee, I'd have to be stupid to donate to a PAC that supported politicians who voted against my vital interests on nearly every issue! Heck, the repubs generally don?t even give us workers-bees or (yeck) ?Individual Conributors? lip service! Why would anyone be loyal to those who are not loyal to them? So hooray for the younger people who see through the BS. They know they have to take care of themselves as evidenced by what EDN.com's news editors write: ?Overall, they are ambitious, question everything, and have no concerns for corporate structure, nor do they grasp the concept of company loyalty, and they are in large part the workforce that will step in as the aging engineering workforce continues to retire. They?re right! Hire them! Let them design their own box because they know what fits them best, and they?ll thrive and he Company will thrive!!

As a baby boomer who has 2 GenY'ers just entering the workforce, let me say this. My husband and I gave our all for our respective companies. I was a C-level director kicked to the curb last year after 11 years of stellar reviews and 60 hour weeks due to "downsizing". My kids saw and appreciated the hard work and have this work ethic instilled in them but they show no loyalities to corp America. They saw all the hard work we put in and trying to be involved parents at the same time. They don't want to become what we were and want what we did not have - A LIFE outside of work - not being constantly tied to work via mobiles, laptops and a crackberry. I can't blame them. As for the initial salaries - 35K a year is great but not when a baby boomer boss or Gen x'er boss wants you to work 60 hours a week.

May be I am getting older and grumpier, but I see high tech companies making this situation worse themselves. Unfortunately all they really care about is the results of the next quarter, so they endup with workforce all over the world that is barely making it in numbers and it's quality. The work instead of being creative, exciting, well organized and rewarding becomes a mess and it's a matter of luck for these companies, especially their US branches, to survive another downturn, no surprise, such a career becomes not attractive in US. So why is it happening? Yes sometimes it is a pathetic management, but there are also much deeper roots to it. Many, in high places, believe that free trade of everything is the way to the world's harmony and prosperity. In 70's and 80's proliferation of high technologies to foreign countries was regulated and companies had to obey the rules but now US companies can do anything they want, so viva to first Chinese astronaut and new Chinese powerful satellite shooting laser guns and new Russian father of all bombs and more advanced Russian weaponry flowing to Iran, most of this is a result of US high tech freely spreading around the world, technologies being transferred, foreign personal being trained and prices for high tech equipment falling down. We want everybody in the world to have a cheap, powerful computers manufactured in Taiwan using latest US technologies. Then I look at price of oil and feel cheated, obviously other governments are trying to achieve their own harmony in a very different way. So, as a result of all this, future looks pretty scary (to me), with no harmony or prosperity insight. So how can I advice a young person to go into high tech engineering? it's a bad advice unless they are planning to move to China, South Korea or India. I will be very happy if the history proves me wrong, but unfortunately my experience tells me, if it looks like trouble, if it smells like trouble, if it sounds like trouble then it is trouble.

to echo what's been said above, engineers design products, when the design is done, the guys & gals get kicked out the door. meanwhile, intel & microsoft go to congress and plead to import h1b engineers and programmers, at much lower salaries. there are plenty of us older engineers, ready, willing and able to work, but corporations don't want us. love engineering, but can't in good conscience recommend it to students. for the same, or for less effort, they can wind up with an MBA or law or nursing.

the article asks why gen y is not loyal to corporate structure, well, seeing that they are 'entry level' gen y-ers know that it doesn't pay to sacrifice all on the company altar. Big business is not out to pay the little guy, in fact most managers know that employees are the number one cost of a company, so to increase profits, one must cut costs. companies think that a $9 or $10 dollar an hour wage is enough to entice anyone to slave away all their personal/family time, but 20K isn't enough for a 26 year old with a wife and kid... sorry, but I'll show up in jeans if you are offering to pay me peanuts...

"There''s no loyalty anymore. It''s bred and instilled in them to the point where they come on board saying, ''Whatever, if I get fired, I''ll just get another job.''" The way I see it (as a Gen Y''er), corporate loyalty died right around the time that the word "downsizing" entered the common lexicon and companies conveniently "forgot" about their earlier promises of jobs-for-life and pension schemes. We''ve seen our parents and grandparents exploited, chewed up and spat out by companies they were loyal to for large portions of their lives - is it any surprise that half of us want to find fulfillment anywhere other than work and the other half are choosing to be employed on their own terms? (Gen Y, successful business owner, never had a 9-5 and don''t plan to either)

This article mimicked a thousand other articles written about Generation Y and brought nothing new to the table, except a shallow perspective from someone clearly out of touch with the group she is profiling. A few anecdotes about slacker employees or bad interviews does not make real or compelling research. Perhaps the author believes she is entitled to respect just because she's older. Well, I think every demographic has its good people and its bad people, its jerks and its leaders. And that's why when I meet someone, regardless of age, their actions are what determines my level of respect. You could benefit from a similar perspective when you write about or interact with someone under 30.

In 1982/83, I had the pleasure of working with the now deceased, Irwin Feerst. He predicted this dilema we're faced with. Is it any wonder that our pipleline of scientist types is drying up? Outsourcing has done this...but what really has is greed! When people think an average return on investment should be 20%, outsourcing is a must. The problem is that everyone who buys stock is shortsighted. Well, now it's time for their kids to get an education and jobs and guess what? They aren't interested in becoming scientists because of what their parents demanded. What goes around, comes around and now the USA is going to feel the pinch, especially since we're losing the edge and using more OIL!

Good on Generation Y - employers are getting their just deserts. At 52 my (and my father's) loyalty has been exploited and rewards are few for those stupid enough to keep doing the work for peanuts. I've yet to find a loyal employer. My daughter is an engineer through & through, but my advice to her is to have another career option (accountancy or teaching) so she can walk out of engineering if the rewards are poor. There is no shortage of skills, just a reluctance to reward many of us who have them, including attempts to sideline even more of us by restricting the use of the word 'engineer' to paid up members of particular institutes. My daughter came home from school with a good joke. Here's a slight variation. Did you know that if you say engineer quickly ten times it sounds like 'gullible'? Dave

The reason the US is not turning out more scientists and engineers is because US corporations have a two decade long history of treating their technologists poorly. They treat them as commodoties. They give them zero respect and zero job security regardless of competence. As they age and their salaries increase, their job security goes down even more. Throughout, they expect 60 hour work weeks with no added incentives. Then, at the same time they are laying off engineers they are crying to congress that there aren''t enough kids interested in science disciplines. It is an obvious sham and the kids can see right through it (at least the smart ones or the ones who know anyone already in a technology career). When they come to me for advice, I tell them to go into anything else but technology. I am not alone in offering that advice.

Gen Y saw their parents put in long work hours, then bring work home, get cost-of-living salary increases (and sometimes, decreases so they could keep their jobs) while the company's CxO's made $N million in salaries with a few hundred thousand options, saw both their parents having to go to work to make ends meet while they were shuttled off to day-care (when it could be afforded), saw their parents laid off by company's who were desperate to please Wall St. on a quarterly basis and not their customers on a lifetime basis..... Hmmmmm, where did Gen Y go wrong?

Well, considering the fact that these Gen-Y kids are the grandchildren those who were born and raised in the Depression era. Those Depression era kids made their own Baby Boomer kids get summer jobs so to understand the value of money and hard work. Perhaps those kids grew up to resent having to spend summers and weekends working instead of cavorting with friends, thus saying "When I have kids of my own, I won't make my kids work while they're in school." Now a lack of respect for hard work and self-determination have come home to roost in kids who are used to mommy and daddy providing everything and never having to break a sweat. Reap what ye shall sow. Making teenagers work during the summer is not cruelty, but a lesson in the realities of the world, responsibility and discipline. I'm a Gen X-er and having to work in the family business when I was young taught me responsibility and to take pride in my work.

I must be a 20-something in a mid-50's body.