I’m amazed at the continuing flow of stories I hear from colleagues about the alarming behavior that is common amongst the “Gen Y” employee group. While you can’t stereotype an entire generation, the theme is too common to ignore. And I’ve seen it personally with clients as well. The behavior exhibited will I’m sure strike a chord with what many of you have observed. Entitlement, aggressive, disrespectful, no value placed on experience, incredible overestimation ability and knowledge, need for constant recognition.
My question is whether or not these behaviors will last throughout the careers of a large percentage of the Gen Ys and how this will impact the US global competitiveness. This whole attitude of expecting a reward just for showing up does not bode well when India and China are rapidly improving their skills and raising the bar on performance. I know colleagues who actually have had to lower the bar on performance for their Gen Y group because the morale plummets when people aren’t getting constant praise and promotions. What will the consequences be ten years from now if we have an entire generation of entrepreneurs and employees who have an inflated sense of accomplishment and create inferior companies and products that they believe to be world class?
There is hope. I have to admit that I too had some of these same behaviors after graduating from college in the early 90′s. However, I very quickly was hit in the face with a shot of reality that made me understand how the corporate world really worked. I thought I could walk in and help generate new business for the international accounting firm where I worked based on my accounting skills and personality. It took one sales call with senior partners for me to quickly understand that bringing in business was more about who you know and not just about being smart and having the right attitude.
My concern is that I rarely have seen or heard of Gen Y employees actually reacting to being hit with these so-called doses of reality. In many cases, the inflated sense of knowledge and accomplishment is so ingrained that they are oblivious to a knock on the head that should clearly demonstrate to them that there is no substitute for experience. No matter how smart you think you are.
I can only hope that most of these individuals do wake up and realize the value of experience and putting in time to learn skills on the job, rather than justifying entitlement behavior as “the new paradigm” for a smarter and faster generation of employees that have outgrown the old rules of business. Otherwise, we could be in big trouble.
