This is YOU--often called "Generation Y"-- a force of as many as 70 million, and the first wave is just now embarking on their careers — taking their place in an increasingly multigenerational workplace.
This age group is moving into the labor force during a time of major demographic change, as companies around the US face an aging workforce. Sixty-year-olds are working beside 20-year-olds. Freshly minted college graduates are overseeing employees old enough to be their parents. And new job entrants are changing careers faster than college students change their majors, creating frustration for employers struggling to retain and recruit talented high-performers.
But unlike the generations that have gone before them, it is said that Gen Y has been overly pampered, nurtured and programmed with a slew of activities since they were toddlers, meaning they are both high-performance and high-maintenance. They also believe in their own worth, even though frequently that worth has not yet been proven in the marketplace.
"Generation Y is much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in much of today's workforce," says Jordan Kaplan, an associate managerial science professor at Long Island University-Brooklyn in New York. "They've grown up questioning their parents, they question their teachers, and now they're questioning their employers. They don't know how to shut up, which is great, but that's aggravating to the 50-year-old manager who says, 'Do it and do it now.' "
•Work-life balance isn't just a buzz word. Unlike boomers who tend to put a high priority on career, today's newest workers are more interested in making their jobs accommodate their family and personal lives than vice versa. They want jobs with flexibility, telecommuting options and the ability to go part time or leave the workforce temporarily when children are in the picture. Will this laid back approach lead to the same pace of advancements earlier generations have created for their future generations?
•Change, change, change. Generation Y'ers also don't seem to expect to stay in a job, or even a career, for too long — they've seen the scandals that imploded Enron and Arthur Andersen, and they're skeptical when it comes to such concepts as employee loyalty. They don't like to stay too long on any one assignment. This is a generation of multitaskers, and they can juggle e-mail on their Blackberrys while talking on cellphones while trolling online.
"They're like Generation X on steroids. They walk in with high expectations for themselves, their employer, their boss. If you thought you saw a clash when Generation X came into the workplace, that was the fake punch. The real managerial tests are coming now."
Conflicts over casual dress. In the workplace, conflict and resentment can arise over a host of issues, even seemingly innocuous subjects such as appearance, as a generation used to casual fare such as flip-flops, tattoos and capri pants finds more traditional attire is required at the office.
Angie Ping, 23, of Alvin, Texas, lives in flip-flops but isn't allowed to wear them to the office. "Some companies' policies relating to appropriate office attire seem completely outdated to me," says Ping, at International Facility Management Association. "The new trend for work attire this season is menswear-inspired capri pants, which look as dressy as pants when paired with heels, but capri pants are not allowed at my organization."
And then there's Gen Y's total comfort with technology. While boomers may expect a phone call or in-person meeting on important topics, younger workers may prefer virtual problem solving. This can lead to communication breakdowns.
Conflict can also flare up over management style. Unlike previous generations who've in large part grown accustomed to the annual review, Gen Y'ers have grown up getting constant feedback and recognition from teachers, parents and coaches and can resent it or feel lost if communication from bosses isn't more regular.
"The millennium generation has been brought up in the most child-centered generation ever. They've been programmed and nurtured," says Cathy O'Neill, senior vice president at career management company Lee Hecht Harrison in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. "Their expectations are different. This group expects to be told how they're doing."
More than 60% of employers say they are experiencing tension between employees from different generations, according to a survey by Lee Hecht Harrison. The survey found more than 70% of older employees are dismissive of younger workers' abilities. And nearly half of employers say that younger employees are dismissive of the abilities of their older co-workers.
Is this how to spell success?
