Newly Corporate

No, I’m not talking about politics, i’m talking about risk.  Penolope Trunk at the Brazin Careerist has a great analysis of what makes the Gen Y’ers tick.  I feel she sums up our attitude with this:

Things start to look murky because young people are so difficult for older people to deal with at work. Young people seem to be demanding that everyone change to accommodate them. In fact though, young people are merely demanding that the workplace live out the values that the people who run the work place – parents of Gen Y – taught at home: Personal growth (”turn that TV off!”), good time management (ballet Monday, soccer Tuesday, swimming Wednesday…), and family first.

That’s great, all we want is for the people who have raised us to maintain and offer the same values in our workplace.  I like that.  Trunk breaks down the Gen Y even further with 4 reason why Gen Y is conservative:

1. They love their parents.
Not only do they love their parents, but they want their parents to help them figure out adult life. There is no rebellion. Instead there is helicopter parenting. And there is a near-perfect implementation by Gen Y of the values their parents told them were important. Gen Y are hard workers, acheivers, and rule followers.

2. They operate in teams.
   This is not a generation of mavericks. This is not about self-reliance, it’s about teamwork. But teamwork is inherently conservative because there’s consensus. For example, prom is a group event.  And there is not infighting – gen Y hates conflict- which is no surprise because, as Rebecca Ryan points out, that they’ve been learning negotiation skills since they were kids.

3. They are not complainers. 
Baby boomers got their start as people who bucked the system to protect their own interests by protesting Vietnam. Who was fighting the war? Baby boomers. But they hated the war. So they argued against it. Who is fighting today’s war? Gen Y. And they hate it. But they almost never complain in a large, public way.

4. They are not asking for anything crazy.
  Gen Y are really hard workers. They have been working harder in school than any preceding generation. And the pace that they sift and synthesize information puts the skills of their elders to shame. So why complain about the demands of this generation? They are great at work and they want to have work that is meaningful and challenging.

This is a great analysis.  I think we can all relate.  As we graduate college and move into the “real” world we are not ready to give up our college buds and begin a family.  Instead we want our job and a social life.  In my job search the biggest draws to a company was not money but their work/life balance opportunities, the people I would be working with, and the challenge and development the job would afford me.  This I think leads to a happy engaging workplace.