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J.T. O’Donnell is a career coach, advice columnist and author. In addition to her book, 
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Recruiting Gen-Y has been a hot, I mean a HOT, subject these days. (If you are an HR manager and you haven’t read up on the best way to recruit college grads, then I suggest you get the new book, “Recruit or Die” which summarizes the approaches that have worked best to date.)
But, even with all this insight on the tactics necessary for capturing young talent, the word on the street from some managers is in spite of doing what they were told, Gen-Y employees are still leaving after only 6 - 18 months of employment. As you can imagine, that’s pretty frustrating to some Boomers who, against their instincts, embraced the ‘give the kids what they want’ methodology, only to see them still walk out the door. I expect to see dialog soon on the idea that giving Gen-Y what they want is ‘helicopter managing’ – and like helicopter parenting, it has its drawbacks. Just like the parenting version, helicopter managing is paved with well-intentions, but when your best efforts to impress, motivate and engage a workforce still ends in them leaving you, the result is often a wounded ego and some bitter feelings towards a generation that ultimately doesn’t really know what it wants – yet. And, as some job-hopping Gen-Y have learned recently, the reaction to their decision to move on may include some ‘tough love’ commentary from their bosses. I recently heard of a Boomer owner of a mortgage company who decided to hire a pool college grads in an effort to create a young, hip culture. 20 months later, and with 95 percent turnover, the figure moved to 100 percent, as his top 23-year-old producer, who was making a high, five-figure income, gave her notice. His response, “Go ahead and leave like the rest of your !@#$% generation. I don’t need you!”
Now, do I support tough love and a desire to see Gen-Y humbled? Of course not. In fact, I share with managers why this approach only serves to hurt both sides. The employee jumps jobs without learning what it takes to stay happy in the role, and has ill-will to boot. Meanwhile, the boss and his company end up with a tarnished reputation amongst Gen-Y workers (bad news travels fast), an empty seat, and the turnover costs associated with it. For companies hiring Gen-Y talent, the answer to keeping them lies in addressing the four elements vital to creating a corporate culture that supports retention of human capital. Yet, as you can imagine, some of those companies who have given it their best shot to woo Gen-Y but are still failing to keep them, are starting to think the answer is to refrain from hiring young professionals altogether until they ‘grow up’ and have life changes that will cause them to appreciate their jobs a bit more.
Gen-Y readers, are you thinking, “So what? They’ll be back, there’s a talent shortage coming.” Don’t be so sure. There are several alternative talent sources savvy companies are starting to utilize in order to diminish their reliance on you. They are:
1) Stay-at-Home Moms - These women are educated, resourceful and looking for opportunities that will let them keep their skills current and their brains engaged while their little ones grow up. I spoke to one executive, who recently put together the company’s first job-sharing program say, “The moms in this program are the best employees we’ve got. They can get 40 hours worth of work done in 20, and they aren’t constantly looking for praise or advancement.”
2) Semi-retired Baby Boomers & Matures - ‘Stepping down’ is a lot different than ‘stepping out’ of the workforce. The older generations don’t want to retire completely; they just want to find careers that let them leave ‘work’ at the job. Consulting, part-time opportunities, and even jobs as individual contributors as opposed to management roles are appealing to this generation, who knows work helps them feel productive in life.
3) Foreign-born Workers - For many young professionals born in other countries, working in America is still a dream come true. Some companies are finding that foreigners who now live in the US have more positive outlooks and are more appreciative of their employers. It’s no surprise that they tend to excel on-the-job and are more loyal as well. I know a brilliant Slovakian-born college grad who wrote her Bachelor’s degree thesis on a famous American bank. She applied and started out as a teller with them. Two promotions later, and in less than two years, she was her branch’s top-producer as a personal banker. And, when she wanted to reduce her hours so she could help her husband in his business, they accommodated her schedule.
I don’t want to see the friction between younger and older workforces continue. It’s time we bridge the gap and learn to work with each other. Boomers must recognize the need to partner with young talent. At the same time, here are two proven approaches Gen-Ys can take to find and stay at a job for say, 2-3 years, without going crazy.
A) Seek professional help. No, not a psychologist, but a career coach, mentor, etc., someone who has the experience and know-how to help you identify and pursue your unique vision of career success. You need to assess your strengths and get some guidance from an unbiased advisor. Your family or friends should not be your sole advice sources – they think everything you do is great and can’t be objective about what you should do to move forward. Not to mention, many parents today (sorry Boomer Moms & Dads) are providing their offspring with outdated career advice or unfairly pressuring their children to meet their own expectations of professional success. It’s time to seek the help of someone who can effectively help you leverage your strengths and create a two-year career plan that will let you feel focused and fulfilled.
B) Identify how to motivate yourself to stay past the honeymoon stage of your next job. What I love most about working with Gen-Y is the fact that they want to have satisfying careers that support a successful life. In short, they plan to make work-life balance a reality. However, while this generation believes that ‘what you do’ shouldn’t define you as a person, I can tell you ‘how you do it’ does. If you want to find professional satisfaction for the duration of your life, identify ways to stay satisfied on-the-job so you can build your professional reputation as an employee with patience. Give your employer the confidence you are going to stick with them for a bit and they just might give you what you want. Mentors don’t grow on trees and your managers are not your parents. They aren’t required to support your hopes and dreams, but, they can be enticed to do so if you show them loyalty works both ways.
In closing, let me stress that I’m not saying a Gen-Y who is truly miserable shouldn’t move on. What I am suggesting is to complete some personal assessment and to seek some fresh perspective before making your next move. There are 70 million Gen-Y. That’s a lot of competition, and here’s what we’re seeing to date: Gen-Ys who succeed at connecting with Boomers and exemplify greater patience on-the-job are the ones who are having the torch passed to them sooner.
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Leave your thoughts here. (28 responses)
- 1 Trackback on Aug 12th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
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Maybe it’s just my middle of the road tendencies, or my lack of experience actually working professionally with fellow Gen-Yers, but I really haven’t experienced firsthand the extreme exodus that people talk about. Does it exist? Yeah, I’m sure it does. It’s just always seemed like it’s blown out of proportion to me, but maybe that’s not the case. Or maybe my standards are completely skewed and biased.
In my interview for my current role, I had to answer seriously my intentions on staying with the company. I think this is a very legitimate question, as I was applying above the standard entry level, I was absolutely prepared for it. I answered as honestly as I could. Let them know it was an industry that I was unfamiliar with, a role that by nature could not be fully understood until months into the job, and that I could not promise them events would not occur that would cause me to leave. After that preface, I told them I did not, at the time, plan on looking at moving on for at least 2 years or so. I felt that was enough to not only get my feet wet, but also to experience those subtle things within an industry, a group, etc, which cannot be experienced until post year, year and a half mark.
I felt that was an honest answer, and not only would they have seen through “I want to stay here forever!� but I feel as though if a company is willing to risk hiring me, I should be able to be honest and forthcoming about my intentions. I will admit, as a year approaches, I have looked elsewhere. I am not completely unhappy in my role; it’s just not personally satisfying. I think what separates me from the stereotypical Gen-Yer is that I don’t plan to move to another role that I am in now. I can operate from an advantageous position, and because I am not specifically unhappy (a decidedly “meh� feeling) in my position, I can afford to be picky and ensure that my next position makes a considerable leap forward in personal job satisfaction. Moving to the same role in a different setting is pointless, if it’s not a step up, there is no reason to take it.
By the time I move on, I’m quite sure it’ll happen around the 18-24 month mark, but I don’t see this as a bad thing for myself or my employer. I will have fulfilled my commitment to them, I have already improved the quality of performance of the department, and I have helped set standards for those around me. I will also have personally been able to test drive the corporate machine from a non entry level view (key, because I get the impression from those below me that many entry level positions, regardless of industry, are extremely similar), and I will have gained essential insights into what I’m looking for in a job.
JT
I appreciate your post and it certainly is worth reflecting on, however the challenge we are experiencing with Gen Y committment to companies is a direct reaction to the way companies have treated their employees over the past fifteen years. While these Gen Y men and women were in their formative years Corporate America broke the contract with employees that created the “company man” everyone is looking for when hiring a Gen y employee. There are no longer defined benefit pension plans that encourage retention, gone are the philosophical perspectives of HP where they boasted with pride of never laying an employee off, gone are the 100% health coverage. Corporate America has repeatedly demonstrated, and in many cases with the parents of Gen yers, that their commitment is to Wall Street and your job is as safe as their quarterly profits.
We Baby Boomers have created these corporate cultures that require putting work above family, shrinking the ranks of middle management that served the important purpose of mentoring and career development as well as corporate involvement in community, and committing far to much of our personal time to work. We now live in fear of loosing our precious job and are too desperate to stand up and change the systems that are far too slanted toward investors.
Gen Y will continue to leave jobs at will as long as they have options and given the flattening of the world and the advancement of technology that will be for a long time. Corporate America needs to look to this generation for help with values clarification and to determine the future of work. Now is not the time to dig our heals in and resist change.
I can’t help noticing that employee option 3 (”Foreign-born Workers”) sidesteps the foreign-born workers who have not relocated to the United States, a.k.a., “offshore employees.”
This option is particularly relevant to GenY because offshore workers are increasingly being turned to for inexpensive labor in key GenY sectors: namely, technology and creative.
I wonder whether this sidestep was intentional. If so, why?
Is this issue really unique to our generation or is that we’re just the ones currently working in entry-level positions? I mean, sure, 50 years ago people took entry-level positions with the intention of staying with the company and working their way up, but I think it’s safe to say that mindset dissipated at least 20 years ago.
Entry-level jobs aren’t meant to be careers, but springboards to something bigger and better. If that something happens to be within the same organization, than great, but if not, what did anyone expect us to do?
I agree with Nathan. I intended to stay at my current job for at least two years and add some stability to my resume tomorrow, but the company has given me every reason to leave and not one reason to stay. So when I hand in my resignation tomorrow afternoon, I’m sure some people will be pretty angry, but they haven’t really left me much of a choice.
Being entry level for any generation has similar characteristics. I graduated from college thinking that I was the world’s answer to any question. They would open-handedly offer me big bucks to do what would fulfill me personally. Hah! I know now that no job is going to fulfill my needs for self-actualization. People need to find their “passion” and look for ways to contribute where they are planted. Personally, it was important for me to have an interest in the industry I chose - health insurance technologies.
If you are fortunate enough to be hired at a wage you can live on, look for ways to solve business needs within the organization. Try to make strong business relationships. But don’t expect the job to be your family or savior. It’s a job.
But in my area of work, it is not wise to burn bridges. We say: “It’s a small world.” You may see some of the same faces again in future job hunts.
Our corporation believe in having a diverse mix of ages and cultures. We can all learn from one another.
I’m a boomer, but I’m not sure things are so very different now than when I started working in the mid-60’s. If you found something you enjoyed, did well and which allowed you to move upward, you stayed around. If you didn’t, you looked around.
Until I was nearly 30, two years at a job was record-setting. Then technology started to change, I found work I enjoyed day in and day out, and a couple of companies I felt suited me.
End result: I’ve worked for two firms in the last 32 years — the current one for nearly 24. I’ve reinvented myself countless times to accommodate a changing workplace, changing technology, and about a dozen different bosses. It was never easy — but it was never boring either.
As always, time will tell. If I’m still around in 30 years or so, maybe I’ll comment again and see how different the generations really were.
I am a tail-end boomer (1961). As a manager, I have a pretty diverse team age-wise. I have 25 employees aged from 22 to 74. I agree with Nathan…I don’t see the problems or the mass exodus that the article speaks about.
I think it really boils down to the individual. I have had some really extraordinary y-gen ee’s over the years all the way to some really bad ones, and everything in between. I can say the same exact thing for my boomer and x-gen help too!
I hate making generalizations about any group of people. You usually end up being wrong at some point….
It seems that the boomers (of which I am one) are forgetting our own past. Very few of us settled into long term employment relationships until our third, fourth or fifth position. My first position after college was 18 months, the second was one year, the third 6 months, the fourth 3 years. It was the only way to achieve rapid increases in compensation and advancement.
We weren’t that different.
You ask why younger people seem to leave jobs on a whim. The obvious answer is because they can! Gen Y will (typically) have no kids, no mortgage and no ties to a company. Their ‘risk’ is that they stay in a job rather than move to find a career. For the (even slightly) older people they work with who may be settling down with a partner, buying a condo or house, having kids etc their ‘risk’ is leaving a secure job for a seemingly better job, hoping it doesn’t turn out to be a lemon.
And would the average company hesitate to get rid of a Gen Y recruit if the markets changed or business was bad? You can’t expect loyalty without giving it first….
I understand what you’re saying. Really, I do. But I’m wondering if it matters that corporate America is filling opportunities that Gen Y doesn’t want. Because we don’t want them. Sure, in a couple years we might come crawling back, but right now job-hopping seems to work for us to figure out what we want to do and what we are interested in. It lets us test out skills. In a relationship, if it’s past the honeymoon stage and it’s not working and you’ve tried - you’ve tried hard - it’s time to move on. Building a professional reputation doesn’t mean staying at a company past two years, does it? Can’t it equally mean doing a quality job while in a position and leaving a company in the best way possible, keeping doors open to continue to build relationships?
In the meantime, bring on the others who will decrease the reliance on Gen Y! I think the effect will 1) fill positions we don’t want, and 2) make us become better at what we do. Either outcome is good.
Re: comment B, what is unique about Gen-Y that wants to have a satisfying career that supports a successful life? Who doesn’t want that? The question really is - how do you have your cake and eat it too? Everyone wants that, but very few get it, and many of those that do are never satisfied. Early on, the realization that most corporate entry level positions are not particularly challenging or satisfying to a great number means turnover. That first job is a slap in the face for many in terms of job satisfaction expectations, it’s called an entry level job because the expectation is you have the brains, etc. to move on to bigger and better things. Rationally working through dissatisfaction to get to where you want to be career-wise is a mark of maturity. I would personally be happy to be rid of your description of a Gen-Y employee. Let them take of their training wheels somewhere else; I have a business to run.
However the bitterness of the guy who wanted to create a “youthful culture” is misplaced. Businesses are for making money, not recapturing youth. He probably equated young with cheap and got what he paid for, trained them or gave them the opportunity to be great, and then doesn’t want to pay for the value he created, so they leave and get it somewhere else. I have been told the same thing at various jobs, “the only way to get a significant pay increase is to leave.” So I did, and I did. That’s just business.
Re: comment A, It’s likely that the anti-establishment ethos of the boomers that is in large part responsible for the Gen-Y attitudes. I hope I understand you right in assuming that this is the “bad career advice” of which you speak. If instead you are referring to “nose to the grindstone” or “don’t leave the office before your boss” advice, those still hold. It may not help you achieve work life balance but it will better your chances of being successful in your career, at least until Gen-Y is running things. The best way to subvert an organization is to assimilate and attack from within. You won’t change things until you can adapt and rise to a position of influence, or quit and do your own thing and see how that works. Problem is assimilation comes along at the same time marriage, new kids, mortgages, etc. creeps up and before you know it, they have you.
I submit that these are not Gen-Y issues, they are the issues faced by every middle/upper middle class college educated twenty-something who grew up with a certain amount of support any time after WWII. For most, these issues are a function of maturity and the luxury of not daily worrying how to pay rent, feed kids, etc.
IMHO, the best advice you can give a Gen-Y, if you insist that they are a special demographic, is” It’s not all about you.” Unfortunately, from a psychosocial perspective, that’s where it sounds like they are, and it’s not compatible with most low and mid level corporate opportunities.
Well, a huge problem is that so many jobs that are entry level do not require a college degree but a bachelor degree has become the screening vehicle of choice. The “self esteem” movement also makes the gen Y’s think it is all about me because… that is what they have been told all their life. Why should we be surprised?
The danger here is that to get ahead requires work and the ability to put up with the mundane along with the challenging. Unless you create your own company, an inability to deal with that paradox of work life will make sure you never really advance. The stigma of changing jobs has mellowed somewhat, but 5 jobs before you are 30 is a flag and at the higher levels of middle and upper management positions, there is still a job hopping penalty, it shows immaturity, and a failure to be committed to the company, both absolute non-starters for most companies. If I am forced to recruit jobbers, which is what the poster children of gen Y’s seem to be, gen Y’s are way too expensive and not very productive, hence your comment on alternatives to hiring them.
I applaud a work/life balance consideration, but it was always there more than people think. We recruit gen Y aged kids, we just make sure they don’t act like gen Y’ers.
As the CEO of a large business I find it funny and a little sad that Gen-Y believes that staying in a job 18-24 months would “stabilize” a resume. There’s little opportunity for the entry level manager to show any accomplishment in such a short period of time. The “drudgery” of learning a product, a process, a business, an industry can take time to accomplish. All I read in these comments supports the short attention span - I need to be wowed right now - of the 20 something employee. Little sense of accomplishment, of completing projects, of raising the value of their employer’s business. It all seems to be about entitlement, not earning their place. In a business climate where competition is suffocating I have had Gen-Y employees suggest that I recognize them just for showing up to work!
This sea change in attitude crosses all educational lines - from doctors to associate degree entry level employees. Maybe it relates to so few high schoolers or even college students that have held down jobs in those formative years. Perhaps this is why the best business schools require a work history before they will admit a qualified student.
Where are the Gen-Y’s who actually like what they are doing, and can see themselves making a career from their current business of industry? Who realize that the training they receive on the job has great value - the sharing of hard earned intellectual capital.
Value every job opportunity, every business relationship just as much as you value that iced mocha latte you had this morning. Maybe then you’ll enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done.
Moving jobs often is not unique to the gen-y crowd. I’m a gen-x’r and when beginning my career I left my first job after 24 months and that was six months longer than I should have stayed.
I was hired at a high salary for college grads at the time in technology. Saved the insurance company went to work for 2 mil in overpaid commissions during the second year I was there and also worked directly with the CEO to help identify sales trends used to realocate the companies sales force. I left because my promotion to senior analyst was rejected by directors in my division because I was too young. So I put in my notice and took a job at double my then salary.
This went on an additional 4 times over 10yrs and now I manager a large division with P&L responsibility for a major technology company. In contrast, the people who stayed at my first employeer in the same time period made a third of what I have with much less responsibility. Now their company was sold to another insurance company and they are being replaced with offshore talent. I won’t even go into the broken promises like the pension plans and insurance.
In technology(which is my field) this same story has happened over and over again. People are not stupid, threatening young workers with foreign workers or bored housewives is not going to change their attitude. It may in fact cause them to take action rather than wait for the “ax to fall”. Many of young workers have seen three or more generations treated poorly by corporations and have the “free agent” attitude ingrained in them that many HR professionals pushed for the last 10yrs.
There is an old saying that “you reap what you sow” and companies have been sowing this crop for the last 20yrs and get what they deserve. Put yourself in the position of young worker and think what your career path would be at your company. If you are honest with yourself you may not like what you see. The empty threats in the article above may even cause you take action sooner rather than later.
“And would the average company hesitate to get rid of a Gen Y recruit if the markets changed or business was bad? You can’t expect loyalty without giving it first….”
Mike, I think you bring up an important point. GenY is starting to watch their grandparents and parents reach so-called “retirement age,” and are learning the harsh truths of underfunded pensions, eliminated retiree health care benefits, and similar broken promises, even after years of faithful service. Perhaps they feel that showing loyalty is just being a sucker.
Wow! A lot of great comments from a variety of business professionals! I tend to agree with all the comments made before my own - to various degrees.
I worked my first job for 5 1/2 years, my second job for 10 and then had a couple of small job (6 mos, 1 year) before getting back on track. I now have 2 years with my current company and now work in a senior management level position.
I too am surprised that 18-24 months has now become the norm to moving on. I remember recruiters telling me years ago that 3-5 was the norm and if you weren’t moving up the ladder fast enough, you should “leverage” yourself out in the market to move up in salary range. I obviously didn’t follow the advice - I thought I could play the longer term employee card and did move up in the organizations I worked at. I also got married and started a family and my job became my security for my family.
I am a boomer at the tail-end (’62) and believe that there are great Gen-Y prospects out there to hire, to mentor, and to guide as well as redefine the future of business. For those who choose the right path, it shouldn’t be that difficult to find the success and fulfillment they seek - but for those who choose the wrong path, they’ll be job-hopping frequently and will be never satisfied with their career. Those will be the ones who change jobs every 18 - 24 months. I agree with the last response that their resumes will kill any chance of a meaningful position if it shows that they continue to move around without building a solid foundation of experience and reliability.
Thanks you so much everyone for giving some thoughtful commentary. In my line of work, the most significant disconnect I see between the generations in the workplace is their differing definitions of key terms like ‘career,’ ‘professionalism,’ and even ‘work-life balance.’ As was pointed out in your posts, the breakdown of the employee-employer relationship is one of the primary reasons Gen Y views these terms so dramatically differently than Boomers do. Until we (sorry for the cliche) “bridge the gap” between the viewpoints, this friction will continue. Thankfully, it is honest, insightful dialog like this that will get the ball rolling. The posts above prove that people from all generations can look at this situation from the other’s point of view. That’s a great start! So please, keep writing, and Corporate America, if you are reading - take note.
I am a Gen Y-er and was fresh out of college when I started at the medium-sized business I’m at now. I was in my first position for 18 mos before I switched - but stayed within the company. Staying 18 mos in each position is a minimum here. Our company is in the Forbes Best 100 companies to work for and I feel extremely grateful and unique that I enjoy my line of work and want to stay here for my entire career - another 20-30 years.
I did feel some resistance from the recruiters during the hiring process because of the stereotype of young, transient Gen Y-ers that don’t do hard work. One recruiter actually told me not to “put all my eggs in one basket” because they rarely hired people right out of college. I think we proved her wrong - in the last 3 years the company has grown 50% and the majority of the new hires are from Gen Y - and we are hard workers that are keen on technical skills and can hammer out work faster than our older predecessors - hence we get bored easy. We have motivation for a work-life balance that allows to enjoy things outside of work, too. I think the key to our generation is to keep us interested and to challenge us intellectually, and throwing in great benefits like being able to telecommute, having casual fridays, and a membership to the gym helps too!
John (CEO John),
I think we’re speaking two completely different languages, because nothing I’m reading here corresponds to what you are summarizing we are asking for. You say:
All I read in these comments supports the short attention span - I need to be wowed right now - of the 20 something employee. Little sense of accomplishment, of completing projects, of raising the value of their employer’s business. It all seems to be about entitlement, not earning their place.
Yet I don’t see a single person in here asking for any of that. I don’t need to be wowed, I need to have a job that is fulfilling personally. Sense of accomplishment? I had a great sense of accomplishment when my manager had me covering 2 people last week, expected me to come running for help, and yet performed high above any standards while trying to do the work of 3 individuals. It was a great challenge, and was extremely satisfying, albeit exhausting, and should say something about my current workload. I work for a company in the top 10 of the Fortune 500 list, and if that didn’t raise the value of my company, I don’t know what else to do.
Your example of someone wanting praise just for showing up is ridiculous, because frankly that person isn’t worth the check their getting every couple weeks. That does not characterize Gen-Y, yet small percentage of bad apples are spoiling the bunch.
I don’t think you should find it funny or sad that we’re moving from positions after 24 months. At what realistic point should I move on if I have no desire to be in the field I’m in? Would you suggest students don’t switch their major until their complete? That a first year law student complete his degree before deciding law isn’t the right field? The workplace is no different, and frankly if you’re recruiting correctly, you, as the employer, win. How you ask? Let me explain.
If recruiting properly you should be able to acquire hard working, professional, and level setting individuals. I consider myself one of these. I level set the time I’d commit to them before moving on to return the investment put into me, and I’ve worked as hard as I possibly can to learn the industry, the role, and to improve all quality of work done in my group. I’ve already made the decision to move on, but I would do none of this behind my employers back. When I start looking for jobs and start the process elsewhere, there will be enough warning to allow my employer to prepare for the transition. And having learned of my character, there is no reason for them to doubt the level of work I’ll perform while in that transition period. From their point of view, they’ve had 2 quality years of hard work from someone who raised the bar on a performance level, and set high standards for the team. This is an absolute win.
On the flipside, they should be recruiting either 1) someone similar to my situation prior to working for them or 2) someone who is in the same situation as I, who put in quality work elsewhere, but who has decided that my role is a step closer to their ideal role. Either case, they have either maintained a high level of work from someone new and eager to learn, or someone familiar with the industry and knows they want to be here. Either way, this is also a win.
Long post, but in summary it all comes down to recruiting and the caliber of employee you hire. If you hire slackers who want praise for showing up, great, give them a perfect attendance award at the end of the year. But if you want quality Gen-Y’ers who are going to work relentlessly hard, give their all at learning the industry and the business, and raise the standards of work, they are out there, and I don’t think they’re hard to find. Your characterization of Gen-Y contradicts what most of us Gen-Y are saying here, and really only serves as an excuse to not bother stepping up the recruiting efforts and finding quality talent.
I strongly agree with Nathan.
I’m not quitting my job just because I’m bored. If this is all I’d ever known, I’d probably hang around. First, this job isn’t in my chosen field, which they knew when they hired me. Second, I’ve have a few jobs (hired on a temporary basis during college) that I LOVED. I felt connected to what I was doing, had passion for my work, and never dreaded coming in to work in the morning. I knew (even as a lowly intern) what it was like to be treated as a valued employee and to feel fulfilled by a day’s work. I don’t have that here.
At the same time, I contributed quite a bit in the short time I’ve been in my position. I’ve basically saved a worth-while program from certain failure and made several procedure improvements that have truly affected workflow in my office. I feel a sense of accomplishment on those things - but I can’t be as proud of them as I was of the things I accomplished in the positions I was passionate about.
Tell me why I should stay here, when I know there’s something better out there?
Great post J.T. In general this has been some of the best conversation we have seen here on Employee Evolution. Personally, I do not feel any need or responsibility to convince myself that I like my job. Staying at a job you don’t like for 2-3 years is a huge waste of time. Do not “stick it out” to make your resume look better. You’re company will not hesitate to fire your butt if you are not performing. If they aren’t living up to their end of the bargain, then fire the company!
I particularly like the second comment by Jack (A baby boomer). He says:
“While these Gen Y men and women were in their formative years Corporate America broke the contract with employees that created the “company manâ€? everyone is looking for when hiring a Gen y employee…. Corporate America has repeatedly demonstrated, and in many cases with the parents of Gen yers, that their commitment is to Wall Street and your job is as safe as their quarterly profits.”
When I think back to my childhood in the ’90s, every day the news seemed to talk about layoff’s and downsizings. My parents friends and even my parents lost their jobs despite their hard work, loyalty and commitment. I will not let that happen to me. I will not put my trust in a company just “because.” Anyone who does is making a giant mistake.
The breaking of the corporate contract for life is obviously a good reason to be more willing to look around. Companies are notorious for not paying what it would cost to go recruit a new hire versus paying their existing staff more. And I think that reflects in a less negative consideration of multiple job (employer) changes.
Still, I can tell you that with some narrow exceptions, job hopping at the rate that is being mentioned in this thread means you are limiting your opportunities later. While some talk about being taken advantage of - Nathan for instance - others are getting too lost in self actualization mumbo jumbo. Nathan would have jumped 20 years ago, albeit a little more slowly perhaps. As long as the perception of the Gen Y’ers is they need to be entertained all day - and some of you , though not all, have intimated that in your posts - there is a problem. What are you going to do when you have a family who is depending on you and you need to be fulfilled more? Are you going to move them? Everytime? I doubt it. And obviously we are talking in sweeping generalities here - for everyone of Gen Y age isn’t identical anymore than the boomers were before them.
The corporate society does not deserve loyalty if it does not give it. The same goes for trust and respect. Sounds to me like our corporate society has lost the respect of an entire generation based on their past actions over the last 20 years. Expect things to get a lot more heated and far worse in the future, as the fireworks have just begun. This will cross directly into world politics. It might even become violent in the future if a major global recession occurs from the debt society financial fallout.
This is a generational political war and the younger society wants liberty and financial stability while the older wants control on a global scale and the sacrifice is the youth of America and western Europe. With the constant loss of jobs and being forced to retrain every few years many youth are very angry. Globalization is going to be a very hostile wild ride and it is finally starting to politically heat up.
The actions of this generation are justified based on the environment they have been forced to live, work and grow up in. This is just the beginning of a very powerful society change. I hope this generation chooses “liberty for all” instead of Darwinist debt subsidized corporatism.
These are very interesting times indeed.
Everyone seems to think that Gen Y is leaving cause we’re not happy with our jobs. I know I’m going to be leaving my job in a year or two and I’ve started less then a month ago. It won’t be because I’m not happy. Guess why? I’m going to be able to make a lot more money somewhere else. That man who lost his entire gen Y work force. I’m willing to bet that almost everyone of them left for a higher paying job, not because they weren’t happy.
Gen Y is easy. We want to make as much as money as we can. Not because we’re gready and evil at heart, but because when you have more money, you can have more fun. I want to make as much money as I can so I can visit Europe this summer, goto Australia in the winter, check out Peru somewhere in there too. I also want to party hard on the weekends and have a great time. The more efficient and the more I produce, the more money I make, the more I can have fun. If a job can’t keep up with other offers then the problem isn’t with Gen Y. It’s with these companies.
Haven’t read everyone’s response but, I have an incredible niche skill that many companies (also my own side business) need. If I have to sit around doing repetitive, mundane, or abusive work…I won’t. We are the highest skilled generation, it has nothing to do with impatience or wanting more, it has to do with the fact we paid outrageous sums of money for college training. Now we can at least expect some respect for our skill and time spent in return.
Thanks for commenting! A niche skill set does make a Gen Y super marketable. The challenge is that with more than 4M people graduating with degrees annually, unlike you, the majority of them don’t get trained in a niche skill set while in college.
In some ways, your generation is more skilled in terms of technology, but what corporate America is upset about is the lack of other skills necessary for being a successful employee. And yes, to your point, people are paying large sums of money for a piece of paper that is about the equivalent to a high school diploma twenty years ago.
I’m glad you are in a position to not settle, but the hundreds of young professionals I work with aren’t so lucky. Imagine learning second semester senior year, or even the summer after graduation, that entry-level jobs are on the down-swing, the rate of inflation has far outpaced starting salaries, and you have no idea what you want to do. This is the story I deal with repeatedly. That’s why I’m focused on bringing awareness to the issue - so we can change the way Gen Y AND corporate America work together. Respect and appreciation for each side’s point of view is paramount right now…