7 Things to Look Past When Managing Gen Y

Ryan-

I love this tips, because to me, they make perfect sense. I can do circles around some of my coworkers because I have above average proficiency with my computer. I can get things done quicker– and better quite often (I have to note, though, with age does come experience and there are some great things coming out of my managers, too).

However, I don't think my non-Gen Y manager would embrace this philosophy. He would probably laugh at it. I work at a GIANT corporation, which is managed by Baby Boomers and they aren't inclusive at adapting the style of proficient Gen Y works. Maybe when we're running things, we'll be more aware of how generations below us work– but I wonder if we'll eventually adopt the attitudes of Baby Boomers when we're 40-50+

In summery, I think GEN Y workers will agree with your thoughts but we've still got to sell this up the ladder.

Feedback: It would be super if there was an edit button for comments

While this makes a lot of sense to Gen Y workers, you have to prove yourself to receive certain benefits. Don't try coming to work at 11 or leaving at 2 on your 3rd day (or during your 3rd week, or even 3rd month) at a new job. What you should do is come in early and leave a little late and show everyone that you get your work done and then you do a little more. By the time you have been there 6 months or a year you will have proved yourself and gained a lot of flexibility.

While companies should be open to being more flexible to the lifestyles of the young and powerful, this isn't a right, it's something you earn with hard work. It just doesn't need to be 30 years of hard work.

Nice post, but I don't think this is a generational remark, I think this is more about the freedom any employee wants. I think all employees want freedom, trust and flexibility–regardless of how old they are. I wouldn't expect a manager to overlook these behaviors just because the employee is a GenY, but more because that's the work environment and this person has already proven himself as a high performer. It's a great list of characteristics of an ideal work environment.

Ryan,

I like this post, too. I agree with almost everything you said. However, I agree with Jennifer. I've never had a boss who would agree with this philosophy. Granted, that's why I've left all of those positions and am now very cautiously looking, but the fact remains. We, as Gen Yers, know these things to be true, but to convince our older (or sometimes not older, just less open-minded) bosses of this, we're going to need to do more than just say we'd be happier and the work would still get done.

I love what you're doing with EE and Brazen Careerist, but I think that this post, and many others, would make a much bigger impact if we had facts and figures to back up our opinions and rantings. The older generations aren't going to take our huge changes on our word alone. We're just a punch of spoiled, irresponsible punks, remember?

Great article. In my experience small businesses and start-ups are much more likely to adopt this philosophy. The company I work for operates on the core competencies of this model and I love it. I love the flexibility and the trust…and it even makes me more productive compared to my last job…

Ryan,

You continue to be a harbringer of truth man. It's 11:30 here and I still haven't gone into work, but
my boss doesn't say anything because there have been times I've been relatively unproductive at
work, gone home, and come back the next day with complete projects finished.

[And as I wrote that the phone just rang - "Are you coming in today?" LOL]

All of these are 100% spot on, but the Happy Hour one definitely resonates as well. I can't go like I did
when I was playing ball in undergrad, but I still like to work hard, play hard and bosses need to understand that having a few drinks, and some fun does not translate into poor performance in the office. More often than not it is a release, and enables me to come back fresh and ready to go.

I like the hours at Brazen. If you guys decide you need a southern office, let me know and I'll get going in Dallas!

Hi Ryan,

Great post! I think you make important points about senior managment trusting their employees to get their work done while respecting their individulaity and competancy. I also like the idea of not judging in the workplace. So many people hold themselves up to ridiculous standards and judge others accordingly. NOT everyone works or conducts themselves the same way! Thank God. Good work-Keep people talking.

Hi Ryan,

Great post! I think you make important points about senior managment trusting their employees to get their work done while respecting their individulaity and competancy. I also like the idea of not judging in the workplace. So many people hold themselves up to ridiculous standards and judge others accordingly. NOT everyone works or conducts themselves the same way! Thank God. Good work!Keep people talking.

Thanks for all the comments. I'm glad to see everyone more or less agrees with these points. From what I understand, most small companies and start ups work this way. Hours don't matter and results do. The funny thing is, I would bet that people at these companies end up putting in more hours because they enjoy your work. You certainly won't see people at Brazen Careerist running for the door at 5:00 pm.

Hopefully, big companies begin to embrace some of these ideas as well. I've spoken with some companies who are slowly but surely changing, but there are still countless others stuck in their old ways.

I do have to admit I'm surprised to not get any negative responses about the happy hour point. I guess everyone likes to party every once in a while

Cheers

Ryan

If you're managing a Gen Yer, and there are no important meetings on the schedule, don't worry about what time he comes to work. Because, as we all know, results matter. Hours don't. … Yesterday I left work at 3 pm to take a nap. Today, I'll be working well past dinner. Maybe you got the point already, but I'll say it again, hours don't matter.

I agree with your "results matter most" philosophy, but unless you work in a production environment where you rarely need to collaborate with co-workers, some basic core business hours when you are at least available, if not physically at your desk, are still a good idea. GenY of all generations should recognize that formal, set meetings are not always the best way to collaborate; sometimes it's the informal "whenver" questions and discussions that yield the best ideas, and those are hard to find when your co-workers are napping in the middle of the workday.

Excellent grasp on how generation Yers work/live, as always.

I find many things such as what an employee wears, when an employee arrives/leaves, what is on his/her computer screen to be irrelevant and superficial, obviously as long as there is not an important meeting and the work gets done on time and well.

I also agree with your happy hour point. Some non-professional things may happen while drinking, but hopefully that is because drinking is not your profession.

I agree with the others – nice post. And I agree with those who mentioned that these are good tips for managing employees in general – not just Gen Y employees. Also, as KRobin said – I think we as employees would need to prove ourselves and not expect these benefits/perks/whatever from day one. Once an employee proves they can stay on top of things and get things done properly, then some (or all) of the things you suggested can come into play.

I have to dispute one of your facts though – I don't love happy hour.

I have to say I completely disagree with most of the article. While I think it's okay to surf the net during downtime or make a personal call here and there (so long as they are 5 minutes or less), I think any employee who incorporated all 7 of these points into their career would be fired within weeks.

What time you come to work and what time you leave is important for most people! It has to be at a reasonable time and a consistent time every day. Same with the time you leave. I'm in software sales and the top performers here are at the office at 8am and leave around 7 or 8pm every day.

If you want to be treated like a professional you have to dress like one! Don't show up to the office whenever you want dressed like a slob. The guy in dockers and a dress shirt who was there on time is going to appear to be way more competent than you.

If you are at a bar with your boss, try NOT to get loaded and act like a moron until you are sure he/she is cool with it, or acts like a moron first!

A summer spent in Africa does show a lot of character, but if an employer needs someone to sell hundreds of thousands of dollars of product/equipment or etc to corporate clients in a specific industry, that and you fine arts degree are NOT going to be enough experience to land you the job. Sorry Gen Y, but you are going to have to WORK your way up. Give up your sense of entitlement, the word does not owe you anything.

Before you attack me, let me say this: I am 25 years old (a true Gen Y), I work in a progressive industry (software), in a big, hip trendy city (Toronto) and I feel ashamed for my generation reading advice like this.

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Agreed, anyone implementing these ideas at a old school company would be fired. The point is for the companies to adopt these ideas, not the employees. There is definite value in hard work and working your way up, but hard work can look very different than hard work in the past. Change is good. Thanks for the comment

-Ryan

These are good points but they all hinge on the idea that all Gen Y workers are capable of conducting themselves with your work ethic. I know some Gen Y employees who consider it a blessing to their bosses if they just show up, let alone do any work. Results matter, yes, but time matters too in a lot of business settings. I don't think it's archaic for a manager to expect an employee to be on time and stay the length of the day if that employee's presence is necessary to produce results. Flexibility is good, being a floor mat is not.

I don't think any of these things would work for ALL companies. For example, the job I'm working at now – if I'm not here from 9 to 6, we won't make money. Or, we'll make a lot less. My position didn't always exist, but my boss realized it was needed, so here I am, spending 8 hours a day in a rectangular office 5 days a week. It's been challenging for me being back in this environment again.

My last job? I could usually get all my work done in two hours. I certainly didn't want to sit around there for the rest of the day on the chance that some work would pass my way. And they didn't want me sitting their either. So what exchange did we make? I could occasionally work from home instead of coming in. Also, they could call and email me on weekends when things came up. If a participant (the company offered classes) needed technical help, I gave the company permission to give my cell number out. I would schedule time to help the person figure out the issue. Or if the boss needed something researched or someone to be emailed, I'd respond to his requests during times I wasn't at the office. It worked because people need help outside of 9 to 6. They might not realize they can't access their homework until they leave THEIR job. So me being able to take their call at 7 or 8? I got a lot of people thanking me profusely for my help, let me tell ya.

Granted, this also worked because he wasn't calling me 24/7. I couldn't deal with that.

If I finished my work by 12, but I was scheduled to help someone at 2, they weren't bothered if I ate some lunch, responded to emails from personal clients, blogged, etc. The time I left each day could vary if I wanted it to, but I typically tried to leave between 1 and 2. And it worked.

So, if it works for the company, I don't think these points are necessarily bad things to adopt for workers who get things done. And I don't think it should be Gen Y specific as I mentioned in my previous comment. This won't work for all companies (like my current one) but it can work for some.

(sorry, super long comment!)

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There will always be industries where face time is necessary, that's just how things are. But people should have the choice of going into one of these industries with the knowledge that they have to be at work, or it won't work. Other industries face time is just the way things have always been done, so it stays that way. I'm glad to hear your company let you do some of these things, I think a lot of corporate environments are changing. Hopefully they all start evolving in the next few years.

-Ryan

Oh wow, I'm going to disagree with absolutely everything here — depending on what the job and industry are.

1. What time you come to work: In jobs where this has no impact on results, I totally agree. But there are plenty of jobs where it matters, such as jobs where you need to be available during certain hours to talk to clients or coworkers. So it depends on the position.

2. What time you leave work: Same issue here, depends on the needs of the job. Although in general, I completely support leaving early if the work permits it.

3. Having a bunch of non-work-related Web sites open: I have seen many, many people who think they can work just as well with Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter going in the background, and at least half of them are wrong, and I can see it reflected in their work. If your work is perfect, I have zero objection to you doing this. But if you're making mistakes or letting things fall through the cracks, you better start by closing those Web sites and focusing on what I'm paying you for.

4. Fashion statements: If you work in an industry where appearance matters to clients or constituents — for instance, lobbying — I expect you to abide by industry standards. I will not send someone to lobby legislators if they look like they're on the way to a concert. Sorry, deal with it or find a job where it doesn't matter.

5. Inappropriate behavior at happy hour: I expect employees to exercise some judgment. If you think what you do at a work-related happy hour won't matter to your coworkers, boss, or clients, you have terrible judgment. That will worry me — how will I send you on a business trip and expect you to represent us well? Answer: I won't, and your career will suffer.

6. Personal phone calls: I'm paying you to focus on work. If you have the occasional personal phone call, I could care less. If they're routine, I'm going to question your focus (as well as your willingness to distract people who have to hear you).

This column seems to me to be more about the world as you'd like it be, rather than the reality of the world as it is.

Ryan –
As usual, a fabulous, thought-provoking, just pushing the edge posting. For me, here's the thing that is implicit in the blog but could be just a little more explicit: you describe an ideal work environment, focuson the "get" of flexibility and non-judgement without referencing the "give" or what's required of the employee who benefits from this flexible, supportive work environment – accountability, high productivity, organizational leadership.

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Thanks, Heather! You know me, always just pushing the edge. I totally agree with you though, this post only addresses the gives of the company. The employee must also give. They must give their hard work, even if its on their own time. And they must give their loyalty to their co-workers. They also must give some personal time for the good of the company. Maybe I'll write a post on this…

Ryan

I love this article. Too bad it would never fly where I work. Sounds like it would be great to work for you though, hiring?

Ryan! Great thoughts, but not all companies can run successfully if there isn't some respect for "old fashion" work ethics!

I think the reason you're not getting any negative responses is because most of the people reading this are your peers. An artical like this benefits them, as well as you. Why would they disagree. "Come into work whenever you want." "Don't put a high premium on actual work experience." "If you're caught in drunken fits of PDA, it's your boss's fault that he was hanging around the bar later than he should have been." There's no personal responsibility in that. There's no respect for the leadership, even if they have a different work ethic (that's been in place for decades compared to your few years.) "Leave work whenever you want, even to take a nap." Maybe IBM allows this kinda flexability, but that's not how most companies function. You said it perfectly in your Crystal Ball article, you are writing to "a group of lazy, entitled, twentysomethings." So you took some undergrad classes on business a few years ago and now you're an expert in this area. Now I'm a twenty something. So I should be eating this stuff up like the rest of your sheep. But to me you just sound like a kid who wants a toy and won't stop screaming at Mom until he gets his way. I've gotta wonder, how may jobs have you actually had post college, not including the ones that allow you to make up your own job description. But jobs with bosses that expect performance and respect and time and "old fashion" work ethics, not according to your own self-entitled standards?

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Hi Danika, if you take a look at the Employee Evolution stats, we actually have a huge number of 30+ readers. I often write to the managers who are trying to figure "us" out, so I often get a lot of push back. It's always fun though. If you want to get the most out of your employees, mutual respect is the name of the game. Everyone wants to do great work, but everyone wants a life, so we should be trying to accommodate both sides here. Thanks for the comment, keep reading!

-Ryan

I am a 40+ project manager. This means I work with teams that are comprised of all age groups. I also have Gen Y children. The energy that this group infuses is great as is the drive they exhibit. I find there can be pack mentality in any of the age group types. I am forever facitlitating the judmental sides of both. I think individually if a person is insecure they will fall back on the sterotype behaviour of their own age group because it feels safe. Going to other insecure people of your age group does nothing but increase a false sense of security. My advice to a baby boomer is that they should talk to a gen y and a gen y should talk to a boomer. It is not us against them. We just need to remember that there are Generation Z's coming up in the rear so the day is going to come when baby boomers and gen y's will be a lot closer to each other than we are today.

My comment is more philosophical in application – after reading this article and posts it occurs to me that Generation Y is so flooded with information from so many sources that it finds it difficult to apply focus in a routine manner. With the increase in information sources over the last 10 years I am not surprised that this is the case. This is both the gift and burden from the IT age. Everything seems to be focused on "get it now" and "get it quick" and attenion spans seem to be waining.

I am not a Gen Y (Gen X actually) but can relate to how Gen Y prefer to apply themselves – the one thing I have found is that I do my best work when I feel inspired and that it doesn't occur via a constant 9 to 5 schedule. I am often doing work from home late at night when "inspiration" has taken place . I am known at my place of employment as someone who gets the job done well and an expert in my field…however I would never dream of heading in late or leaving early simply because "the mood took me".

As a result I agree that when "uninspired" at work – my time tends to be frittered with more mundane duties like filing or reorganising. I personally think that Gen Y simply swaps this same time with social activities. For some this may be seen to be their "refresh time" but unfortunately for most it is seen as an unwelcome distraction.

Every generation has both similarities and gaps in thinking/application and the key to success generally lays in utilising the strengths of both. Yes Baby Boomers and Gen X have to be more open minded in understanding how productivity is best achieved by Gen Y – Gen Y needs to remember that older generations do actually have things of value to teach them that may just be crucial to their future success.

P.S ….. I have actually had multiple experiences of Gen Y's answering their phone and/or answering texts during job interviews – never a good look I must say! (No they defintely do not get the job).

I'm a GenX'er and saw some large telecom companies offering flexibility years ago, but within moderation. People in our IT group were permitted to scatter their schedules. One person would work from 7am-3pm, another would be there from 10am-6pm, most were in between. As long as everyone overlapped to meet a range of "core hours", and performed a day's work, expectations were met. If I showed up at 8:30 one day, and 9:00 the next, noone fussed about it.

It worked out well for the employers because it meant that someone was always present from 7am to 6pm. We were able to maintain that range of coverage without having extra shifts or working 10 hour days. People could commute more easily from certain suburbs, avoid rush hours, pick up the kids, etc.

Another point to make is geographical location. If you're in a northern climate, for example, and a massive snow storm is expected, it's not unusual for managers to send people home early. If an employee gets into a serious accident or gets stuck in traffic for 3 hours, it's bad for the employee and the company. We don't control nature and not everything can be planned perfectly.

Surfing was acceptable in moderation. When you're doing highly focused, intensive work, a break is needed every couple of hours. The managers did not want anyone to become too fizzled and produce sloppy work. But this was a somewhat nerdy group, so most of our surfing was tech-related (NOT social) and contributed to our work and knowledge of the industry.

I would agree heavily with the boomers on one topic: Put the @#$! phone away. Use it at lunchtime or on breaks and keep it short. Less EM exposure for your brain anyway.

Ryan, I always enjoy reading your posts and often share them on my blog. I actually recently recommended you as a candidate for a speaking opportunity at a conference that I was part of organizing. Your perspective is fresh and you (obviously) spark great discussions. There is too much out there (in my opinion) that is simply focused on how to "deal with Millennials," rather than positive discussions.

Anyway… on to the post – I am an Xer, and manage and work with a lot of Millennials. I agree with your post and with most of the responses (this is contextual and needs to be scalable to fit the industry and company culture, and finally needs to be something initiated by the company).

I also agree with what you allude to in the responsibility of the employee to be productive, show her/his worth, and bring value to the table.

The one piece that I really didn't see addressed in any of these posts is another responsibility of any company who wants to take steps in this direction. That responsibility is to provide extremely clear benchmarks for success and expectations for clear-cut results. While Millennials or Gen Y certainly don't tend to gravitate toward the traditional business "norms", these norms are what many companies have relied upon in the past to measure performance (right or wrong).

I see the old-school, traditional model of business using "yardsticks of behavior and appearance" to measure employees. If these measures are largely tossed in favor of flexibility and a new work culture, the performance measures need to be clear, measurable and challenging. Trying to make any of these changes without providing this clarity is a recipe for disaster.

Great post.

In my experience as a recruiter in Australia, Generation Y are both exciting and frustrating. Frustrating because they flaunt what we think are entrenched behaviours. They resign by SMS and see no reason to serve out a period of notice.

However they are also the most flexible, multi-skilled and multi-tasking generation ever. They are at ease with technology, diversity, complexity and uncertainty. If Gen X wanted to know what you will do for them next week, Y Generation want to know what you are going to offer them right now. Baby Boomers were willing to wait much longer for their organisational rewards. Y Generation, on the other hand, are commitment phobic – they will not be lured by promises of climbing ladders, paying dues and cashing out at retirement.

They want you to answer the question for them: what value can I add today? What can I learn today? What reward will I receive today?

Ok so I'm a Generation Y person, but I totally disagree with most of this article.

Why is this generation automatically entitled to these rewards? What makes them automatically responsible enough to do a good job while basically coming and going as they please and reading a bunch of websites instead of working? I guess the whole strawman behind this argument is that they are better at computers or something so therefore they can read 5 websites and get as much work done as some old fogey twice their age.

This is just total bunk. Everyone has a responisbility to do the job they are being paid for, and while some work environments are more relaxed than others, that doesn't mean younger "Y" people are automatically entitled to HAVE that work environment.

I manage 3 Gen Yers, and they are some of the most talented and frustrating people I've ever worked with. They watch South Park, read facebook, and do pretty good work. But I always wonder how much greater it could be if they stopped messing around and started applying themselves. They also have only worked for my company for three months, and all of them are already asking to attend conferences across the country. If I was a "cool" manager I would say yes, but why should I? Just because they are talented? They need to provide me with a reason why that is good for the company, and that reason is NOT that they are some super-elite generation Y kid.

Sorry but this blog is just preaching to the choir. Personally I think most Gen Y people (Remember I am one myself) need to just shut up and learn to be responsible in their jobs, instead of expecting to be able to come to work whenever or surf all day.

Ryan,
You have a lot to learn. If I were your manager I would fire you. Read this post after you have more experience under your belt and see how you feel about it then. Good luck.

@Shayl
You're right on the money in my opinion. I'm a gen-Yer myself, and frankly I'm a little bothered by the constant harping on why Gen-Y is so different and special. It's like we think we're a bunch of special needs kids and can't be treated like everyone else. Now I'm all for innovation in the workplace. I don't think flexible hours are a bad idea. I don't think a flexible dress-code is a bad idea. But sometimes we need to realize that we are subject to all the same rules as the other people who weren't "lucky" enough to be a part of Gen Y.

So I'm sneaking into your website – I'm 51 and have been a director, manager, blah, blah for 25 years. My comment… Exactly right. The old "efficiency" rules seemed to confuse the Yers in our company. Good work ethics were comprised of showing up on time, looking the part, and looking busy. I was always getting some lame story for why someone left early or came in late or did personal stuff. In other words, the Yers were lying to comply. Once I learned to let go of the old paradigm, I realized that this generation is totally focused on effectiveness. Stuff gets done and usually in a better way that what I expected. Yers are generous, tolerant, effective, and generally kind. I'd trade all the time management courses in the world for people like that.

Hey, I am a baby boomer at 40 something, been in management for a couple of decades and a little over a year ago increased my sales staff by hiring 4 Gen Yers and 4 Gen Xers, My management style has always been fairly flexible and even though we work with the public and hold bankers hours, I am flexible and allow the staff to work with little supervision as teams, without a team leader. They all set their own schedules and since they are in sales they can double or even triple their base salary if sucessful in sales. Most of my Gen Xers have less education than my Gen Yers
and only one of each group have previous sales experience. Here is what I find when comparing the two groups of new employees both receiving identicle training and identicle opportunity.

The Gen Xers out performed all of the Gen Yers in sales by almost 2 to 1. The Gen Xers make much more money given the same opportunities. The Gen Yers seem content to just be comfortable while the Gen Xers seem to continue to grow their business. The Gen Yers complain about the leads, about each other, they feel everything is unfair and the drama is entertaining but unproductive. What I have found is that you can't just leave a Gen Yer alone and expect the job to get done as described above, I tried and it didn't work. Now after 20 years of being a hands off manager I have had to become more hands on to handle the drama and the lack of any motivation.

Gen Yers wake up and learn to work without all the slacking, drama, complaining and whining. If you feel life is unfair and others are being shown favoritism in the work place it is because those othesr are chosing to work while in the work place. Your unconventional work ethic will leave your future children starving. With the economy on a downturn, slackoffs will be the first to go.

This advice is really going to help, thanks.

This is probably the best stuff I've ever read. I'm a generation y-er and all this does make perfect sense to me. I think this would only apply to open-minded flexible managers who actually care about their employees. Because I've worked for some really awful managers, I'd like to be my own manager or Director who will be flexible, as long as the work gets done, perfect…I definitely cannot sit down for 8 straight hours and "work." We are technology-fiends; The world changes and so do people. After living abroad, I refuse to kill myself with work. There's nothing wrong with taking a little siesta for an hour or listening to my ipod. I get the work done faster, more efficient, and I know it gets done right. Just because the "old ways" are what people know, doesn't mean the old ways are the most efficient ways. I think its hilarious when managers are intimidated by the technology era and what we can do with the new knowledge. Most of the managers that have picked up on the gains from hiring a Generation Y-er, are probably the most successful companies…Kudos. Anyway…this was a great read but I can guarantee there's a lot of old dogs who won't try a new way to fetch a bone….I won't even bother wasting my time with them…their loss!

All of the items you described are privileges given to employees who have proven themselves to be reliable, efficient and productive. My Gen Y direct reports can't tie their shoes without specific instructions from me and yet expect to be making important decisions and involved in important projects, and on top of that be allowed to come and go as they please! If you can't be trusted with small stuff, you will never be trusted with the big stuff!