Generation Y: Inheriting a World That Must be Fixed

"Young people today can't repay their college loans; they can't afford apartment rents, let alone mortgages; their Social Security is being sucked up by their elders; and H.I.V. left them out of the sexual revolution: what was once free love is now a viral minefield."

I didn't say it. The New York Times did. And this was before the disaster that took place on Capitol Hill yesterday.

The article, written by Alessandra Stanley, goes on to say that the pending economic crisis, which has since become not so pending, "is confirming the worst fears of Gen-Y, namely that our baby boomer parents are leaving us a world convulsed by war, drowning in debt and melting down under global warming."

She's got a point. The world, and more specifically, The United States, is screwed up right now. The House just rejected a $700 Billion rescue plan, effectively causing the largest drop in the stock market since 1987. And the word is that House members pending reelections played a major role in the rejection. You've got to be kidding me.

But way before the most recent "Black Monday," for years, us 20-somethings have been graduating into a world where we are buried in debt before stepping foot into our first job, and dealing with living expenses that are often more than average starting salaries. Our generation has inherited a world that needs some serious fixing.

And yesterday was just the final straw in what's been a disastrous 8 years for America. But, as bad as yesterday was, it may be a blessing in disguise.

When we look back on Monday, September 29, 2008, will we say that it was the beginning of the end, or will we say that it was the day America took a long hard look in the mirror and decided to make a change?

I'll choose the latter.

I'll choose it, because I see a group of 20 and 30-something's prepared to clean up the mess. Blaming our parents, or Congress, or the baby boomers, or even the President, won't get us anywhere. But recycling, going green, being fiscally responsible, starting non-profits, starting for-profits, and actively involving ourselves in the presidential election is a good start.

Despite our youth, and despite the fact that we aren't in traditional positions of authority, I see Generation Y, or as I recently saw us referred to as, Generation We, pushing change and making progress in every area.

In Washington D.C., the Progressive Happy Hour group is hosting debate parties and constantly trekking over to Virginia, vowing to knock on 100,000 doors in hopes of turning the battleground state blue before November 4.

Yesterday, I spoke with Jordan Goldman, a recent college grad who decided he'd had enough of universities providing high school seniors with inaccurate, boring and often misleading descriptions about their outrageously priced schools. So, he gathered a team and started Unigo, a company that puts the message back in the hands of the people who really know what the school is all about–the students.

In a couple of hours I have a meeting with Rich Littlehale, a Yale student and budding social entrepreneur, who recently started Twigtek, a company that helps organizations raise money by collecting old cell phones and helping the environment.

The list goes on and on. Young people have looked at the disastrous situation this country is in and decided to do something about it -way before "Black Monday" caused mass panic.

As Progressive Happy Hour organizer Brian Komar eloquently explains, we are in the midst of the NEXT Progressive Movement. He says, "Change doesn't come from parties. It comes from movements. This movement will bring the change America needs. Young people are always the early adopters, and this time younger people are paving the way. . . . My sincere hope is that this movement becomes multigenerational."

This is the attitude that Generation Y has demonstrated, and must continue to demonstrate. Because it's not about being a hero; it's about working together and making smart decisions for the greater good because we see the mess that we've been dealt. And when you see a mess, there's only one thing left to do: clean it up.

Why You Shouldn't Treat Every Employee the Same

"Why should I cater to Gen Y? I don't want to alienate the rest of our employees by giving this group special treatment."

I hear it all the time. Nearly every time I speak, someone will chime in with this question. And I don't blame them really. It's a legitimate question. But in my opinion, it's a bad assumption.

Why would I be upset that you are going above and beyond to meet the needs or requests of my fellow employees? I want my co-workers to be happy with their jobs. Of course, I'll expect that you go above and beyond to make me happy as well. But, what's wrong with that?

The secret is to forget about trying to make everyone equal at your company, and figure out how to make every group feel special. Whether it's a particular demographic, a gender, a religious group, a generation or even a personality type, your organization should go beyond the paycheck and put in the extra time to find out what each small or large group wants, and give it to them.

Do something to make a particular group or individual feel special

The other day, I spoke with Susie Gorsline, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Au Bon Pain, and she told me how they are making a particular group feel special.

Au Bon Pain is hosting their Annual International Company meeting this week. They have managers and executives from 29 countries attending – so obviously all sorts of cultures and religions will be represented. Out of respect for Ramadan (the Muslim religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and calls for fasting from dawn to sunset), they decided to accommodate their practicing Muslim population of managers. Breakfast will be served before sunrise at 4:30 AM, a prayer room will be provided, special plates of food will be offered, and wine will not be offered to those who indicate they are observing the holiday.

Needless to say, Gorsline and her team received tremendous feedback from their Muslim employees – many indicating they were proud to be working for such a forward-thinking company. And get this, it cost them next to nothing – just a little time and effort from the conference organizers and the hotel staff.

Tell ALL your employees about your initiative

It's great that all of the employees who were directly affected by the Ramadam accommodation felt proud to work for the company, but don't think they're the only ones who want to hear about it. If your company is creating special initiatives for young employees, employees who lose a family member, employees who have a baby or employees who are approaching retirement, don't keep it a secret, tell everyone!

I would be thrilled to know that my employer cares about my fellow employees so much. When Susie sent out the email notifying everyone of their intentions for Ramadan, it wasn't just the Muslim employees who responded positively, many others replied with emails commending the HR department, and it was the hot topic of conversation for the rest of the week.

It's amazing how helping one small group can make every other group proud to work for your company.

Watch the Trickle down happen

American Express wanted to cater to their baby boomer employees, so they created a program promoting the new concept of phased retirement. The program allows soon to be retired baby boomers to transition from full time work to full time retirement and transfer the invaluable knowledge they've gained during their time at the company. It's a great initiative for experienced workers who are almost ready to retire, but either need a little more money, tenure, or just aren't quite ready to quit work cold turkey.

Well, the next thing you know, this initiative actually trickled down to benefit their Gen Y employees. The young employees ended up getting exactly what they wanted too – hands on training and mentoring from the people who were running the organization

No matter how hard you try, you're not going to please everyone by treating everyone the same. We've all come from different backgrounds and we're all at different points in our lives. So put in the extra effort and figure out how to give every group special treatment — not just Generation Y

Why You Shouldn't Treat Every Employee the Same

"Why should I cater to Gen Y? I don't want to alienate the rest of our employees by giving this group special treatment."

I hear it all the time. Nearly every time I speak, someone will chime in with this question. And I don't blame them really. It's a legitimate question. But in my opinion, it's a bad assumption.

Why would I be upset that you are going above and beyond to meet the needs or requests of my fellow employees? I want my co-workers to be happy with their jobs. Of course, I'll expect that you go above and beyond to make me happy as well. But, what's wrong with that?

The secret is to forget about trying to make everyone equal at your company, and figure out how to make every group feel special. Whether it's a particular demographic, a gender, a religious group, a generation or even a personality type, your organization should go beyond the paycheck and put in the extra time to find out what each small or large group wants, and give it to them.

Do something to make a particular group or individual feel special

The other day, I spoke with Susie Gorsline, the Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Au Bon Pain, and she told me how they are making a particular group feel special.

Au Bon Pain is hosting their Annual International Company meeting this week. They have managers and executives from 29 countries attending – so obviously all sorts of cultures and religions will be represented. Out of respect for Ramadan (the Muslim religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and calls for fasting from dawn to sunset), they decided to accommodate their practicing Muslim population of managers. Breakfast will be served before sunrise at 4:30 AM, a prayer room will be provided, special plates of food will be offered, and wine will not be offered to those who indicate they are observing the holiday.

Needless to say, Gorsline and her team received tremendous feedback from their Muslim employees – many indicating they were proud to be working for such a forward-thinking company. And get this, it cost them next to nothing – just a little time and effort from the conference organizers and the hotel staff.

Tell ALL your employees about your initiative

It's great that all of the employees who were directly affected by the Ramadam accommodation felt proud to work for the company, but don't think they're the only ones who want to hear about it. If your company is creating special initiatives for young employees, employees who lose a family member, employees who have a baby or employees who are approaching retirement, don't keep it a secret, tell everyone!

I would be thrilled to know that my employer cares about my fellow employees so much. When Susie sent out the email notifying everyone of their intentions for Ramadan, it wasn't just the Muslim employees who responded positively, many others replied with emails commending the HR department, and it was the hot topic of conversation for the rest of the week.

It's amazing how helping one small group can make every other group proud to work for your company.

Watch the Trickle down happen

American Express wanted to cater to their baby boomer employees, so they created a program promoting the new concept of phased retirement. The program allows soon to be retired baby boomers to transition from full time work to full time retirement and transfer the invaluable knowledge they've gained during their time at the company. It's a great initiative for experienced workers who are almost ready to retire, but either need a little more money, tenure, or just aren't quite ready to quit work cold turkey.

Well, the next thing you know, this initiative actually trickled down to benefit their Gen Y employees. The young employees ended up getting exactly what they wanted too – hands on training and mentoring from the people who were running the organization

No matter how hard you try, you're not going to please everyone by treating everyone the same. We've all come from different backgrounds and we're all at different points in our lives. So put in the extra effort and figure out how to give every group special treatment — not just Generation Y

Make Sure Your First Job Provides Plenty of Training (and Fun)

College does not prepare you for your first job. Universities offer too many choices of majors. Students choose liberal arts degrees because they don't have the slightest clue what they want to do with their lives. Parents push their kids to do what they love rather than pushing them to be doctors, lawyers, or business executives like they did in the old days.

You can blame whomever you want, but that's not the point. The point is that an undergraduate degree today is worth about as much as a high school degree was 30 years ago. College is a place to make friends, grow up, and learn how to get work done without someone watching over you.
College does not teach us the ins and outs of the industry where we land our first job, and it certainly doesn't teach us other real-world lessons like how to play office politics, or how to handle being ridiculously busy one week and completely bored the next. Entry level workers are just not as prepared for the real world as they need to be.

But there is a solution. It's called training–lots and lots of training. In fact, if companies want to get real buy-in from their new hires, they should be prepared to provide so much training and mentoring that their entry level workers feel like their first job is really corporate grad school. I recently discovered a company who gets it, and amazingly, they're in my backyard.

Epic Systems of Madison, Wisconsin has taken training to a whole new level. A friend of mine started working there a month ago. She's basically still in college for the next six months – except, it's college with a purpose.

She goes to work every day and takes classes with the other people in her on-boarding group. They have assigned mentors, they do training programs, they listen to experienced employees teach them about the "Epic way," they do daily assignments, they watch funny You Tube clips after lunch, and they even have to pass tests.

The college atmosphere goes beyond office hours. The majority of new hires at Epic are young, and they almost always end up becoming friends with each other. They go to Epic parties; Epic events, and they hang out with each other on the weekends. Everyone I've talked to loves it because it's the perfect transition from college to the real world.

It may sound silly to older employees, but Gen Y grads aren't ready to graduate to a quick 3 days of basic job training, and then a 9 to 5 every day in front of a computer. We're looking for a learning atmosphere at work and social opportunities outside of work. Epic has figured out a way to successfully engage Generation Y by understanding the major disconnect between our generation and corporate America – we're not fully prepared for the real world.

And it's not just me who thinks Epic knows what they are doing. The majority of its employees were hired directly out of college, and they now accept only 2% of the 40,000 to 50,000 applications they receive every year. They were founded with an investment of $70,000 in 1979 and are now a privately held company valued at $1.2 billion. Sure, those numbers are good, but when you consider this is a company located outside of a small Wisconsin city, and they heavily recruit from out of state; those numbers are amazing.

Epic knows that traditional schooling is no longer enough, and they've taken the responsibility to prepare their employees for life in the real world – both personally and professionally. Hopefully other companies will start taking notes.