10 More Ways Generation Y Will Change the Workplace

Last May, I wrote a post titled 10 Ways Generation Y Will Change the Workplace. It received a lot of attention and more importantly a lot of conversation. The gist of the post was not to say that Generation Y is great and we will make everything better. Rather, it was a testament to what I witnessed during trips to different companies and what I heard from my peers in the workforce.

Nine months later, the economy has collapsed and the workplace is changing before our eyes. This next year or two will be a defining time for our generation, and I believe it will shape our world view and work view in many ways. Based on this, I've come up with 10 more ways Generation Y will change the workplace. Hopefully it will strike up just as much conversation and maybe even some action, so things can start changing for the better.

1. We'll reduce executive compensation for underperforming companies
It's already happening. Obama put a $500,000 cap on executive pay at the banks that were bailed out. In 2007, the average CEO salary at the largest companies was more than $11 Million. It's hard to justify paying anyone that much. In some cases, these executives probably do provide more $11 million in value to their respective companies. And when that happens, they should be compensated for it. But having a CEO expect $11 million regardless of performance is just bad business. The Obama administration is setting the precedent, and as Gen Y takes power we will follow through and reduce executive compensation for underperforming companies.

2. Discussing salaries will be completely normal
Transparency is king. You hear it everywhere these days. Social media is forcing companies to open up their doors and show the world what's really going on. Obama has promised budget transparency to the American public. And the vast majority of the world's under-30 population are living their entire lives online. Transparency is no longer an option. Websites like Glassdoor and Payscale let you compare your salary with others in the industry. My company, Brazen Careerist practices complete transparency. Even financial gurus like Suzie Orman say it's great for business. As Gen Y continues to work our way up the ladder, it will just be a matter of time before companies of all sizes have transparent salaries.

3. Employees will be more loyal than ever before
Transparency does not just mean that everyone knows what everyone else in a company makes. It means that the company must educate their employees on everything that is going on. When Pepsi was ready to release their new "Gen Y Friendly" logo to the world, they wanted to make sure that their employees weren't surprised when they found it in the grocery store. So they invited their staff to a party and introduced the product. The employees were excited and they felt like the company actually cared about them. When employees feel like they matter and the company thinks about them first, they feel a sense of pride and true loyalty to a company. Expect to see this trend continue as Gen Y comes of age.

4. There will be less mass layoffs, but more pay cuts
When someone feels a true sense of pride and loyalty to their company, they're more likely to figure out a way for everyone to pull through when times are tough. We watched our parents and our friend's parents being laid off when we were young and we're going through it now. We know the hardship that comes with it. Don't be surprised to see across-the-board pay-cuts instead of mass layoffs when times get tough. Start ups do it all the time – my company did it without thinking twice. And it's already happening at large corporations; HP just instituted a 5% or more across-the-board pay-cut rather than laying off hundreds. When you're part of a team, you want that team to succeed, and you'll do what's necessary to survive. And as we all know, Generation Y is the ultimate team player generation.

5. We'll truly get over the "punch clock" mentality
It's easy to say you have a progressive workplace and that you don't care what hours people are actually working at the office or what they do outside of work. But the truth is, companies care and people care. At the typical company, everyone notices what time someone leaves the office and what time people get in. We're still stuck in a workplace that was designed around producing widgets on an assembly line. As life moves more and more online, and new technologies are invented that allow traditional offices to be truly optional, the punch clock mentality will slowly disappear. By the time Gen Y is ready to retire, people won't even know what a punch clock is, and maybe then we will finally be working in the environment that knowledge workers are meant to work in.

6. Independent contractors will become part of the team
Nearly every company hires independent contractors to work for them. Contractors are great. They don't require health insurance and you don't have to pay the extra taxes. But they're often treated very differently than traditional employees. As more people develop skills that allow them to be effective independent contractors, and some form of universal healthcare is finally adopted, companies will begin to think of their contractors as their employees. When Brazen had a big budget, we worked with a ton of contractors. When people asked how many employees we had, I would always mention that our team felt much larger because of all the freelancers. As the number of independent contractors increases, they will become a vital part of the team.

7. Corporate branding will work in conjunction with personal branding
Companies spend a lot of money on branding. They throw huge budgets at PR firms and superbowl ads. It usually results in a ton of brand recognition. But brand recognition is no longer enough. Consumers want transparency, conversation and experience. Generation Y doesn't want a company to talk AT us, we want to talk WITH a company. The only way for a company to talk with a person is to give employees the freedom to interact. It's already happening as people like Sharpie Susan are branding themselves as social media players and helping their companies in the process. Who knows exactly how this will play out, but as Gen Y invents new technologies and new marketing strategies, corporate branding will never look the same.

8. Leadership will be a team effort
Jack Welch was a larger than life CEO. Everyone knew who he was and his personal brand may have been just as big as GE's brand. In Good to Great, Jim Collins determined that dominant CEOs like Jack Welch actually have a lower than average ROI during their tenure. This is because CEOs need to be respected and admired by their employees, and they need to be selfless and always thinking about the organization. As a team-oriented group, Generation Y will not stand by and watch one person insert his will on the company. We will figure out a new form of leadership, where one person is the decision maker, but leading is a team effort. With all the new social technologies, there will always be a place for people with huge personal brands and huge personal egos. They will make a lot of money and still be well-known, but they won't be the ones running large organizations.

9. We will really know people before we hire them
I can't tell you exactly how they will look, but sooner than later, resumes will be extremely different. It's not because a hard copy piece of paper is outdated, it's because people are becoming more and more complex. Resumes were created when people went to school, graduated, got a job and maybe another job. But today people blog, job-hop and have multiple hobbies outside of work. We live our lives online. It's too limiting to judge someone based on one sheet of paper. Social technologies give employers a window into people's souls. As Gen Y become responsible for hiring decisions, you can bet we will know almost everything we possibly can about someone before we give them an offer.

10. Entry level employees will be students and teachers
In the old days, entry-level employees had to pay dues before they moved up. This makes sense, it's impossible to know how a job or an industry works when you've never been there before. Young people had everything to learn and nothing to teach. Things are different now. For the first time in history, the youngest people in the workplace have the most knowledge about a very important topic – technology. And get this; we want to teach our bosses and managers how to use these technologies. This trend will continue. Young people will stay on top of the newest useful technologies. As Gen Y grows up, cross-mentor programs will be instituted. Old will teach young and young will teach old. Sounds like a great environment to me.

It's Super Tuesday – GO VOTE!

Maybe it was all the beer and nachos getting the best of me, but as I watched Tom Brady and my favorite team, the New England Patriots walk off the field yesterday; not undefeated, not Super Bowl champions, but losers of their final game of the year, I was pretty disappointed.

I was ready to witness history. I wanted to watch my favorite team be crowned the best football team of all time. It didn't happen. The only history made was the New York Giants pulling one of the most improbable upsets of all time.

Well, I'm over it. I'm over it because in the grand scheme of things, football records won't have much of a place in the history books. Today, on the other hand, real history can be made.

It's Super Tuesday, and like my favorite Gen-Y political blogger, Constance Seré, said,

"It's like sports that actually count for something bigger than a title in the long run — what could be more exciting?"

Voters in 24 states will be casting votes for their respective party's nominee. On the democratic side, the choice is between a black man and a woman. No matter who is chosen, they will have a very legitimate shot at making history come November.

So please, if you live in one of the 24 states casting their ballots today, get out and vote. Don't wait until November. A vote now is worth ten times more than a vote in the general election.

So what are you waiting for? Go Vote!

Working with Penelope Trunk, Part Deux — A Startup Reality Show in the Making

I want to start off today by talking about time. P has no concept of it, which speaks to the fact that she sees nothing wrong with working all hours into the night. And when it comes to catching flights around the country to promote the company, we sometimes run into problems.

I often find myself online tracking down flight details, hotel reservations or any other detail that might have slipped her mind while gallivanting around the country. She's lucky that I'm such a nice guy.

The other day, she called me from Denver. She was supposed to have a meeting with our friend Devin Reams. But she didn't know where or what time.

One thing P always yells at me about is how I never write things down. Someone needs to tell her to start heeding her own advice.

A couple of weeks ago I was a part of a panel for the World Future Society, Madison Chapter. Afterwards, a few of the members and I went out for a drink. And inevitably, everyone wants to talk about P.

Turns out a few of them had caught a speech P had given about a month back. I was there too, so I remember the topic well: "10 Ways to Better Your Career and Your Life."

Number one of the list was to have sex at least once a week. One of my drink-mates considered it to be a metaphor for just having a close personal relationship with another person.

"I'm not so sure about that," I said. "She was probably talking about just sex."

As any friend or foe to P's blog knows, she has no problem talking about sex. In fact, it's probably her favorite topic.

And I think that's cool. More power to her. She just needs to learn to keep it in the blogosphere.

Today she was sitting in the coffee shop — that is her office — with her friend Teresa and me. And all of a sudden the two start going on about their sex lives like nobody else is in the shop.

Usually you can tell when people are pissed at P. When she's talking too loud, somebody usually just tells her to shut up. But in today's case, nobody knew what to do. People either looked around the room in awe or tried to stare vigilantly at their laptops like they were deaf to it.

I just sat and laughed. She has already blogged about a rash I had, so shame just doesn't seem to make sense for me anymore.

Lately P has been saying we should start a reality show. And I have to say, it would probably be a real moneymaker.

It would be just as cool as the Real World. Except instead of a sassy, young cast, a fancy townhouse and a cool city we'd have the three of us, Healy and my grimy apartment and the snowy abyss that is Madison, WI.

We could even have that confessional booth where we all get to rant about what pisses us off about one another. But we'd probably have to put a time limit on its use.

Maybe there's a producer out there reading right now…if so, let's do lunch.

Read more about working with Penelope:

Working with Penelope Trunk — Tales from a Startup Soap Opera

Welcome, 60 Minutes viewers

If you're visiting after viewing the "Here come the Millennials" segment on 60 Minutes tonight, welcome.

Employee Evolution was founded in March 2007 as a work-related blog, by young people, for young people.

This blog is part of the Brazen Careerist community. Brazen Careerist elevates the voice of Millennials to highlight our vision of the new workplace; we match top young talent with the people trying to reach them.

We also help companies successfully recruit and retain young people. Brazen Careerist has a track record for helping companies shift their way of thinking to make themselves more appealing to the workers they're trying to reach.

BrazenCareerist.com will be launching in the next few weeks. To get in touch with us, please contact me at ryanhealy@employeeevolution.com.

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Boomers are reinventing retirement, I'm going to bartending school

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The safe route is overrated

Reject mediocrity, embrace productivity

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Searching for a reason to be loyal

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Lead your life, others will follow

This past weekend I went up to Penn State for the annual football game against Ohio State (We're not going to talk about the score). My brother goes to OSU, so my parents tradition is to rent an RV and drive up to the games. It's always a blast, and inevitably, I always have some type of philosophical conversation with my father and whichever family friend he brings along.

This year the topic was leadership. More specifically, the difference between what leadership means to Baby Boomers and what leadership means to Gen-Y. My father offered an interesting perspective. I wish I could remember the exact quote, but in effect he said that Baby Boomers look for super-human leaders. They believe one person has all the answers and he can lead single-handedly.

He then said that this whole idea is a bunch of crap and no one can be a super hero. He wondered aloud about what leadership would look like for Gen-Y.

I could not tell him exactly what leadership would look like to us. I mentioned that we certainly don't believe our leaders are more than human. Just look at our childhoods. We watched high profile leaders cheat on their wives, embezzle money and refuse to take responsibility for terrible decisions.

I was able to offer one piece of insight that was actually a surprise to me when it came out. I said:

The only thing I look for in a leader is someone who can inspire, motivate and connect with whomever they're leading. Throw all the policies and politics out the window. It takes someone who can inspire a group effort to lead anything.

I truly believe this. Someone like JFK was considered great solely because of his ability to connect and motivate. Reagan had it, Clinton was almost there, and looking at today's candidates, political affiliations aside, Obama does it better than anyone else. This is probably why he is the most popular candidate among young people.

That being said, this still doesn't answer the question of what leadership will look like to Gen-Y. And that's fine because Gen-Y isn't leading anything; yet. Quite frankly, people our age should be much more concerned about leading their own lives then leading an organization or leading a nation.

In his book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, Bill George shares the stories of countless leaders and discusses how to become a great leader. He says, in short, you cannot become a great leader until you have achieved full self awareness.

What are your values and principles? What motivates you? What is your purpose? If you cannot answer these questions, you cannot be an "authentic leader." And most of us in school or in our early twenties cannot possibly know ourselves in this intimate way.

So, what does this mean?

Young people need to forget about leading others or gaining power. Look at everything as a learning experience and learn how to lead your own life. As you gain true self awareness, your body language will demonstrate your self confidence and people will not be able to help themselves from following.

Luckily, it seems many Gen-Yers inherently understand that discovering your meaning and purpose is the most important thing you can do. Interestingly enough, this new life stage of travel, job hopping and "entitlement," might just breed a new generation of selfless, authentic leaders. But only time will tell.