GENERATION X & Y; DOES IT WORK HERE? part two

WORK AND EMPLOYERS

As an employer, you have hired us, how on earth do you keep us around? There is a noticeable trend lurking in our offices and some has seen it as a negative behavioural pattern. What if you are wrong? Perhaps, you don’t accept that it is the peculiarity of this Y Generation. Every employer wants the best outcome, Goals and objectives achieved with this generation…..it is why you hire them. They have energy and drive the work force. We have been accused of having a sense of excess entitlement, lacking in loyalty, zero work ethics and completely especially unapologetically selfish.  Someone said we are dangerous. But wait…..what if you are wrong about that?

Any X Generation employer of a huge population of the Yers should first of all understand that the definitions of Time, success and loyalty are completely different. We know what it means but seriously, the meaning is different. If you know how we view the world, then you will have a great time working with us. We are in the now, meet us there and we will deliver every single goal but please don’t take us back, we don’t belong there and we’ll be a pain to you.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

And so, you still think, oh these youths of this days lack work ethics…..believe me, we define it. It is a case of you misunderstanding where we are. It is certainly selfish because our work ethics is self-centred, that is how we deliver. What do you want? Results! Understand this and you will always have our loyalty at no cost at all. We want to know what exactly we are in that office for. Define the task and we will deliver. We want to get it all very done and over with. We value speed and our time is so precious to us. We don’t like getting stuck in the office, we want to finish and enjoy our lives. That is not too much to ask. It is something we do without sacrificing our weekends.  We work for you to earn the cash to enjoy the other part of our lives, it is not all about work, and we have other things in our lives besides work. So for the pay check we are sure we’ll get than some long term career stuff or some promises of promotions in the long run. Now you know why, we are guilty of impatience….. it is a weakness I have to say.

Putting in the hours is to get the job done, put it behind and enjoy life…..not so much get ahead. Oh yes, we can work our asses out but then make sure there is time to have fun….work is not everything. What the older generation has taught us proves nothing is certain. While our Baby Boomers and Xers are so into the long term, we don’t have that much patience. With all types of layoff, divorces lurking in the corners….we just cannot bank on anything being certain anymore. So if you are contracting us, be sure to stick to your part of the deal, Yers hate to be fooled. Believe it! Even here in Nigeria…..everyone knows that once fooled, forever jaded. Ask the multi nationals…they know the drill.

Many bosses complain about all sorts and just find it very annoying that  that the Yers don’t care if you fire them, a lot of people fire themselves before you do…they don’t give you that opportunity. Besides, with the high rate of unemployment, many youths are experiencing inner awakening, with less people waiting on the white collar jobs. If you get one, great but then if not….you must survive.  The entertainment industry knows what this generation want; they understand the hunger and the zeal…it is why they are thriving and make more millionaires everyday.  Our parents who belong to the Xers have their values especially patience but that no longer works especially now. The Yers have noticed that hard work and character are not the fastest way up….they don’t care how long or short staying up is. That is the reality, you may have your reservations but that is how it is. While the Xers believe in the slow and steady route, the Yers have little patience. The Xers will respect you by your Title but for the Yers, you have to earn it. The Yers are blunt and expressive but these all adds up to make them fast thinking, open to diversity, creativity and able to multi-task.

Managers who have been succeeding in the past with their intimidation style of leadership and just keep threatening sub-ordinates will not be experiencing much success with this

generation. Managers are struggling to attain customer service excellence with the few employees they have but they can achieve this if they can reason with this Generation X and Y demographics. It is not just having read it but practicing it. It is time employers consider their employees as the first customers. You begin with these internal customers, treat them right exactly how you will treat those external customers…because once they don’t get it right, they don’t feel important and just feel used, they will run your business down.

While we may be mislead to believe that if we have the right people, they will treat our external customers well, everything will be okay but the truth is, you may be lucky to have the right people but if you don’t treat them well (not just with money), they will not be staying long enough to deliver consistency. You know the feeling after you have spent time and resources training someone and they have known the job really well, then they just walk away, you start from the beginning again. How long are going to be starting all over and all over?

The work place has to be fun with the right tools to work, I mean cutting edge tech that supports who they are. Let them communicate what you want in the tech-savvy way. Computers, ipods, instant messaging, training on what is happening now, internet access for research and resources. Don’t send them to the archive full of papers for something that they can do in a short time, the tech-savvy way.  That is how this generation works. They are tech-savvy and their tools must rep that. They want the job done; quick with little bureaucracy and minimal paper work.

Generation Y are not so cut out for long endless meetings with no head way. Say the truth as it is and get over it. Let them have feed backs on their performance and be sure the feed back is clear.

Make work flexible and fun. Have the schedule in a good time and give them the rules, they will stick to it. Don’t impose on them what you think is right, you may soon begin experiencing rebellion and your work suffers. While you have the vision, since you have people to work with, you have to see things through their eyes. Let them know that their opinions counts and as they open up to you, you will work with it, even if not all….some of it.

Don’t preach what you are not practicing. You will be surprised how many followers you will be having. They will be doing as you say when you are looking but when you are not looking they will exactly as you do. The whole thing goes on and on.

At the end of the day, we all want results. You can only get results with wisdom. Wisdom is in knowing what to do and doing it. When you are in Rome, you live like the Romans. This is the generation Y era and the Zers are going to take over soon. You have to understand the times and get the best of the times. You will need many of them in your office to do the job because they have energy, creativity and know how to use initiatives.

Nigeria is a country of great potentials. Youths are energetic! People like the way the entertainment industry works and it is thriving here. People are eager to be D’banj than they will that Manager. The entertainment industry understands what Generation Next represents. Believe me, if we take things to our work environment, relationships…we’ll do better. Times have changed and you better believe it. Get off that your Generation X methods, open your eyes to the now.

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