Resolve boomer-Gen Y conflict
Frustrated or confused by a Gen-Y coworker or subordinate? Here's a tool you might not have considered: the Internet.
You can use technology to take a look inside their world – without even having to ask.
As Penelope Trunk, author of the Brazen Careerist and career columnist at the Boston Globe, said in an e-mailed interview with More.ca:
Gen Y doesn't think of "using the Internet". They think about staying connected and being productive. So texting and Twittering and reading CNN and using productivity tools like Backpack are all interconnected to Gen Y. And they do it all at work. Sometimes for work. Sometimes not…. The Internet is an all-the-time thing. It's a tool for doing life. There are no boundaries. For example, there is not "appropriate and not appropriate for the Internet" there is not "time to be online and time to not be online".
Check these sites out:
The Brazen Careerist
For an overriding look at the discussion Generation Y is having about work, career goals, work-life balance, and other issues probably the best site on the web is this blog portal. It's a spin-off from Penelope's successful blog (worth a read itself).The site brings together regular bloggers (informal columnists) to discuss topics relevant to Generation Y, with a focus on career building. Even the list of topics reveals a bit about this group's attitudes, with activism and entrepreneurship front and centre.
Past posts range from the need to develop a Facebook policy to this "Entry Level Tip: Your Boss is Likely Not Smarter Than You Are. I think my favourite has to be "Ten Ways Generation Y Will Change the Workplace", though. Point number one is that Gen Y will hold only productive meetings. You might laugh (I did) at the naïveté represented in the piece, but it really sums up some of the generational divide that's playing out in various workplaces. That one item might cast new light on an issue with an employee who is failing to show up to meetings.
It may be apocryphal but here's the story: A professor of marketing looked up one of his students on Google and found his way to pictures of the student participating in a keg party. When he brought it up in class as a potential liability during future job searches, the student dismissed his concerns, saying that the pictures were personal and wouldn't be held against her.
The point in this case: as a PR student, this individual needed to develop her awareness that pictures like these might impact on how people perceived her – or a brand she might represent in the future.
But the point for us: running a search on a colleague or would-be hire can help you to understand his or her goals. And for this generation, it's all about their goals.
