As I was doing some research for another planned post, I came across many articles advising managers and CEO’s on how to deal with a Gen Y employee. I began to believe I was reading instructions on how to proceed when confronted by a bear, rather than a 20-something:
When faced with Gen Y employee, do not make eye contact, and back away slowly. If Gen Y employee attacks, curl up in a ball and play dead, while covering any major organs. Hopefully the Gen Yer will be distracted by a Facebook update…before it’s too late. Apply Neosporin to any open wounds.
Most of us have heard the sad torrid tale of the Gen Y employee: we received too many BS awards growing up and now we don’t know what it means to work for something. We don’t take criticism well, and must be handled with care. So, when I came across a guest post by Barrie Hadfield, CTO of SkyDox: 5 Ways Gen Y Is Changing Your Business, Like it or Not I was prepared for the worst, another post about how to “handle” a Gen Yer, and our insatiable need to be coddled. But instead, Barrie discusses what we bring to the table, and being a typical Gen Yer who needs constant acknowledgment, I appreciate that. Below are a few of Barrie’s points to pay attention to, combined with a bit of my commentary:
File Sharing
“File sharing platforms are one of the first significant technological achievements developed by Gen Y, with many being launched at the beginning of last decade” says Barrie. As CTO of SkyDox he may be a bit biased on this one, but I agree. It’s cleaned up our servers, inboxes, and what I think is most important: simplified seamless syncing between multiple devices. In Forrester’s Forrsights workforce survey, 74 percent of workers surveyed used two or more devices, and 52% used 3 or more. How do companies plan to accomodate this? Invest in personal cloud services of course.
Instant Messaging
Ah yes, instant messaging has exploded since the a/s/l conversations being had in the AOL chatrooms of the late ‘90s. Now IM is the way many professionals internally and externally communicate, including here at LexBlog. Barrie points out: “IM platforms are now found in file sharing platforms, company intranets, and conference software, in addition to the contemporary ubiquity of consumer platforms, such as MSN Messenger and G-chat.”
The “off-the-grid” extinction
It’s not news that Gen Y is constantly communicating via multiple platforms, whether it be text messages, social networks, or G-chat. But what is interesting, is the result: the dissolution of the line between office and home. “Understandably, this has been embraced by companies. Forrester Research states that 70 percent of organizations now encourage teleworking” says Barrie.
So waive your techy, over-connected, ipad carrying flags high my fellow Gen Yers. As Barrie so eloquently put it we are “arguably the most communicatively adept generation in human history” and there is much for the professional world to learn from us. Albeit, there is much we have to learn as well, but I’ll save that for a different post.