Generationing

Wow, remind me never to take drugs – it’s only day 9 of my month-long Facebook ‘lent’ and time has never passed so slowly.

I gave up Facebook in January for two interrelated reasons: 1. I was using it as a distraction; 2. it had become a tool not for giving, but for taking – I desperately sought approval to compensate for my insecurities, particularly at work.

Happiness, of course, comes from within, but Gen Y is parented by the generation that was both brought up by Dr Benjamin Spock, who emphasised children’s self-esteem, and who entered their formative years in a long post-war boom in consumerism. Combine those things and you tend to get people who seek happiness through the things they own. After amassing half of the UK’s wealth, Boomers finally reached the top of Maslow’s hierarchy and started thinking about giving back (see Live Aid and the rise of charities).

Gen Y, having been brought up to believe that happiness comes from without, are not coping well with their perceived sources of happiness being snatched away from them (protests against tuition fee rises, mass unemployment – even the London ‘Riots’ [more looting and terrorising] were a part of it). 91% of the UK’s 16-24 year-olds use social networking, but many of these seek not opportunities, but to distract themselves from their pain, fuelling insular behaviour which ironically leads to further unhappiness (a study showed that students using Facebook saw 20% drop in grades and half felt they were 25% sadder than their other friends on Facebook).

This generation has neither the tools of entrepreneurial Gen X, nor the money of Boomers to swim their way to safety. Their superhuman ability for distraction is causing them to watch Youtube videos while slowly letting themselves drown. 

Me - feeling a little out of place.

Have you ever been on holiday and realised just how foreign you are?

At home, everyone else sees the world like you do; it is an unquestioned reality. Immersed in another culture you begin to question these norms, perhaps even your own identity. It can be stressful!

So imagine what it is like to be a Generation Y coming into a Generation X company. I’d spent my whole life taking for granted that a pure meritocracy is the way of things and that I’d be coached for success by authority, whose sole reason for being was to look after me. Then I was plunged into a world where the espoused meritocracy seemed to be a charade (feelings of betrayal from day one – not good!), as I couldn’t get the work I wanted because I hadn’t ‘built my network’. I received little to no direction to figure this out and all I heard was success stories of people who’d  ’worked around the system’ and ’made it by themselves’. Even the pictures in the office were of people doing things alone. It was one giant culture shock and I suffered many first degree cross-generational burns during my first year.

While Gen Y represents the future of the workplace, companies in the meantime can help stem the exodus of Y ‘burn victims’ by making efforts to facilitate their integration, as they would people from a different culture. For example, think about the generational values of your organisation and coach new employees in those ways of working. In particular, my manager clearly (and patiently) explained why things were done, which helped me identify with the company (see HBR on how organisational identification leads to financial performance) and rebuild my ‘work’ identity. I now love my job and feel I have made my home here, which just goes to show that a little love goes a long way.

orangemoonapparel

I was rushing to an appointment in Central London and had a jolt of worry on the Tube, as my phone’s battery had died so I wouldn’t be able to keep track of the time. Exiting the tube, I couldn’t remember the exact location of my appointment; I’d looked it up with my Google Maps app, but of course my phone was dead, so I couldn’t retrieve my previous search. I had neither written down the address nor brought with me my once-trusty London A-Z. And no battery meant I couldn’t even call Directory Enquiries to get the number for the venue.

While these were tiny, not-really-incidents, what they told me was to what extent Generation Y is at the forefront in its reliance on a single multi-function device – the mobile phone – to carry out everyday activities. Battery dead, I felt completely disconnected from the world: I couldn’t tell the time, wake up for work, or access my calendar, let alone contact anyone or search the net.

While a universal device is extremely convenient, it is also teaching us to be helpless (and perhaps a bit lazy) without it. It is giving us poor memories, as we no longer need to keep information in our heads (I’ve been known to use my phone in the cinema to IMDB an actor I recognised, but couldn’t for the life of me remember who he was), but more importantly, it’s making us terrible contingency planners. A mobile device’s immediate access to all required information is encouraging us to just figure out what we need to do as we go along, rather than making us plan ahead in case something goes awry.

The Generation Y assumption that technology – and so the world – is perfect, can have consequences for business, as it means we just don’t think anything will go wrong. At work, this may result in forgotten meetings, missed deadlines, and a general reduction in work quality. If a project goes wrong, the client relationship may deteriorate, as a result of us not having put in place preventative measures or a contingency plan.

Generation Ys are actually great workers who can add a lot of value to business, as the phone has taught us to be very flexible and creative, but we may need to be taught what other generations take for granted: You always need a Plan B.

You know that metaphor of the seemingly graceful swan paddling like mad underneath, to describe a very busy (or panicking) person, but who looks calm and composed? Yeah, that’s not me. When I panic, I skip the ‘remain calm and composed’ part of my brain and jump right into PANIC. And in work this isn’t the best idea. Panic causes you to make mistakes, lose control over your tone and to display negative body language. It causes your manager, your client (eek!) to lose even more confidence in you than you’ve lost in yourself.

I thought this tendency to panic openly was just me. To some degree it is, but I also think it’s a generational thing. Generation Ys were taught by their parents to be open about their lives, being given permission from an early age to freely express their emotions. Additionally, growing up in a world where there is little need for information to be stored in one’s head suggests that, when faced with a tough situation where there is neither someone to ask nor internet to search, the initial response of some Gen Ys may be to express how they feel: panicky. In business, where acting ‘professionally’ is paramount, a panicking employee isn’t going to instil confidence in anyone and may even damage the brand if the panic occurs in front of a client.

Such a tendency to panic also stems, in part, from always having been saved. Our parents saved us; our teachers saved us; even our universities saved us. If we were in trouble, there was always someone there to pick up the pieces and save us from the consequences to our actions: we were never allowed to fail. Unfortunately, being disallowed to fail has taught us helplessness, which isn’t great for businesses, which need employees who can work independently; who can take managed risks, and aren’t going to let the fear of failure paralyse them into un-productivity.

Surprisingly, this panic tendency can actually be harnessed by employers to their benefit. Firstly, Generation Y is prepared to ask for help which, when appropriately managed, can significantly improve productivity and the quality of work. It also provides an opportunity for managers to gain the respect of this cohort by being there (although not to excess of course) perhaps as a mentor. Just knowing that there’s someone to ask will help calm the most panicky of Gen Y. The need to be saved as also led many Generation Ys to be more their trusting of organisations (unlike independent me-against-the-world Generation X). This suggests that if employers work to help Generation Y feel part of the business, such as establishing excellent socialisation activities and processes, and maintaining open and transparent communications, they will find themselves with a generation which, feeling safe in its new ‘home’, is very loyal.

When people are suffering, some will seek to regain a sense of control by blaming others for their misfortunes. The French blamed the monarchy; the Spanish Catholics blamed the non-Catholics; Gen X blamed the corporations; Gen Y blames the Boomers.

Indeed, according to Madeleine Bunting from the Guardian, Boomers enjoyed free school meals, free education, relatively uninterrupted long-term employment, and government-supported state pensions. Generation Y, on the other hand, has had to pay for its education, racking up an average student debt of £25,000. Graduate unemployment is a whopping 14%, with many scrabbling for exploitative unpaid internships, and there are over three quarters of a million 18-24 year-old NEETs. Job security is yesterday’s myth and state pensions will shortly be meeting the same ends. This mollycoddled generation, as it turns out, has been given a pretty rough deal.

Of course Baby Boomers – being the ones in power – have had a hand in this, not least their focus on personal freedom resulting in regrettable actions, such as deregulation of the banks. But this Boomer-bashing by Generation Y feels excessive, going beyond objective criticism into emotive scapegoating. For example, Ed Howker and Shiv Malik’s book, Jilted Generation, is described as ‘a tirade of fury’, which blames the Boomers for their children’s plight. This points to a generation mourning the loss of the great life promised by its Boomer parents. The shock having worn off, Gen Y is well entrenched into the anger stage in the grief process[1].

Anger is a high energy emotion and in work this may manifest as increased tensions between the two generations, with Gen Y resenting both Boomers which retire (yet another pension to pay for), and Boomers which stay on (I can kiss that promotion good-bye). Gen Y employees may become more argumentative and resistant to orders from Boomers managers, or may employ passive aggressive methods, such as agreeing to do work and then not doing it. Morale is already at an all-time low within companies, and such behavior will only cause further damage, which is not good news at such a fragile time for businesses.

According to Kubler-Ross, who first observed the five-stage grief process (shock, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance), the best way to manage and move on from anger is to comfort the suffering and let the anger flow, essentially providing an outlet, so allowing the anger to burn itself out. Indeed, I’ve noticed a marked increase in Facebook status complaints about work, which echoes Business Week’s Asher Adelman’s comments that workers need online complaint forums as an outlet for their dissatisfaction at work. This doesn’t mean that Boomer leaders should let pissed off graduates be disrespectful. It means providing such online forums and off-line workshops, wherein Gen Y can both share their concerns and potential resolutions around cross-generational conflicts; offering mentors and coaches to whom Gen Y can express their upset and be comforted; and encouraging Gen Y to take up more sports activities, so they can literally burn off their anger.

Turning a negative emotion into positive action will help Generation Y move on from anger towards acceptance, rebuild relations with the Boomer managers, and even help the business become stronger, as morale improves and productivity increases.

[1] The stages of loss are: shock/denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.