Generationing

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.