Making Their Voice Heard

Gen Yers love to give feedback as much as they love to receive it. They will want to give feedback in real time. And, they are brutally honest, which neither the Boomers or Gen Xers are likely to appreciate. Gen Y is going to question all of our established processes all of the time. For example, workplace attire: Boomers and Gen X were fine with going to business casual, but Gen Y is really more along the lines of “very casual” vs. “business casual.” Gen Yers are also significantly more pierced and tattooed than the majority of their older generational predecessors.

“Gen Y is also much less likely to respond to the traditional command-and-control type of management still popular in much of today’s workforce,” says Jordan Kaplan, an associate managerial science professor at Long Island University—Brooklyn in New York. “They’ve grown up questioning their parents, and now they’re questioning their employers. They don’t know how to shut up, which is great, but that’s aggravating to the 50-year-old manager who says, ‘Do it and do it now.’” ⁵

Case in point: David L. Larson, professor and chair of the department of plastic surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), and his peers found themselves increasingly troubled by the behavior and perceived attitudes of residents. “Some of us would tell a resident to do something, and he or she would question it or simply not do it,” says Larson. “We sensed different values. Some residents bluntly told their directors to chill out— that they worked too hard.” ⁶

It isn’t that Gen Yers are trying to be disrespectful. We have to remember that. They have grown up with their input being valued, so why should that change just because they are now employed? It may be irritating for Boomers and Gen Xers, but learning to accept and give feedback is ultimately a good thing all the way around. The only downside we can think of is if employers tried to make constant changes based on feedback. When a leader receives feedback, it is the patterns that should be focused on, not the individual comments, because it’s impossible to make everyone happy. So leaders shouldn’t try to make all their employees happy, even if they are the squeaky wheel. In the end, it is the valuing of each person’s opinion that is good for morale.

Another way Gen Yers will make their voices heard is in the company’s marketing. If the company markets in a way that Gen Yers feel is dishonest, expect them to be very vocal about it. Since just about everything ends up on the Internet these days, don’t expect to “spin” the message or your brand. The Internet really is the no-spin zone, because the truth is generally revealed and the only problem is figuring out which post is the truth. In fact, companies will need to listen to Gen Yers on this front, because they will leave if they feel that the organization is lacking integrity in its marketing. Yes, it may be a little hypocritical for this music-lifting generation, but prepare yourself none-the-less.