The Warfare Begins—Gen Y Enters the Parade
I hear the train a comin’ It’s rolling round the bend.
— Johnny Cash “Folsom Prison Blues”1
Oh, yes. Here they come… Gen Y is entering the workforce, and boy, oh boy, is this going to be interesting. Just doing the research for this part of the book was a fascinating experience. We saw the excitement, the fear, and the controversy of this generation. As they enter the workforce portion of the generational parade, we see the Boomers and Gen Xers having optimistic hope, mild distaste, and the deep, long, truly-can’t-stop belly laugh that comes from reading all the ideas Gen Y has about themselves. For instance, one blogger wrote the following: “Gen Y is here! We don’t want to work hard, but we wants lots of vacation time and high salaries for no reason other then we think we deserve them!”2 (We know the grammar is incorrect, but that’s the way this Gen Yer wrote it, which is sort of a point all by itself.)
Now if you’ve never been an employer, you may not see the humor in that, but as small business owners and consultants who work with medium and large organizations, we find that to be very, very funny.
Now, let’s see if we can paint an accurate picture of Gen Y.