I work for a large corporation. It may well be that my older colleagues either don’t know, or don’t remember how old I am, because many often share things with me like, “Young people today just don’t have any sense of loyalty to their employer.” I often speak with frustrated recruiters who find the ideal candidates for a position, only to have to fill the position once again in a few short months after the candidate has left the company.
Why does Gen Y have such a hard time staying in one place? Have we earned the reputation for being disloyal that our older colleagues and superiors have bestowed upon us? How should corporations deal with this difficult talent pool?
The Loyalty Myth
The first question I want to tackle is the one about loyalty. On the one hand, I look to my father who got a job with a company after finishing school, and has been employed by the same company, through two separate rounds of acquisitions, for over 30 years. On the flip side, the majority of my friends who have been out of school for over two years, have had more than a single employer. Myself included.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The accusation that Gen Y is disloyal to its employers actually gets me angry. If I look at my peers who have had multiple jobs, those who chose to leave a job are far outweighed by those who were forced to leave a job. Yes, I know it’s a bad economy, but explain to me why a generation that knows well the feeling of being given the boot by an employer, or has watched as those just a little older than them have suffered the same fate, should feel any loyalty to those same employers?
Like many companies, my own went through a round of layoffs last year. The business rationale for the layoffs did not bother me. What bothered me was the response that I heard from colleagues who had been there longer than me: “Eventually, it’ll happen to all of us.”
Seriously?
Gen-Yers everywhere are hearing these kinds of responses to layoffs. Is it any surprise then, that when presented with a better opportunity elsewhere they take it? The alternative, apparently, is to stick it out with one employer who will eventually show them the door one way or another.
Opportunities for Gen Y in the Corporate World
The good news is that it’s still possible for Gen Y to find a happy home in the corporate world. I know, because I’ve done it.
The first step to making Gen Y feel at home in a corporation is to realize what is important to us. Big paychecks are nice, but what we really want is freedom and flexibility. To a corporation, things like flextime, workshifting, and tele-commuting are buzzwords. To me, those are tangible benefits and things I look for in a company, and in a lifestyle. If you want an idea of just how important freedom is to Gen Y, just take a look at the success of people like Tim Ferriss, who has built a career around the idea of lifestyle design. Freedom is important to everyone, but Gen Y sees the opportunity to actually achieve it thanks to the tools of the digital millennium.
My generation can take comfort in knowing, though, that companies are evolving. I look at something like Best Buy’s Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), and I think to myself, “Yes, a big company that gets it!” Hours worked, doesn’t mean results delivered. When you calculate results, and not hours, you take the first step towards opening up flexibility, because you will invariably realize that results come when people are working on their own schedules, not yours. Gen Y already knows this, we’re just waiting for the corporate world to catch up.
How will they catch up? Easy, the companies that don’t get it will continue to lose employees to those that do. The companies that do will foster environments that attract young, dynamic, intelligent Gen Yers. Those are the people that will become the leaders of tomorrow (or even the leaders of later on this afternoon, at the rate some are climbing the ladder).
Once we’re in leadership positions, you can be pretty sure that we’ll set up work environments that attract the kind of people who like to work the way we do. Eventually, in a survival-of-the-fittest-capitalism-at-its-best-kind-of-way, the companies that attracted the young talent will begin to eat the others for breakfast.
So, if you’re a corporate leader, and you’re struggling to find or keep young talent, maybe you should talk to the kinds of people you’re trying to attract and evolve your structure to what they’re looking for. Don’t try to change Gen Y. We won’t change. You need us. You need to change.
And by the way, if you read this far and the only thing you’ve taken away is that Gen Y is cocky, then you’ve missed the point entirely. Enjoy being eaten for breakfast.
Photo Credit: aon
Adam,
Great post, as always! The only two things I would add are that we, Millennials, want to work for socially responsible companies and have jobs that challenge us everyday.
Great post Adam, and I love the point you made on how many of us fresh from college are already onto our second job. I think that employee loyalty is a naive artifact from a time before globalization. I saw the large corporation my Dad was working for use up and spit out his generation, laying off his former boss just 6 months before his retirement. This was an international and stable company yet stockholders demand maximum ROI 24-7. There is no such thing as a stable job anymore, and I think this recession has taught the older generations this once they were returned to the bottom of the Totem Pole. The bottom line is you need to be constantly marketing yourself as product, as the employer is just as, if not more so, disloyal as the stereotypical Gen Y employee.
I really enjoyed reading this post. I am 24 and already at my 3rd company. Meanwhile, both of my parents have been at the same company their whole careers. I think it also depends on the industry you go into. In some industries, moving around companies is normal. I think my reason for changing companies is still the fact that I'm trying to find the right cultural fit for myself. I think for millennials – work culture/environment is one of the core factors in determining whether or not we want to take a job.
Great article Adam. I find it funny that older colleagues claim Gen Y doesn't know what loyalty to a company is. The truth of the matter is: if you're an intelligent, driven and tenacious Gen Y college graduate, chances are the type of job and company you're ideally looking for either isn't hiring in this economy, and if they are, they're most likely going to take someone who's been laid off and has 15+ extra years of experience than you. It's just the nature of today's job market. Most Gen Y's have no choice but to take the jobs we're given, not the ones we want. Can you really blame us for moving around trying to find the best fit for us?
Well-spoken. As a chewed up and spit-out several times over boomer girl, I applaud your clear understanding of the market for your abilities. Loyalty like respect has to be earned on both sides.
I agree with you, Scott. However, now we're going to have to contend with the idea that Gen Y is cynical, too…
Thanks, Addy. I definitely think that proportionally Millennials are looking for socially responsible companies, and challenging positions than previous generations. I think we've still got a ways to go before that's a universal statement, though.
Al – great point. The newest generation in the workforce cares about finding the right fit. I've noticed that in interviews, younger people tend to ask a lot more questions, like the interview is equally about them deciding if they like the company. I'd be curious to get a recruiter or HR professional's thoughts on this…
Evan, interesting point, but I wonder if Gen Y would move around less in a better economy or better market. Do you think that if the economy were at full employment, Gen Y wouldn't have the “disloyal” reputation it now has?
Charlotte, thanks for commenting. I love hearing from my fellow Gen Yers, but I also sometimes wish we got a little more feedback as to how our generation is perceived by others, apart from grand stereotypes and sweeping generalizations that we've all already heard! Thanks for providing that.
lord knows I am!
While I agree that a large chunk of us want to work for socially responsible companies there are definitely some who could care less.
As evidence of this websites name, we want to consider ourselves to be the best damn generation this world has ever had. However, we often forget about the millennials who are out there chasing the Boiler-room (movie) lifestyle. While I applaud the optimism, I agree with Adam in saying we have a ways to go before its a universal statement.
Great post Adam, I was trying to relate some of the same ideas in my post about Gen-Y is as loyal as they receive ( http://bit.ly/auooC5 ) but I think you stated it much more elegantly. My follow-up some day was going to be that I also truly believe and agree with you that it is in companies best interest to start working with us instead of trying to change our age group.
@Evan The question about if Gen-Y would move around in a better economy is super interesting. My guess is that we'd move more often than generations before us did but not as much as we are at the moment.
@Andrea I think that companies will get the being socially responsible and treating their employees with loyalty at the same time. Do you also link those two concepts?
Actually, I'm a boomer
(1951). I tend to see the GenY as being
more willing to work, more serious about participating in life than a
lot of GenX people I know. Some of that of course is where they (you)
in their phase of life. 20-somethings have a bit more freedom than
30-50 somethings, and we old farts are again finding some freedom if we
are not too tied down to mortgage, college tuition or medical costs and
aging parents. I think the whole idea of a generational description is
a bit silly–after all, I am a member of the largest generation in
history as far as we know, and while Pluto is in Leo for my entire
generation, I feel that there are many more differences than overall
similarities, just as there are in members of any group of Pisceans born
in a couple of decades.
Your mileage may vary of course.
Charlotte Babb http://mavenfairygodmother.com
http://beyourownfairygodmother.com http://charlottebabb.com
Yeah, the fact you are first complaining about some realities of the corporate world and then setting our your demands sums up why Gen Y has issues. Some companies lay off employees. Some employees leave companies. That's happened for decades. Sometimes things happen to companies that cause layoffs that were never intended or even desired. And some companies are bastards. None of this is a rationale for laying out demands for telecommuniting and control and flexibility. Do the job you were hired to do. Do it well. Learn from others more experienced than you. You might move up. You might not. There are more factors at play than things that involve you. Finally, the trick is to find an employer whose values match yours. If you do that,you have a much better chance of staying a while. And by values, I mean things that guide your life, not conviences like telecommuting.
Ottis, I respectfully disagree. I'm not complaining about the realities of the corporate world, I'm pointing out the relics of a past age. Being forced to work from 9 to 5 is only a reality in companies that choose to make it so. More and more companies are realizing that that's not the ideal way to structure their work force, and so they're creating new realities. Telecommuting isn't just about convenience, it's about efficiency, and it's about freedom.
If you're a company, and the best employee for a position is located in a city other than where you're located, are you going to settle for a lesser employee because you decide you absolutely must have them sitting in a cube, when the job could just as easily be done from elsewhere? Freedom and flexibility benefit both the worker and the employer.
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