My boss thinks I'm an alien
Do you ever feel like your colleagues live on a different planet? Are you frustrated because your manager just doesn’t understand where you’re coming from? It could be a generational thing.
There’s been a lot of research into Generation ‘Y’ (if you are somewhere between your teenage years and your early thirties, this means you). In ten years’ time, we’ll make up the majority of the working population. So it’s natural that employers want to know how to ‘manage’ us. If you’ve heard anything about the characteristics of Generation ‘Y’ you’ve probably heard us labelled as ‘over-ambitious’ and ‘demanding’. Nice, huh?
If we’re going to get through to our older colleagues and help them to understand us better, we need to recognise why we’re different, and how those differences can be a strength. If our attitudes seem completely alien, other people will struggle to see the positive. So how can we ‘de-alienate’ ourselves and build better relationships with the people we work with?
Over-ambitious? Or just keen to do a good job?
As a generation, we have grown up in an atmosphere of positive expectation. ‘The future’s bright, especially for us,’ we’ve been told. We want to do something that makes a positive difference. We want to be useful, to see the tangible result of our effort. More of us are educated to university level, and having grown up in economic prosperity, we aren’t afraid to try new things. It’s our confidence that makes us ambitious. We’re used to being asked our opinion, so we give it willingly. While our parents’ generation were content to ‘go to work’ and earn a living, we see work as something we do… and we want to be really good at what we do.
Our desire to be bigger and better isn’t a bad thing… our employers could benefit from workers who are committed to doing a better job each time. We’re used to change, to constant improvement. Our drive to improve applies not only to ourselves, but to our work as well. If we sense that our older colleagues think of us as arrogant, here’s the key to turning it around. With a large helping of humility, we need to explain that although we may not have experience, we do have a desire to do better, to learn quickly, and to contribute to the company. They need to know that we respect them. Rather than trying to take their jobs, we’re keen to collaborate, to contribute, to do what we can, and learn to do more.
Demanding? Or clued-up about what works for us?
According to the abundant advice for managers coping with a Generation ‘Y’ workforce, we know what we want, and we vote with our feet. One reason we are more ‘high-maintenance’ is the fluidity of our careers. We expect to have perhaps 10 jobs in our lifetime. Our career is our responsibility, and the job market is tough, so we need to be learning all the time. We need transferable skills, experience… we need our job to work for us. Many of us are sufficiently self-aware to know what motivates us, and what we need to enable us to work at our best. Often, these are a friendly, social atmosphere at work, plenty of opportunities and space to grow, supportive managers, lots of challenge, and the chance to keep improving our skill base. We also like to feel that we are part of the wider organisation; that our opinions are valued, that we belong.
Yes, it might seem like we’re asking a lot. But there’s a logical explanation: if we’re happy, we work more effectively. Perhaps we can ease the tension by saying ‘I work best in this environment’, or ‘This would really help me to stay motivated and produce high quality work’, rather than ‘If you don’t give me this, I’ll quit’.
Interestingly, our preferences might well be shared by our older colleagues, it’s just that they don’t expect to get what they want, and so they don’t bother to ask. As a generation, we’re used to ‘customising’ things to suit our needs, be it a myspace page, our shoes, or our mobile phone package. This impulse spills over into our working lives. It’s not a bad thing, and it has the potential to change whole companies for the better. But we need to show the reasoning behind our preferences, and convince our employers that it’s not just for our own benefit, but for the greater good.
Written by Becky Matyus. Posted on 27th October.
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