New Generations

I read an in-the-works article draft today about demands of leadership for the next decade. I was especially interested in the fact that many of the challenges people though would be facing the management of organisations in the future were to do with younger generations entering working life. I can’t tell you much about this article let alone reference it, as it is still in the process of being written and published, but the interview data was so interesting and thought provoking to me that I want to discuss it. After its publication I will reference it here.

In Summary: The interviewees felt that it would be challenging to get people to commit to work and specific organisations in the future. The so called generation Y was seen to want a work-life balance and not to commit to their jobs in organisations. Young people also do not want to fatten the shareholders wallets with their work efforts. Some interviewees even went as far as to say that younger people have weaker abilities in cooperating, do not have any manners and that employers end up having to do the upbringing that has not been done at home. Youth today was seen to refuse to do routine tasks and to want to secure significant titles (and pay checks) such as managerial and leadership positions immediately. In other words, generation Y has no patience to work up the ladder.

The definition for “generation Y” varies, but generally lands between 1970’s and mid 1990’s (i.e. my generation!).

The fact that my generation was under scrutiny in this article made it all the more interesting to me, I often have to read papers on organisational psychology and to be honest it really is not my cup of tea.

It was a gruelling read! It was ruthless and I felt interested, ashamed and defensive all at the same time. I recognise myself as one of those people who would very much like fame and fortune from the get go and don’t really feel I have the patience to work on the bottom rung for half my life. In addition to this, I happen to have a boyfriend whose biggest dream is to be rich by the time he is 30. Enough said.

So, we are guilty as charged. However, as a member of generation Y, I do have some thoughts on why we shouldn’t be shot down without a trial.

Firstly, I think each generation always frowns upon the ways of the next. Without this kind of development and change, history would not have happened and we would still be hanging from trees.

Secondly, I think we live in a time, where these new ideals held by generation Y are encouraged. The society we have grown up in surrounds us with several influences that make us the way we are. For one, higher education has become the norm. It is no longer a sign of dedication, brains and expertise to have done an undergraduate degree at university.  The same goes for masters degrees. In the UK, it feels, you have pretty much as good a chance in finding a job after an undergraduate degree as you would after your A-levels. You almost have to do a master’s degree. Even then you will struggle to find a job.  Exceptions are degrees that prepare you for the NHS. However, at the same time we are promised by university and other institution representatives that a degree will open all the doors wide open for our future.

Also, we are surrounded by role models of rich, successful and media-sexy young people. Professional poker players (something I find ridiculous), gifted investors, internet- and start-up entrepreneurs (Facebook, Angry Birds, Twitter, etc.). The internet is making entrepreneurship easier than ever, start-up culture thrives on ideas, not hard labour.

It is true that this generation may not be satisfied with getting their hands dirty on the first peg of the career ladder. But with almost two decades of education under our belts when we enter that career ladder, of course we feel undervalued and underpaid. By then we are at a point where we want to have a family too, so of course we want that work-life balance. And with the difficulty of even finding a decent job where we wouldn’t feel overqualified, why wouldn’t we look to entrepreneurship to make the kind of money we feel we deserve after putting all our (or our parents) money into education (or getting into heaps of debt to get an education).

I completely understand that with £9000 a year in tuition fees, students would like a nice pay check at the end of their education. I would. 

At the same time, I do think that just having a degree is not enough. I am one of thousands of psychology graduates in the country. If I had merely relied on having that undergraduate or master’s degree to get into a good job, I would probably be working… Well I wouldn’t because I would be considered overqualified for Burger King. I am not heaps better off, I’m still at uni, but I have a plan. And I am relying on my master plan to get me where I want to go. So the bottom line is that whereas my generation thinks differently to our predecessors, nothing is stopping us from getting what we want, if we just have the determination to go for it. That will require some work though.