As we batten down the hatches - or perhaps run to the hills - to prepare for the economic tsunami that is about to hit, let's consider this potential positive outcome: The bratty Entitlement Generation will be affected!
The "Entitlement Generation" - those born between 1979 and 1994 - have been described as impatient, self-serving, disloyal, unable to delay gratification - in short, feeling that they are entitled to everything without working for it.
They will struggle to win and keep jobs in their fields, just like the rest of us. They will learn to interview with respect; no more "How many weeks of vacation do I get? But rather, "How can I put my talents to work for the good of the business and all of its stakeholders?"
The Labor Department reported an October job loss of 240,000, higher than economists predicted. Those jobs cuts impacted a variety of industries, from service, to retail, hospitality and banking. Not only are jobs rapidly vanishing, but many holding on to the ones that are left are feeling the pinch through reductions in commission or mandatory salary cuts. Those who will hold onto their positions are those who are hard-working, flexible, creative, talented, and loyal.
The worst offenders will not last long in today's workforce.
The unemployment rate has reached 6.5 percent. It hasn't been this high since 1994, which is when the last of the Entitlement Generation were born. This generation needs to grow up and grow up fast.
I offer the following tips to that group of "20-somethings":
1. Stop worrying about perks and benefits. If they exist now, they might not soon. Pretend they don't exist. 2. Work longer hours - or at least work a full week. Employers are having to make cuts in every area. If you prove your value, you are less likely to get cut.
3. Feel lucky to be employed in a field where you are learning skills that will help advance your career.
4. Know that if you weather the storm with your employer, you are likely to find great rewards when it is over.
Perhaps you'll receive monetary rewards - but more importantly, rewards such as a developed sense of loyalty and purpose.
Susan Falk is president and chief executive officer of The Falk Group in Milwaukee.
15 Comments
You don't get it Suzie. "Know that if you weather the storm with your employer, you are likely to find great rewards when it is over." Ask the now "forty and fifty somethings" that loyally work at AIG, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Citigroup and Journal Sentinel about the '80 REO Speedwagon Song advice.
We are in a new age and a transition. The days of riding off into the sunset with you employer are gone. Your advice is outdated.
1. Retirement plans are going to be gone and should pretend they don't exist. The Big 3 showed the downfall of that. Benefits and perks are your only way to start saving personally for that future retirement.70% of the Gen Y respondents contribute to their 401(k) plan according to USA Today.
2. Don't apologize for working more efficiently. It is not the Generation Y's fault that the "fifty somethings" take 20 mins to open Outlook or the internet.
3. Gen Y knows how fast technology changes and understands competition earlier in their careers with how competitive education has been compared to their "fifty somethings."
Times are changing with this internet thing and the current economy we are facing. I am personally a big fan of loyalty and purpose, but those values should be emphasized more at home and in the community than in our businesses. Because at the end of the day it's just business and the smartest and most efficient workers should win out.
No, Mikal, you don't get it. The U.S. and the world economies today are trying to work their way out of a situation created by people with your attitude.
Technically skilled new arrivals in the financial world efficiently created sure-bet investment products with no regard for the risks involved. They ignored the lessons of the past in the belief that technical skills alone made them smarter than their parents and grandparents. Today, every generation still above ground is paying for their arrogance.
Like those financial hotshots, you may be more technology-savvy than the "fifty somethings" or even "forty-somethings." But technological expertise isn't the only requirement for success. You'll need to demonstrate sound judgment and, perhaps, an ethical compass, both of which can't be found on an I-phone or Blackberry. You'll need to be content to help your employer serve customers, not you.
Fortunately, you are not the poster child for Generation Y. Most are listening to Ms. Falk's advice. Those who are as cocky as you appear to be are likely to find themselves updating their bogus resumes on a regular basis and competing for a fast-food jobs against forty, fifty and even sixty somethings.
Good luck.
I agree with Mikal. I'm 60-something, with three 20-something kids who I've encouraged to think for themselves and work for themselves. If they can help others improve their lives--our kids will get whatever they want. Hopefully, they have learned how to successfully compete!
Wow, ripping on the "Entitlement Generation" is a nice example of paintimg with broad strokes. Quite a lot of us are nothing like the stereotype. Many are, unfortunately. In all cases, people learn their value systems from those that raised them, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
First of all I think it is extremely inappropriate and arrogant for "Susie" to single out a specific generation as being "bratty" and offer them advice that only works in an outdated corporate work setting especially when a recession hurts EVERYONE. Mikal is correct that there is no more "riding into the sunset" with employers. There is no such thing as job security for Generations X and Y, or job satisfaction especially if you live in a city where most positions are in companies seem to be "anti-progressive" like Milwaukee. May I remind you that a major topic of discussion in the business circles is how to retain young talent? I'm pretty sure a negative blog towards that specific group of professionals is counterproductive. Mikal is also correct that the younger generations are more competitive. We have to be that's part of being progressive, and that goes beyond working Blackberries and IPods, the younger generations understand more software then the older generations ever could, or try to. New ideas and incorporating technology are more important to younger generations in the workforce then kissing the bosses but. Generation X'ers already saw how far you get with being a kiss up in the last round of recession job-slashing back in 2002. We (unlike the older generations) had to learn to do three or four positions in one to keep our jobs, and we still lost any form of insurance coverage and benefits but kept our jobs...without the smooching. So Susie, thank you for exemplifying why young professionals have it rough in this town. I would like to leave you with this advice; hire a Generation X/Y staff to redesign your web site, and drop the negativity we already have enough of it around town.
As someone who was born in 1980, I nominate myself unofficial spokesperson.
It's not conducive to any sort of atmosphere of mutual respect to insult people with clichéd generalizations about their generation.
People of my generation (children of boomers, I guess) did enter a different work world. I came out of college with a broad but somewhat atypical skill set. This doomed me to no end of fruitless (though scrupulously respectful) job hunting and temping in which time I learned a couple of things. First, in a world where anybody and everybody can (and seemingly does) apply for any job, HR people will use any excuse they can find not to think. Second, just about any company will screw you in a heartbeat if it serves their interests.
Eventually, I found a nonprofit (not a charity) that did more than fill in checkboxes from my resumé and I'm quite happy. Nevertheless, I do work for the company. If that work were worth less to them then what they paid me, even in a nonprofit, they'd fire me. I don't feel any sense of entitlement about my compensation and I understand that the value of my work is relative to external conditions but, honestly, if the company sees so much virtue in simply sacrificing for our mutual relationship, I'd suggest they try it themselves.
It is not fair that 20-somethings are criticized for not being loyal to their employer because we know what we want and will not just settle for whatever crummy job that comes along our way.
This article is insulting and ridiculous. It just reinforces how out of touch a generation that has treated the world's economy, environment and healthcare like a teenager with her first credit card has become.
The "Entitlement Generation"? You can't be serious.
As someone born in 1986, a recent college grad and journalist who is currently searching for a job, I take great exception to what's implied in this article. Is she being sarcastic? It's ironic to me to hear someone who has enjoyed the perks of a post-industrial economy for so long condescending to those of us who are just recently entering the workforce, telling us that we should cast aside the "perks" that she herself has probably enjoyed for a long time. Maybe the reality is that we will have to work longer hours for less benefits, but I don't need someone looking down their nose at me as I do so. And since when does it make you bratty to expect to work a reasonable number of hours, to get time of to see your family and to get paid a reasonable sum for your efforts? You can't feed your kids with a sense of "loyalty and purpose."
The real "Entitlement Generation" is the generation that is leaving the tab for a devastated economy and unsustainable Social Security and Medicare systems in the hands of us "20-somethings." And who is more "impatient, self-serving, disloyal, [and] unable to delay gratification" than the regulators and traders, who are not part of my generation, that allowed our economy to fall into the current state that it is in?
My generation doesn't mind hard work. We have plenty of it ahead of us, seeing as people are starting to use the big "D" word when they describe the U.S. economy. And we don't mind working hard. Just don't call us brats while we do it.
Baby Boomers have established a high-pressure career track for the "entitlement generation" from the beginning. Go to this school, get this degree, complete x number of internships and join these organizations- to what avail? Our reward for ample pre-employment preparation leaves us in a job market flooded with counterparts vying for entry level positions offering compensation comparable to that of your local TGI Fridays wait staff. Add to that the impending death of the middle class, across-the-board loss of benefits (pension? what's that?) and the current state of the U.S. Financial market, and it's a dire future for us "bratty" young professionals. If we can find a way out of this mess, it will be through hard work, regardless of the author's implication that we're unfamiliar with the notion.
Ms. Falk's four suggestions are certainly relevant to the workforce in today's economy- but not one specific demographic of that workforce. Those who have the foresight to consider the effects of a recession on their individual position or career path can figure it out on their own- no need for an arrogant and sweeping generalization ill-disguised as professional advice.
Yes, it's time to prove our worth in the employment sector- regardless of age or industry- and we're *entitled* to do so by demonstrating our abilities instead of being told what we do, how we do it, and to what end.
Ms. Falk is correct. I fear for the day that generation Y is making decisions and can only hope that Generation X raises their children to be responsible members of society so that the next generation can clean up Y's mess. Please teach your children that not everyone is a winner. Not everyone is good in school, sports, or in certain jobs. You have to learn to lose and learn how to pick yourself up and find something you are good at instead of whine when you are corrected for the first time. Don't make me fix your mistakes when your children enter the workforce, and definitely don't complain to me when you aren't hired because you didn't learn how to contribute.
As a member of the "entitlement generation", I am an economics graduate of a New
England university, and I'd like to share 3 my thoughts:
1. The author fails to distinguish the difference between "hard work" and "productivity". No more are the days when a hard worker whom starts off pushing a mop at a company can rise up to CEO in 20 years. Industry and knowledge is too specialized to go from cleaning toilets to analyzing & interpreting financial statements without acute educational advancement. The "entitlement generation" are typically college students which specialize in a technology on subjects that'll allow them to excel, and I didn't just spend $120,000 on my education to step in line with non-graduates and watch you get all the money and glory. I did it to compete.
If it makes you Gen X/Y workers uncomfortable that we are edging you out, then that's your own fault. You are the creators and once-beneficiaries of the economic system that's in place today. If you don't like it, then why did you and the other Gen X/Y tell us to go the best univeristy we could in the first place?
2. You're thoughts on "perks" are completely outdated. Everyday we are engulfed with choices. Choices that can similarly be considered incentives. If I'm offered a larger incentive over another, I'll take the better deal. Our american free market system is built on the idea of incentives. We act in our own best interest and the invisible hand guides our market to where overall society benefits. If you don't believe in this concept, you should take a class in economics 101.
There's too much money in the world to hand my portion to some stuffy mid-level manager that wants a huge bonus and thus benefit off the productivity of me. I'll take my hardwork/productivity to where it'll mostly benefit myself, just like you would if you didn't have a mortgage, 3 kids, and a comfy job that accepts that you can't use Microsoft Office 2007.
3. Finally, employers are no more loyal to workers than workers to employers. If I don't work hard enough, I get fired. But what happens when I bust my ass year after year and don't get any advancements, promotions, or "perks"? The answer is I find a new job. You expect me to take what you give me because YOU think it's good enough?
In 2008-09 we live in a changing atmosphere where sub-par performance on both ends is not acceptable. The smartest and most productive grow and advance, and the rest stay still. I will take what I'm worth, not what YOU think I'm worth. This is a market economy for a reason, and it's based on the American dream of realizing your potential.
Finally, I hope you see us "entitlement generation" youngsters as a wakeup call to yourself. We're educated, sharp, and literally about to step into the power seat of the world. Stop trying to hold us back and start teaching us, give us perks to do better, and eventually the world will be a better place for all of us.
MODERATOR: Can you please insert my paragraph breaks? Thanks!
As a person who employs a staff of five people all under the age of 30, I've got to concur with Susie that Entitlementitis is alive and well within Gen Y, though naturally not ubiquitous.
Over the years, I've combed through countless cover emails written like booty call text messages, resumes sent in WordPerfect, interviews and meetings repeatedly rescheduled for inane reasons (one young "professional" web developer literally canceled a meeting with me because it conflicted with a hair appointment! WTF?) and zero attention paid to professional etiquette (Hi, don't wear jeans and a screened t-shirt to a job interview). I have managed to put together a pretty great staff, but I can't even count how many times I have walked behind an employee in time to glimpse them minimizing Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or Gchat. Sorry, that doesn't work for me, as I'm paying for your time during business hours. Tell your friends how much your job sucks over a beer. After 5.
Mikal, your sniffy superiority about understanding technology and competition better than folks older than you rings hollow for me. Did you learn about it in business school? If so, did you learn that substantive adversaries show each other respect, at least in the tone of their communications?
As for technology, at 42 I still possess the greatest mastery of the hardware, software and web-based applications required to run my business, and sometimes spend entire days functioning as more of a help desk than a manager. Just because you can create a new Facebook group in no time flat does not mean you understand Technology, the global marketplace or what it takes to succeed in the adult world, and nothing in your response suggested anything except that you believe that people your age are inherently better-suited for the modern workplace.
One final thought: It sounds like you might be bitter about your future lack of security and the accompanying non-opportunity to one day draw an employer-backed pension. I thought mine was the last generation to cry any tears over that lost ideal from the mid-20th century. For those playing along at home, Susie wasn't suggesting loyal employees would be rewarded with lifetime security, but simply with the opportunity to earn advancement.
Jon Anne
P.S. My 65-year-old mother uploads videos from her Flip to YouTube and shares them with her same-age friends, though she still does not enjoy the digital cable remote and thinks Facebook is mostly a colossal time-waster. She prefers letters and phone calls.
You know, the most valuable thing that 20-somethings can learn NOW is how the heck finance works in business. Most of use, even in business school, don't even learn the BASICS of finance. And then it just gives us a headache. Or worse, we feel like we need to bringour tin cups to congress.
It's not hard unless you don't take that first step. Incidentally, for those who are sick of bad news, there's a great video that provides comedic relief right now on YouTube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OePNsbG90Ss
Question for Jon Anne: Is it meant as irony that you're ranting about slacker employees wasting time on the Internet, while you're posting sniping comments to an online article at 2:28 on a Monday afternoon?