Battle of the Generations

I had some friends over from interstate and during the various meals, drinks and socialising our discussions turned to the generational differences we are experiencing.

And by contributing to this discussion, I finally believe I have gotten older, because I agreed with a lot of what was said.

Most of this group are older than me (hence my enjoyment at hanging out with them because I am one of the youngest) and they are now in positions of management and responsibility. Be it as a senior in their profession or in middle management. So they are responsible for teaching new graduates and junior staff.

The biggest gripe I heard was about Generation Y, those that are born between 1980 and 1995. Sadly I do not fall into that Gen Y category as I am an X, those born between 1960 and 1979, we are the post baby boomer society.

These days there is talk of Generation Z i.e.) the kids that are currently up and coming.

But back to my friends and our discourse over lunches. The main complaint that people have about the Gen Y’s is that they want the big salaries, they want the status and the position BUT they simply won’t do the work.

Basically they want to be superstars but get there easily.

They are too preoccupied with getting what they think they deserved but have failed to realise they need to work for it. They will only do the work they want and won’t do anything meaningless because it was not in their job description.
We all hate doing meaningless things that are not part of our job, but in the workforce it is a requirement. This is how you learn how to become multi skilled. Added to this is that a number of my friends complained about the poor written skills.

Another major gripe is that they lack written and satisfactory communication skills. While they are confident, they do not know how to talk to the baby boomer generation or how to conduct themselves properly. Sadly, a lot of them appear to now want to learn how to write better. Heck, I was a terrible writer especially with report and my grammar was poor, but I learnt and hope it has improved a little (I know this blog has evidence which contradicts that statement).

The Gen Y’ers have a lot of self belief and confidence and that most likely stemmed from society. Over the last decades we have seen a shift towards a classless society, where children are told there are no barriers and anyone can get anywhere.

That is a great message and good that it happened. But the bit about the hardwork seems to have been lost in the message.

Also the X’ers had a recession to go through, so mum and dad did not have a lot of money so we learnt to save and make do with what we have. No Ipods, Internet, X-Box or Cable TV. We learnt to play sport and make our own fun.

Further, we have seen the rise of the instant celebrity and this is mainly due to the media. People like Paris Hilton have become insanely well know because they are rich or made some questionable videos.

So the kids seem the glam and want to get it, they see these people get the star treatment by not doing much, so they aspire for it.

All the Y’ers. Just do a little hard work and you will be right.

Let us hope that the Z’s learn and work a little harder and smarter. While saving the world at the same time.