Ys ’r’ Us

Perhaps the old regime where bosses said jump and employees asked how high will be restored. But I doubt it.

by Michael McCullough

Many of us have experienced in the workplace what we would consider unacceptable behaviour from “kids these days” – a job candidate blowing off an interview (then calling back the next day to reschedule), say, or a new hire taking courses at company expense then jumping to a competitor after just six months. It’s easy to dismiss this latest generation of workers as spoiled rotten.

Reading Malwina Gudowska’s primer on how to handle today’s 20-something employees, “What Does Y Want?” (p. 34), however, I found myself sympathizing with the attitude of members of generation Y featured in the story – for example, that loyalty to one employer is for suckers. It occurred to me that, in my now 20-year career, I’ve never received a promotion. (OK, that’s not entirely true. In my first career job, I was promoted from cub reporter to copy editor three weeks before quitting, after the wheels of my taking a job with another company were already in motion. Too late, in other words.) It certainly didn’t help working in a slow/no-growth industry (that first employer later folded) with, until recently, an overabundance of qualified hires, but I’ve only been able to move forward, increase my earnings and gain new experience by finding new jobs with new employers or by employing myself. Had I stayed where I was at various points in my career, I’d be further behind than I am today and all I’d have to show for it is maybe another week of vacation per year.

Lucky for them, gen-Ys face a much more hospitable labour market where, for perhaps the first time in history on this wide a scale, it’s employers that have to kiss up to employees. Human nature being what it is, gen Y has taken full advantage. Inevitably some will abuse the privilege and make hasty decisions that even they will later regret.

Perhaps their comeuppance is nigh. Perhaps the financial crisis unfolding around the world will result in massive layoffs and the old regime where bosses said jump and employees asked how high will be restored. But I doubt it. Not with the even more momentous demographic trends taking place. Not in our little island of prosperity in a turbulent sea of debt and consequences.

As more than one human resources specialist notes in the story, though, having one group of employees push the balance in employer-employee relations and establish new benchmarks is not such a bad thing. Workers of all ages benefit and become more satisfied at their jobs in the process. Why shouldn’t the job market serve people’s needs as much as people serve the job market’s needs?

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