Gen Y and jobs

So if you have kept on on my blog, you have read that Gen Y is sometimes labeled the “entitlement generation.” I am glad to say that this is not always true and not everyone has labeled all Gen Y workers this way.

As part of being very entitled or at least being perceived as being that way, Gen Y has come across as dreamers when it come to the work place. Gen Y pictures working at a job that they love. They imagine the “perfect job” and desire it. They will go out of their way to have it.
They have seen their parents work way too many hours, not being home, and not being happy. they do not want that.

Gen Y is relational. They desire conversion and a comfortable workplace. Gen Y workers have come across as whiny, selfish, and lazy to older employers who did not have the same luxuriates that Gen Y has and demands. For example: flexible hours, more benefits, less time at work, more money, less rules in the office, more work at home/from computer opportunities , ease and convenience.

The reality is that us Gen Ys probably should not be asking of so much from our first or second employers. If we want dream jobs we need to realize that we have to work the grunt jobs first and work our way into better jobs via success and hard work. A lot of Gen Ys get out of college and have no work expireice yet they expect the world to evolve around them. That bothers, even me. They have a good record and they have done plenty of hours of service with college organizations and maybe even had leadership expiriences, but they still have no idea how the real world works. And one behalf of other Gen Yers I asay that I am sorry.

entitlement generation

“You think you’re entitled to everything.”

Employers are getting very frustrated at my generation…

It is not because we are slackers like some of our Generation X older relatives, but because they think that we think that we want it all. (And there is some truth to that.)

To attract younger workers companies offer work-life balance, flexible schedule that includes meaningful work, with a structured feedback loop and opportunities to be creative.

My generation, the “entitlement generation” they say, has shockingly high expectations for salary, job flexibility and duties but little willingness to take on grunt work or remain loyal to a company.

I have seen this to be true looking at some of my friends. Today’s younger culture in general, does not want to evolve their life around work. They want to have time for family, especially if their own parents did not make time for them. They do not want to be like that.

But, I will say that NOT ALL of us feel this entitlement. i have worked a steady “grunt job’ for many consecutive years. I had to quit only because I moved away from college and have started my “real life.” I’ve worked other grunt jobs since then. Ones that required me to show up, work my 40+ hours, no flexibility at all. I was okay with that.

But this leaves me with another reflection that is huge for my generation…we want and love the idea of a “dream job.” We imagine working at a place we love. Doing things that we want to do everyday. A job where we can work our own hours and for reasonable pay. My Generation has taken this idea to the extreme. We have rejected the idea of “paying our time”… We have exaggerated the “dream job” concept. Some of my generation actually thinks that it is a realistic picture.

I am not one of these people, I understand that it is a competitive world and I need to work my way to a better job and I can’t expect employers to evolve work around me.

Some people are taking the concept of entitlement for my generation and applying it to all aspects of our lifestyle…they are saying that my generation grew up as the center of attention. We got everything we wanted, we were rewarded for things we did not do, we were over-protected, and over-spoiled by our parents. We are given all kinds of toys, cars, even an education. ..is there some truth to this too? Maybe in some cases.

But there is still a lot of reflection and study that needs to be done. I do think that my generation needs to wake up a little bit and take on more responsibility as young christian leaders in the church and not depend on older parents or pastors to spoon feed us everything….but that is just me .