I recently found myself at…Starbucks. Oh great, there is someone in Calgary who is erupting in “what did he just say?? My brother-in-law is also more than likely saying “What??” I was buying drinks for Grace and Sarah. For those not keeping track, they are 6 and 3 respectively. I ordered a vanilla steamer and hot chocolate, both with whip and chocolate drizzle. As I was pulling out my cash, something interesting happened. By the way, cash is another name for currency and has faces on pieces of paper. I am mockingly condescending ‘cuz I very rarely see people using it, especially when there is a line out the flipping door. But I digress. So I am paying with the paper that faces on it and the barista ringing the register utters some of the most amazing words put into a sentence I have heard given what I do for a living. She says in a smiling face to her presumably deemed manager on duty, “I think I have I found another reason for you to fire me today.” I not only think that is my next book, but it is also priceless as a pretext for the next part of my series on Generation Y.
In approximately every single speaking engagement I have delivered on Gen Y, there is no other more predictable answer to the following question, “How many of you have looked at the new, younger employees in the workplace and said to yourself that they just do not get it?” You know what everyone over thirty says (and even some a bit younger) “Yes, that is so spot on.” And if you are that generation (Gen Y), umm…well, we talk about you. Yeah, like you are not thinking and saying, “my boss is such an old, once-was-maybe hack, dude-whatever, that just doesn’t get me.” Can we all agree we don’t get one another? OK, let’s just hang out for a minute or two. Anyone not Gen Y, they do get it. It is just not the same way you get it. Are you even remotely surprised by that? Hello. Of course they don’t get it the same. You didn’t get dad and mom either. And Gen Y, you are not that cool.
Here is both my point and the reason the comment by that certain barista hit me; our views, and even outlook for that matter, about the “job” does not match. Not even kinda. I have often said one of the benchmarks in defining one generation’s view about the workplace is very revealing when looking at the following. My dad (Baby Boomer) had one job. Well, two and only because of downsizing and both were in the exact same industry. Not counting the jobs I had prior to college as a means to money (so, say pre-21) and as a Gen X member, I have had five. Six if you count my current business owner job. Some sources comment the predicted number of jobs Gen Y will have will be as many as 13. Tell me that that does not resonate in so many different ways. So dissect this data. One might say the times dictated both a cultural and socioeconomic mindset. In the 60’s the U.S. was on a high. It was possible for the company to keep people. There was little in the way of downsizing or off-shoring. By the 80’s we saw those things. Companies where a bit quicker to cut costs, which meant cutting people. It was also seeing new industries taking shape. Also those industries and an expanded global market were diversifying allowing for more opportunity for all. As we came into the new millennium (hence Gen Y also being called, yes, you guessed it…Millennials), it seemed everything changed at a rate of speed never seen. By the way, pay attention to speed with your Millennials. There was the internet, technology, the “dot com boom and bust”, email, texting and new market leaders other than the U.S. When I was young, I stayed out until dark, rode a bike without a helmet, didn’t have a car seat and had dirt clod wars. By the way for those needing perspective, a dirt clod is a clump, if you will, of dirt compacted. You grab them from the ground, particularly in farmland fields. They range from the size of a plum to a grapefruit. It is a dirt hand grenade and when thrown makes the most amazing explosion. It also hurts a tad when it hits you in the head. So if you got hit in the eye with a dirt clod, you usually said “ouch, I just got hit in eye with a dirt clod.” That was it, no lawsuit or child services officer about any bruised eye or inner child.
Now enough of that. Gen Y has an outlook greater than any of us from any previous generation can even fathom. They see globally. They see cause and that the job is only a means to what matters. I was raised the job defined you. They don’t see it that way. The job, may in some cases…consider this, only be a speed bump in the way of the things that truly matter. Before you freak out, consider mindset, perspective and peripheral possibilities around how that makes complete sense AND not be such a bad thing. Trust me, I go cross-eyed even saying that. My goal is to widen my gaze and see the “why”.
So as I always say, what to do…
Try your very best to understand the mindset of your employees. All of them, not just the Gen Yers. Ask questions often and in very strategic and tactical places in your week and month. See where their decision making shows signs of who they are, what they are driven to do and be and then what may very well be your next step.
Let them, your team that is, interact and create a peer “thing”. By that I mean, let, if you have the scale and logistics to support this, your managers problem solve together. Select a date and time to have them all together and give them a problem to solve. Maybe you have them all at a local coffee house or on a conference call. While it may not be the best solution ever, it does allow the managers to share and collaborate. Let them try and then give feedback.
Have a sense of humor. Seriously. I know you take the job and customer service very seriously…and they might not. I am not saying or suggesting that you make light of the importance of the job or the profit necessary and associated with it. I am only saying, they may look at the job more whimsically than you. They may like what they do, but maybe they do not LOVE what they do. Not the same way you see the job, right?
I think about what the barista said and how she said it. She was not trying to be crass or show a lack of appreciation of what she was doing. She was saying a quick “something” when she made a mistake ringing something up. I believe her to be very good as what she does, at least when I was there. Her comment was one of an intention of sarcasm – I believe that. It is just the comment itself that hooked me. I considered the crafting of the statement. The words used and how they worked with one another. Bottom line, do they, Gen Y, look at the job differently? Yes. And that is OK, we just need to figure out how that “kind of statement” resonates in how we manage and lead someone who will probably not be with us 1 year from now (if that). More to follow…
I did get a latte. I am sorry. Actually, I am not…it was convenient. And there was the comment, right?
Cheers