Generation Y and the workplace
BOOK REVIEW
'Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work' is geared toward those born between 1980 and the mid-1990s. But will they read the book?
Sullen, self-centered and uncooperative? Or dynamic, fresh and creative? Your view of Generation Y -- those born between 1980 and the mid-1990s -- will depend on your own experience of dealing with its members, whether in the workplace or at home.
Employers are worried about Gen Yers. They worry about attracting them and keeping them -- because in spite of the economic downturn, they still will be needed in the long term.
New recruits seem unimpressed by corporate hierarchy and are in a hurry to do work of greater significance. Graduate training schemes -- those that are still running -- seem to drag on too long as far as Gen Yers are concerned. They want to see some real action fast, and if they don't get it, they are gone.
Tamara J. Erickson knows all this and more. In her weekly blog for the Harvard Business Review website, Across the Ages, she charts the tensions and the opportunities created by today's multigenerational workforce.
Now she has set out her collected insights in book form. "Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work" is intelligent and thought-provoking, and yet you can't help but wonder whether this book is not, in a sense, misconceived.
It is presented as a guide for Gen Yers themselves, who may be worrying about what the world of work has in store for them. After some analysis of the Gen Y phenomenon, it offers guidance on issues such as what they have to offer, how to get along with Gen X and practical illustrations of workplace dilemmas.
But it is not clear that many Gen Yers will want to work their way through a book. Listen to Nate, after the author asks him whether he needs a book to help guide him in his early career. Nate says: "I'm not likely to read a whole book on that -- a blog maybe but not a book." Undaunted, the author counters: "OK, granted. But if you were. . . . "
Erickson seems to have committed the classic sin of all parents (at least in the eyes of their teenage offspring) of "just not listening."
Will her target audience have enough cash to buy a book such as this? It is a bit odd that her usually savvy publisher has not asked her to target the book at anxious Gen X and boomer readers instead. But, of course, there is nothing to stop grown-ups buying the book too.
Erickson is impressed by, and (as a parent) proud of, Gen Y.
