Gen Y-ner On 60 Minutes

Generation Y is no big deal.

The Players

Hey, how come Ryan Healy of Employee Evolution got on 60 Minutes and his partner, Pepe Le Pew, didn't? And, how come he was totally overshadowed by that other guy Jason T Blabbermouth.

What's The Big Deal?

Friends, times change. If a union knows it has the employers over a barrel, it makes big demands. People under 30 know that there is a shortage of workers, so they make demands too? Is it so mystifying?

The Children of Educated Parents

Also, they are the children of the beneficiaries of the education explosion of the 1960s. Their college-educated parents are more like Ward Cleaver and the friendly and mild mannered TV dads of the 1950s than their blue collar, Archie Bunker-type peers. Because of this, many people in Gen Y aren't used to being mistreated by bosses. Is that so strange? Or is it an obvious trend in modern history which continually robs tyrants of their power.

The Sixties Echo

In the 1960s people were already whining that young people were lazy, hedonistic and anti-authoritarian. But now that seems to have been forgotten and the Boomers are, supposedly, the top-down tyrannical cavemen against whom Gen Y must do battle.

In fact, back in the 60s, there was a real generation gap. Young people espoused a life full of free sex, wild clothes, long hair, no work, no war, drugs and loud music. That was different but, in the end, insignificant. Proof?

Nixon got a landslide in 1972 and there are no hippies today. In fact, as I just said, the Love Generation is now, allegedly, the enemy of the Coddle-Me Kids.

A Surprise

Here's something I never would have predicted, though: young people living at home. It seems retro and, indeed, unmanly, but this trend has been developing a number of years as tuition and rents rise far beyond what they were thirty or forty years ago.

Jeff Zaslow, Gen Y is bad for America

Jeff Zaslow was on the show, too. He's the Cassandra warning America that these fun-loving, lazy workers are going to ruin the economy because they can't compete with the harder-working Asians. Jeff is a pleasant guy. I wrote to him after his first big Gen Y article in the Wall Street Journal and he gave me a call.

He argued with me then claiming that he had found employers and academics telling him that "something's happening here". Okay, something is happening. But not something really weird like it's being made out to be. In the course of our conversation, he noticed my postings criticizing featuring The Ryans and he said, "Hey, how can I get in touch with those guys?" I guess he thought that they were great examples of the bad apples he was warning us against. And now they are together on TV.

Was Mr Rogers A Communist?

I'm sure that Zaslow is a bright guy but the fact that he blames Gen Y on Mr Rogers, well that should tell you that something is askew. Mr Rogers was not a wolf in sheep's clothing infecting North American youth with an air of entitlement. Nor was Dr Spock who was blamed for the hippies.

Not Cool

I'll note that neither Ryan nor The Blabbermouth looked in any way cool. But, of course, few people do. I only mention it because Penelope had led us to believe that Ryan is very fussy about his clothes. Fussy, maybe, but that isn't a sign of style. A pocket protector would not have been much of a surprise.

The Children of Downsizing

When I see these guys yapping about how they were shaped by seeing their parents struggle so hard only to get downsized without notice by their nasty employers, I have to wonder if they're serious or if they read it in the newspaper. Jason claimed that his dad was laid off. But was it really the key formative experience he makes it out to be?

Children of Divorce

Likewise, a lot of younger people grew up in families divided by divorce. So, the Gen Y boosters are claiming that Gen Y will have more stable families. But, really, who thinks that they are going to lower the divorce rate? I don't. They'll simply have better divorces because, over time, people naturally figure out a way to improve the management of recurring problems.

Peas in a Pod

Anything else? Yeah. Not every boomer ended up in AA so stop telling us that this is yet one more example of the way in which boomers have failed and which has added to Gen Y's desire to differentiate themselves from their parents.

If these guys happily live at home and let helicopter parents run defence for them with employers and teachers, then they aren't rejecting their parents at all.

A Little Matchmaking Music, Please

Take a look at Jason's website. He might be a good match for The Gen Y Princess. I can just imagine that conversation. Can't you?

PS: Dudes, Morley Safer is from Toronto.

See all the Gen Y posts

Comments

[Rachel R.]

As a Millennial, I'm so sick of reading and hearing about who I am and what I want. I think that anyone who decides to speak on behalf of the Millennials or train others on how to deal with Millennials is talking out of their asses.

[Sonya]

Is someone seriously making a career by telling people to cover their tattoos up in a professional environment and how to eat properly? I am seriously thinking of a career switch! Clearly the common sense knowledge that my parent instilled in me IS worth something!...gotta go, I have Yoga class!

[Chris Taylor]

Classic Recruiting Animal. I love the smell of punctured assumptions in the morning.

[karen]

Sonya,
seriously, the more I know of this generation, the more I understand why the need for this education. Shoot, they really don't want to listen to the "rents" - they only need us to get them out of their jams, but, hey if someone else can do it.

Okay, maybe I am a bit harsh on this generation. Fer sure, it is us ole' farts that are to blame huh? Actually many of us aren't boomers, Animal, many of us ole farts fall in that indescrepit generation that falls between the two.. the X Generation.. The Generation which is known as the Smartest Generation, but somehow, we seemed to stop short somewhere with our kids, by being SO overprotective.

Many of our kids (not all) have not learned to Suffer, fail, to lose, to feel pain of having worked really hard and still not winning the bounty at the end of the rainbow, or what it REALLY feels like, the pride and joy from hard work accomplished, and achieving the dream at the end.

We have taught them entitlement; we also taught them that all they have to do is ask, and they get, whatever they want, whenever they want, because they wanted. They learn to spend when they want, to have what they want right then. Save? what is that?

Unfortunately, this attitude then follows in life, in the workplace and unfortunately it too will follow in marriage. I do hope that they do better in marriage, because the average cost that these folks are spending on marriage, many of them will have to be married at least 30 Years before they pay that thing off.

Generation Y, better known as the Debt Generation - according to the to a projection by Harvard University bankruptcy expert Elizabeth Warren - 111,000 adults age 25 and under will file for bankruptcy this year.

Then I wonder, is it all the fault of the Parent? what about the culture that envelops today? One of obesity? Violence? War? Economic Hardship? - The videos they watch, the songs they hear, the games they play, the commercials on tv, all display a tremendous amount of excess, and a laissez faire attitude, one that has developed a tremendous lack of self respect

So, what is the answer, the remedy? We do we do to assist in repairing the damage done?

I don't think that it is ever too late, but, as the old adage goes, one must first be aware of the problem and then be willing to get help, before any help can be effective.

Karen M
acssearch@prodigy.net

[Jaime Lalla]

i don't understand why one generation has to blame the other for anything. Gen X would have us believe that Generation Y is putting too much store in its parents...Could we possibly be reeling from the environment in which we have grown up? -just like Gen X-
to Karen M, you put an annoying amount of negativity into Gen Y. good things have come from my generation- for example, our worldly and culturally tolerant politics and views. show some optimism for the future, i know i do (not b/c i think it will be given to me,but b/c i know i'm going to work my ass off for it)