The claim that got me to cringe the most was the idea that Gen Y is the "teacup generation". In a previous blog I talk about this but essentially it is the idea that Gen Y is easily breakable and can shatter in an instant. On first thought "hmm not entirely sure that's true but my friends and I do have a high sense of self and yeah I guess we sometimes crumble when critiqued..." But the more and more I thought about it I think we're being judged by a generation who is so different than us that they just don't get it.
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My friends and I have essentially grown up in the post 9/11 world. We learned in a matter of seconds life can end and you need to live life to your fullest. You see students the nation (and the world) over fighting for causes that make them feel good, we believe we can elect presidents and change massive corporations by tweeting and signing a Change.org petition. We are self-reliant and have the attitude of "get shit done" and we do. And yet, we are called the "teacup generation"?
I asked my direct boss about this when I first heard about it and just chuckled with her response. "Well when you guys don't like something you leave or don't do it again. You're easily breakable." Now why is that such a bad thing? It's like the cliche "only touch a hot stove once", right?
Gen Y gets a bad rep for hopping from job to job because it "just didn't fit" or they didn't feel appreciated enough. What's the harm in that? Is it because the previous generations are so used to starting a job at 18 and being carried out toes up 40 years later? If a Gen Y employee doesn't like something at a current workplace or wants to try something new, if someone is willing to hire them, where's the harm in that? Why is there such a stigma against searching for the perfect fit?
With the innovations in technology, the encouragement from parents who saw how "same ol' same" their life was and the philosophy to do what you love, Gen Y is unlike any other generation. And I don't think that's a bad thing.
What about you? What do you think about Gen Y and the stereotypes assigned to them?
Until next time...
Dunno, as a university professor I feel like I've been seeing this in classrooms for the last decade or so. As soon as students encounter adversity - even when it's a relatively minor setback (a bad grade, an illness, etc), their immediate response is often to find a way to avoid the problem instead of fixing it: drop the class, transfer to a different section, take a leave of absence, whatever's available. If they're unable to do this, the next thing that seems to happen is that I get a call from someone's student advisor, or worse, their mom, asking me why junior is failing the class, and how "we" can fix it. I want to tell them: "your son/daughter is 18/19/20/21 years old - why don't you let *them* fix it, like the responsible adult we hope they are?"
ReplyDeleteIf it makes you feel better, I don't blame GenY-ers - I blame their parents. I watched my younger cousins raised in families where every tear was dried, every boo-boo kissed, and every critique from teachers or (eventually) employers met with a fierce parental defense.
We learn as much from failure as from success, and those parents who never allowed their kids to fail, never advised them to "walk it off?" Well, they never got out of their kids way enough to allow them to learn to stand on their own two feet.
That, and they took 'em back in whenever they quit a job or dropped out of school because "it just didn't feel right." When I went off to college, my father took me aside and said: "You know I love you, right son?"
I said that I did.
He said: : "Okay, having said that, don't come back. Holidays, summers, fine, but I don't want you to come dragging back home and moving into the basement like that Preston kid down the street."
So to answer your question: obviously all stereotypes are inaccurate to a greater or lesser degree. But as far as my experience goes - I think this one is pretty much dead on. I also think that you might want to think about whether the emotional rejection of this stereotype so common among milennials might actually be symptomatic of the problem itself - lack of accountability and grit.