I can see why no one has commented here. Mr. Ibbotson, I think you have assumed much about the group you term "Generation Y", but know very little about them (us). I could be wrong, so I just wish to ask what explicit assumptions are you raising to conclude the way you have about Gen-Yer's? Further, I'd like to know from whence these assumptions come? A disciplinary description should suffice, as I'm really after a couple Human Resource theoretical frameworks. The most prevelant one I see presumes a generational framework. I have major sociologically-oriented doubts about the effectiveness of grouping workers by their years without taking into context what those years have caused them to know. Feel free to e-mail with response. cmking_1@msn.com

My experience with Generation Y is all negative so far. I hired what I thought was a real go getter (confident, well spoken, smart, etc...), and got burned. He had a really good grasp of his job but his work ethic was terrible, he chatted with his girlfirend most of the day and when he wasn't doing that he was visiting the World of Warcraft Forums. I was lucky to get an honest hour out of him per day. In the two years I managed him he never met a single deadline and when asked about it he'd blow them off like it wasn't a big deal - (he'd use their signature term "well, whatever")... Being a overly easy going guy that didn't like to micro manage I cut him all the slack in the world - so you could imagine his surprise when he whatever'd me one day and I told him to pack his "sh!t" up and go ahead and vacate the property. That was the best decision I ever made - it's unfortunate that I lost sleep for a solid week about it before it went down. The funny thing is - he still thought he was like the best thing since peanut butter and couldn't understand why on earth it was happening... Oh well I guess - I learned some painful lessons with that guy that I can only hope will help me manage future young persons as they aren't going away...

This is a very interesting viewpoint. A friend in LA told me of this new trend in "managing Gen Y" so I thought I'd google and see was I could find out. Seems to me that there's a lot of consultants out there with a vested interest in making managers nervous. But after reading points here and on other sites, I'm still asking why should Business shift to accomodate the 3-second attention span of over-indulged infants. Surely if they want a career they need to learn to fit in with the companies that hire them, not the other way round.

Seems to me another example of Gen X messing their kids up by vowing not to raise them the way *their* parents raised *them* in the 1960s and 1970s.

Nothing wrong with good old-fashioned parenting. Worked for my 18 year old!

I am the stepmother of a 27 year old. He refused to leave home even though his student loans were paid off and he had a well paying entry level gov. job Because his dad was a typical baby boomer he would rather have got hit by a bus than ask him to leave. My stepson seeks constant advice from his father and will discuss his problems over and over with his dad. It took him 4 days to move out of his bedroom. We are not allowed to visit him if he is playing Warcraft. He has never had a girlfriend - I believe it is because his parents haven't tried hard enough to find him one. I feel in a lot of ways he is an adolescent. Will he ever outgrow this?

A 27 year old should be able to find his own girlfriends. Parents don't do their kids any favors by getting in the way of their access to maturity. All that does is create crippled little children in adult bodies who can't cope with life as it comes.

So there comes a time (way before 27) when a kid should no longer be dependent on a parent. It's unhealthy.

Gen Y - Appears to be named well, I look at them as the "Y should I" "Y don't you do it for me?"

I am on the cusp of the Gen Y and the difference in X & Y is huge. Bigger than Texas as they say.

I could not agree more with Alan's post, these guys need constant feedback and recognition, fortunately they do not chase monetary rewards, just a pat on the back and public appraisals. I guess it is because over the years big company's have been seen to have no ethics regarding long term staff which has rubbed off onto the Gen Y, my experiences with them so far is that they have no loyalty.

Gen Y is purley a combination of their parents lack of ability to guide and direct their kids during childhood.

I once had a staff member show up for his shift in white socks, nothing huge, but as the entire uniform was black, his socks were not appropriate, I gave him $5 of my own to go and buy some socks, the next day, I as his manager was in HR writing a report as his father had complained that his son had been humiliated by having to buy black socks, WTF..... HR sets the rules for uniforms, we enforce them, then get written up for giving them $5 to conform? Oh yeah, the HR manager was a Gen Y as well.

This world recession and decline in unemployed is the best thing for Gen Y, now they will feel the ffects of their (not all of them) lack of ability to perform with integrity.