I often hear the following laments from younger and older careerists -- about each other:
Younger workers: "These older people just don't get it. They expect us to just fall into line, follow bureaucratic rules, and they don't show us respect for what we know or what we can do."
The older workers: "These young people just don't understand how to function within an organization. They want recognition, promotion, everything before they've earned it, step-by-step, like we had to do. That's not how reality is."
They remind me of a couple who said about each other, "It's not that we see things differently. It's worse than that: We're seeing different things!"
In a way, they are. Different career orientations are like lenses through which you view the world. In my recent post on the rise of the 4.0 career, I wrote that this shift is most visible among Generation X and Generation Y workers, but that it's a broader movement as well, originating with baby boomers and the 60s generation who are now moving through midlife. But as the 4.0 career orientation grows, it's also spawning the above differences in perception. In this post I describe the younger generation's contribution to the 4.0 career transformation. It began before the economic meltdown and will continue to have an impact on organizations and personal lives in the years ahead, post-recovery.
To recap a bit, what I call the 4.0 career orientation includes but extends beyond the 3.0 career concerns that emerged in the last 20 years. The latter are about finding personally meaningful work and seeking a good work-life balance. In essence, the 3.0 careerist is focused on self-development. In contrast, the 4.0 orientation includes but also moves beyond those more personal concerns. It's more focused on having an impact on something larger than oneself, contributing something socially useful that connects with the needs of the larger human community. The vehicle is opportunity for continuous new learning and creative innovation at work. The 4.0 orientation links with the movement towards creating successful businesses that also contribute to the solution of social problems. In effect, the 4.0 careerist thinks of work as a vehicle for change and influence upon the larger human community.
Who Are The Younger Workers?
Generation X includes those born between 1965 and 1980, while Generation Y includes those born from 1980 onward. Within the latter group, those born from about 1980 to the early 1990s who are now in or about to enter the working world are also known as Millennials.
This younger generation of workers in general is driving the evolution towards the 4.0 further, and in ways that companies need to heed, based on evidence from research and survey data, as well as from observations of leaders and managers in many organizations. Generations X and Y are the backbone of the transformation towards 21st-century leadership and "triple bottom line" success of organizations.
Here are some of the features that Generations X and Y have in common:
Flexible, Open, Collaborative... and Aggressively Seeking New Responsibilities
Younger careerists expect intellectual fairness at the office and anticipate that the best ideas, wherever they hail from in the company, should and will triumph. And they tend to define "best" in evidence-based ways. This makes them more open to and expectant of a collaborative work style, whether among peers or between superiors and reports. As internet entrepreneur Michael Fertik has written, "Immediate feedback loops are part of their social and work lives. They anticipate that transparent and honest feedback will filter out the best ideas and people in the office."
A Pew research report focusing on the Millennials in particular finds them confident, highly connected and open to change. Similarly, a study by Johnson Controls Inc., reported by GreenBiz.com, finds the younger generation "urban, flexible, collaborative, environmentally sensitive and unconventional."
It's often puzzling to older workers that younger careerists want to know, "How quickly will I take on new responsibilities? How meaningful will my work be -- immediately?" Older people see this as immature impatience. They fail to recognize that younger workers bring significant energy and passion to work environments that offer the opportunity for having impact and input. They're looking for a collaborative atmosphere in which all members of a hardworking team share responsibilities.
An interesting take on the younger end of the spectrum was recently offered by Fertik, who describes the "Generation After-Lehman," or Gen AL, born from about 1982 to 1986, who graduated from college between 2003 and 2009. Fertik argues that the Gen AL expects less day-to-day fun and short-term reward than their slightly older counterparts. Wherever in the world they hail from originally, they have more of an immigrant, hardscrabble outlook. They expect to work harder and to be paid less at first, and they are hungrier to develop marketable skills and a trajectory for their careers.
More Than Money
Research shows that younger adults think like entrepreneurs, value relationships, are tech-savvy and creative, and are environmentally conscious and mobile -- both at work at in their personal lives. This theme is more than seeking work-life "balance." They see the workplace as an extension of themselves and their home life -- a place that supports what they value -- and they want it to be green. The Johnson study reports that they are looking for companies where they can find meaningful work and opportunities for learning, because of quality of life issues and who their work colleagues are. Some of those phenomena are visible in features of companies at the top of Fortune magazine's list of "best companies to work for."
Younger workers will often ask prospective employers about flexible work schedules before talking about pay or the 401k plans. Those kinds of features are more important to them than pay. In fact, research shows that young adults increasingly say that money is not the measure of success for them. They want something deeper from their work. They are more critical about whether they actually enjoy what they do at work. Overall, they want their work to allow them to thrive as people and leave them more choices in their lives.
Generation X and Y workers value family and personal time as much as career advancement. They reject the often-debilitating trade-offs between them, while the older generation is more prone to accept -- and suffer from -- those trade-offs. For example, a Families and Work Institute survey found that, above all else, younger people want to be able to shut the door after work and go home to a stimulating personal life that fuels their energy. And they won't work very long for companies that don't enable them to do that.
