The anatomy of a Gen Y
I would like to understand more about Gen Y employees and the best way to start is to understand Gen Ys in general.
Everyone has a different definition of Gen Y. Here, I would like define Gen Y as anyone who is born later than 1980. When the Gen Ys were born, it was probably the peak of the industrial revolution, there was advance machinery, agriculture, transportation and socioeconomic changes. Everyone was getting richer leading a better life as compare to the childhoods of their parents who would have (possibly) been through the second world war as kids and the Vietnam / Korean war. Life was getting better. These kids grew up in a relatively stable and well provided society.
In the 80s, computers were born and by the early nineties, the more well-to-do or techno-friendly families started having computers in the study room. This is probably the time best for learning such technologies. The older gen Ys could have seen Microsoft 3.1 and windows 95. They grew up playing games like Pac-man on such machines. They soon went to college and the internet came and took over the world. There was IRC, ICQ, AOL, MSN messenger and emails originally. They had an unprecedented power to communicate with people around the world and friends on the other side of the city or just down the street. Web 1.0 allowed smoother information flow as compared to going to libraries or bookshop.
In general, Gen Ys has never gone through a big war, a depression nor anything too dramatic. They grew up in a smooth sailing environment. They had channels to voice their opinions in the comfort of their own room and was constantly connected even while playing games like WarCraft.
These people wants to be connected. They want to know things when they need to. They want access to information and speed is critical. Each has a mind of its own and does not like to conform to standards. They can manage friendships over the internet and are effective communicators. They generally can’t take much hardship too.
So the question now is how can you make them happy at work and keep them motivated? There’s alot of untapped power in each of these Gen Ys. They work hard, the play even harder.
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