Generation Y - Their Attitudes Towards Work and Life
Generation Y is known as the generation that was born in the 1980s and 1990s, although experts do not agree on when this era started. The people who make up Generation Y are often the children of baby boomers and are therefore called echo boomers. Most of them are in their late teens or twenties and totally different from other generations.
While baby boomers were influenced by the aftermath of World War II, television, rock and roll, the Vietnam War and the hippie movement, Generation Y has grown up with the internet, globalization, mobile phones and Facebook.
The millennium generation, as it is often called, has grown up with new technology and can use it in their jobs much better than the older generation can. Blackberrys, cell phones, iPods are normal to this generation. They like to communicate via text messaging, Facebook and other online technology.
The new generation can be described as ambitious and self-confident. Some older people think this even goes as far as being arrogant. They have high expectations and seek new challenges and are not afraid to raise questions if something is unclear.
Generation Y youths have a different attitude towards work. It means something different to them than it did to their parents or grandparents. They do not want to work as hard as their parents but spend their life in a meaningful way. They do not live to work, they work to live.
Young people expect a different type of workplace than their parents had. They want jobs that are flexible, not always having to work from 9 to 5. They prefer working from their homes and taking a day or two off to spend with their family when the weather is fine. A study has found out Generation Y wants to spend 30% to 70% of their time at home.
While baby boomers worked hard and grew up with a company and stayed there for the rest for their lives, Generation Y workers do not want to do the same thing their whole life. They expect to change jobs at least a few times. If you don’t like what you do then do something else.
They are not motivated by the worries that bothered their parents. Many do not think they will have their own house but will settle for a flat or an apartment, since they do not know if they are going to stay in the same place anyway.
Conflicts at work with this new generation are foreseeable. Some employers are already experiencing trouble and tension between older works and the millennium generation. Over 70% of the older work force think that the young ones are too self confident and inexperienced. But they say they are enthusiastic and very motivated about what they do. As many Generation Y people have paid a lot for higher education they now want to see something in return. They want higher pay for the work they put in
As baby boomers are retiring, companies are seeking to get the best Generation Y workers they can get. Sometimes they must make concessions in order to lure them into a job. Some companies have already adapted to this new generation of laborers. They offer work from home, higher salaries, flexible working hours, and family leave to look after the kids
It is also a consumer generation, flooded with advertisement throughout their lives. A group that has never witnessed recession or mass unemployment is not very conservative when it comes to spending money. They like to eat out, buy the newest technical gadgets and travel. Very often they find their bank account overdrawn and in heavy debt.
Related Topics
- Baby Boomers - The Golden Generation
- World Population
- American Teenagers Are Driving Less
- Where Young People Are Better At Work Than Older Ones
Words
- adapt = get used to
- advertisement = a sign , picture or film that tells you to buy a product
- aftermath = result, outcome
- agree = to have the same opinion on something
- although =while
- ambitious = hard-working, motivated
- arrogant = to behave in a proud way and think you are better than others
- attitude = feeling, opinion
- baby boom = the time between the end of World War II and the middle of the 1960s when many babies were born
- bank account = the agreement you have with a bank which allows you to keep your money there
- Blackberry = a very small computer that you can hold in your hand. It is used to store data, send messages, browse the Internet and communicate with people
- bother = upset, worry
- challenge = here: a new and difficult job
- company = firm
- concession = something that you give to someone or allow them to do in order to please them
- day off = free
- debt = the sum of money that you have to pay back to someone
- describe = explain
- eat out = go to a restaurant
- employer = a person who gives you work
- enthusiastic = excited, to show a lot of interest
- expectation = hope
- experience = have
- family leave = the time when you are allowed to stay away from work and be with your family or children
- flexible = to be able to change
- flood = to be full of
- foreseeable = you can say what will happen in the future
- gadget = a small tool or machine that does something useful
- globalization = different countries, companies and people are connected together and communicate with each other
- hippie = a person who does not agree with how most people live; they have long hair and brightly colored clothes and often take drugs. The hippie movement was very popular during the 1960s.
- in return = to get back
- inexperienced = to have little knowledge about something and not know how to do it
- influence = the power that makes you think or act in a certain way
- laborer = worker
- lure = here: to get a person to take a job
- make up = to be a part of
- mass unemployment = when many people in a country are out of work
- millennium = a thousand years
- offer = give you
- overdraw = to take out more money from your bank account than you have
- pay = money you get when you work
- prefer = like
- raise questions = ask
- recession = a difficult time that a country has when people are out of work and they do not buy so much
- retire = to stop working after you have reached a certain age
- salary = the money that you get every month when you work
- seek = look for
- self-confident = to know what you are able to do and show it
- settle = to be satisfied with
- study = a piece of work that you do which examines or looks at a certain topic
- technology = the designing of new machines and industrial goods
- teen = a young person between thirteen and nineteen
- tension = conflict, problems
- text messaging = to send a text to someone over a mobile phone
- work force = the people who work
- worry = concern, fear