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Email ThisOn Friday night, I stood with a group of my friends in the University of South Florida gym wearing bright green shirts that said “Dance Marathon: The Party with a Cause.” We were participating in Dance Marathon, a nation-wide event that raises money for the Children’s Miracle Network, and were two hours into the twelve hour event when a small girl stepped onto the stage. Few people stopped what they were doing to listen to the girl’s mother speak in broken English about her daughter’s nearly-fatal condition, but when the 5-year-old survivor took the mic and started singing “Only Hope”, the entire room fell powerfully silent. No one moved, no one spoke, and little Katie sang to each of us with so much emotion and gratitude that we understood why we were spending our Friday night raising money for children like her.
At the end of the twelve hours, the directors of the event (all Gen Yers) announced that we had raised over $17,000 for All Children’s Hospital here in Tampa. Five hundred college kids. Members of Generation Y. Giving back to the community and being selfless.
Then, last night, my Greek organization planned a campus-wide event to raise money for Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA) and its local affiliates. This week, we will be writing PCA a check for over $18,000 and donating a wide array of blankets, clothes, and school supplies to these organizations. $18,000 dollars…!
Right now, I am very proud of my peers and excited to be a part of a generation that expects citizens to volunteer and be active in social causes.
Gen Y may be getting a lot of bad press lately, but my experience is that we are quickly shattering these stereotypes. We may be ambitious, but our hard work isn’t all self-serving. While I can’t generalize, I can say that based on my experiences, Gen Y is committed to doing good and actively participating in community service events.
For those of you who don’t think this is true, I challenge you to do research on the number of philanthropic events that take place each year on college campuses around the world. I guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
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Meg,
As an exec for a prominent non-profit, I am pleased to see the philanthropic efforts shown by GenY.
However, this activity does not in any way defy any of the mostly true stereotypes I have encountered of GenY in the workplace.
The Business Week article you link to raises the very real issues with GenY:
“They don’t want to pay their dues, play by the rules, or give their best to any project unless they are sure it will get them a promotion, a raise, or some kind of recognition. And then if they aren’t totally happy, or if you look at them wrong, they’ll bolt for the next job!”
How does their college philanthropy in any way “defy” these stereotypes?
I have a GenY employee who emailed me Saturday night telling me (not asking me) that he would not be at work today - the delivery day of a three month IT project, because he got tickets to an opening day baseball game.
Not only did he not first ask permission to have the day off (which I would not have given), but when called about why he chose not to come in his response was “Hey, I’m not going to argue this one with you - I planned on going to the game today, so I am going.”
Sadly, he did not plan to go - he presumed it would be OK to go. Furthermore, he also (falsely) presumes there will be no consequences for his actions.
Quite frankly, I am tired of being a substitute parent to this generation. It is not my job to teach responsibility as an on the job training component. I want people who have a sense of obligation out of the box. I think it will only be after a series of involuntary dismissals that many folks in this generation will get it when it comes to being adults.
Instead of extolling the virtues of GenY as student philanthropists, perhaps some of the bloggers should address the huge voids in the unprofessional behavior of GenY in the workplace.
Hi Steve,
I guess my real concern with the Business Week article was that it stereotyped an entire generation of people. It lumped every single person in the age group together, and failed to extol the hard-working individuals who are more than willing to pay their dues and play by the rules. And, unfortunately, your comment shows that this mentality has not changed.
For example, this blog is a part of the Brazen Careerist Web site– a site created by and for Gen Y professionals. Most of us are not naive enough to think that we are going to walk into the board room on our first day, nor do we expect to be paid the same as those higher up the ladder than we are. We work hard, and we play by the rules.
I’m sorry that your employee acted unprofessionally, but I can tell you that I do not think this behavior is limited to just those in Gen Y, and I’m sad to see that you think this is the case.
There are unprofessional people in every generation, but that doesn’t these people represent the entire demographic.
The point of my blog was to show that not all millenials are self-serving with the “me, me, me” attitude. The point was to shatter stereotypes… and to force people to see that you can’t, logically, claim that everyone in a particular group is the same.
Best,
Meg
Meg,
I know what your intent was with the article. But you aren’t “shattering stereotypes” by responding to the BW article’s points made about the GenY work attitudes with how they get involved in giving as college students - apples and oranges.
If you want to shatter stereotypes about GenY in the workplace, show me some data supporting that they come to work on time, respect authority and paying dues, etc. More often than not, what I hear/see is how they plan to use their numbers to change how things are done rather than assimilate into existing corporate cultures.
It will be a while before they have enough people in leadership positions to change things very much. We likely will have to keep working until the day we die, since social security will likely not be there for our generation, so I would count on having boomer bosses for at least the next 25 years or so.
I also don’t want to create the impression that I think all GenY people are the same. I don’t. But I do have data from within my organization which would support that the level of departures - voluntary and involuntary - is higher by a factor of like five for the GenY demographic. In most cases, the reasons were related to a lack of respect for attendance policies (coming in late, not calling in when sick), or a desire to leave because they cannot advance in the organization faster than their accomplishments might merit.
No, you can’t paint everyone with the same brush, but all stereotypes are based in some level of fact. Maybe there is enough fact in the current GenY stereotype to merit some examination of how many bad apples are actually out there.
I’d have to side with you, Meg.
I realize that many people of Gen Y are irresponsible- but so are various members of previous generations.
The previous comment sounds like a bit of a rant, probably the result of a bad experience that happened recently.
I understand the anger because that behavior is completely unacceptable; however, I do not feel I should have to pay for the mistakes (which create stereotypes) of others. I would never act in such an unprofessional manner.
That being said, Steve, go ahead and judge me. I’ll just look that much better when I prove you wrong.
-Tory
Gen Y-er
While I understand where you are coming from because I manage a team of 10 employees (some who are very professional, some who are not), I am simply discouraged by all the negative press that my generation is receiving as a whole.
Because I have not done the research you are requesting, I can only speak from my experiences, so maybe I am lucky enough to surround myself with hard-working, ambitious people who do want to make a difference in the social AND economic realms, but who are also willing to pay their dues.
I understand that there are people in my generation giving the rest of us a bad rep, but I also think there is a significant number who will be team players at organizations such as yours, and who won’t be pretentious or unprofessional.
Also, to clarify the “shattering stereotypes” image… I wrote that because of all the response that was circulating the BW article that emphasized the selfish nature of Gen Y. It was interesting that amidst all these charges, I experienced the philanthropic endeavors of thousands of college students on just one campus in a span of two-days. And, to me, that’s pretty outstanding and deserved recognition.