Daily Lessons from Life 20 September 2010 - Gen Y here just can't settle down

Gen Y just can't settle down - My Paper 20 September 2010

"'The Gen Y workforce typically has a 'me-first' mentality, and thrives on instant gratification in terms of career development and progression,' a manager from a recruitment agency said. 'They need to be constantly presented with creative challenges and have a different set of priorities and values compared to those of the older generations.'

while a Professor from NUS Sociology Department said: 'factors like the economics downturn, high youth unemployment, the extended 'post-retirement' employment of seniors, the longer time required for career preparation, the availability of funds for longer periods of education, as well as a greater variety of life options contributed to this phenomenon of 'Gen Y taking longer to settle down.'"

Gen Y. A much studied group around the world. By the marketers who wanted their money! By the sociologists who wanted to know what will be their impact on the future of societies! By the human resources folks who wanted to know what makes them tick so that they can influence their motivation and develop talent for their organizations.

Lessons for me are, and has always being:

1. each generation is shaped by the macro environment and significant event of the time. Some of their behaviors are circumstantial. Yet, the most important thing to remember is that there are some universal and unyielding principles for being a good human being or a productive and effective corporate warriors or workers or teachers or thinkers;

2. some of these universal principles are: you harvest what you sowed; you cannot do whatever you like unless you are an island by itself!; the greatest achievements in mankind are often the collaboration efforts of diverse people, culture, personalities, nationalities, etc; your needs varied as you pass through different stages of your life; everyone is motivated by different things or same things but in different stages of their lives; etc.

3. the ultimate motivation is self-motivation as it will NOT care about the macro environment and try to not be influenced by these external factors. At the same time, when one is not fully self-motivated, the external factors that one does care about can exert certain influences on one's behaviors. Understand what these motivational factors are will go a long way to gently pushed one to become more self-motivated!

In Singapore, Gen Y has many advantages passed down by their parents, better nutrition leads to bigger and stronger bodies though the development of the mind part does not depend on this alone. They are relatively better off material wise in general. They have better access to education, technologies and information, etc. Yet, Gen Y has many disadvantages too like 'competition with the Gen X and Baby Boomers' in the job market, competition with the Foreign Talent and Foreign Workers, high cost of starting a family, loss of 'life employment' vs. rotating door jobs, etc.

Just like each generation, Gen Y will find its own way to deal with the challenges of the time. Whatever it may be, the universal rule kicks in: You harvest what you sowed!!