Dealing With Your Generation Y'ers?

Mike Finley

A lot of us seem to continually be scratching our heads in relation to dealing with the newest generation of workers and their seemingly lack of a work ethic.

Generation Y is anybody born after 1977 -


From a prominent expert
So how many contractors on here are going to mesh well with their generation Y'rs? This advice sounds pretty contrary to our work ethic and current employer/employee model.

Any of you guys ready to throw an impromptu party for your employees? Make sure participation is optional too.

dirt diggler

i guess im gen y

but i don't really identify with that bs

Gordo

That quote is hilarlious .

Sounds like we are in trouble with our work force.

I think I will start investing in red carpets.

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Teetorbilt

And there is a question about why we need outside labor? At least they show up on time and are willing to work..hard.

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Woz the Painter

So your saying hiring illegals is the way to go? I think if you get a young person who wants to better himself, you will find them, maybe not the first you hire, just like all illegals will not be hard workers. I've seen when illegals get the majority on a work site they laugh at everybody who is not Spanish and blare their Mariachy crap music and act like they own this country, until and unless a gringo tells them where to get off.

BKA

Realize that no gen Y'er believes they will ever see any social security and are essentially subsidizing an entire generation of irresponsible boomers who have squandered much and laid that on the Y'ers feet. Why should they not try to have the best life now they can? There is no guarantee that they will be able to have that later.

Economics is a system of costs and benefits. Right now the costs are too high to bother with much of the contracting world. Why put in your time in that world when you have no security that your job will be taken by some “outside labor” at 1/2 your cost. That lack of security is a real cost. So, how do Y'ers seek out benefits to offset that cost?

I have a lot of gen Y friends who own their own businesses. They do everything that the above says. And you know what they get for those parties, personal relationships, and freedom of self? They get people working on salary 70+hrs a week, on Saturdays, on Sundays, and true dedication.

But the problem is the contracting world is not set up to function that way. If the old system needs Y'ers then those people who run that system need to be responsible participants and adjust to a world where nothing is for certain. Give the Y’ers some certainty that they will not have a “outside labor” take that job. Give them some benefit to doing this back breaking work. Stop complaining about a work force that refuses to take a step back to your antiquated way of doing things and adjust to new times. If people would do this we would generate a better system, more effienct with smarter working people. Note, I did not say harder working. It is truly about working smarter not harder. Just because someone will work harder under your system DOES NOT mean that someone working smarter in another system can’t make you much more money.

However, it is always the case that some will cheat and they will ruin it for everyone. <read tetorbilt> So yea, continue to complain about Y’ers and you will get what you deserve when that “outside labor” is made into “inside labor” through congressional fiat. And then, suddenly, you will say “oh what just happened to my labor … they are all working for my old employees who are now in business for themselves.” I say good. You reap what you sow.

But hey for now to hell with everyone, that guy on the corner by Home Despot will save me $10 an hour. My kids will never be affected by this behavior, they are going to college to get away from this life, until those jobs get off shored. What do they do then. There is no base industry for them. Then guess what happens, we are all get screwed, you, me, and our kids. But hey, you saved $10 per hour ten years ago. That sure was worth it.

rino1494

I fall into the gen Y category, but I am no slouch. I guess that comes with being born and raised in this business. I got my work ethic right from the start.

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MKamis

If Mike's quoted article is correct, then I can't wait to start working on jobs for generation Y'ers. Baby boomers are the ones who will let you finish half of the job, change their mind about something and expect you to wait for them to make a decision, the whole time never considering that you may actually be trying to keep some type of schedule with your other customers. Customer satisfaction is important to me, but sometimes I put up with some real selfishness and nitpicking.

As far as Y'ers work ethic, there are always people in every generation that are slackers.... Think for a minute, and I'm sure you can come up with 10 people your own age that are lazy. There are always people in every generation that are ambitious and hard-working. They are sometimes considered to be scarce because these types are not filling out job applications, they're the next generation of business owners.

slickshift

Not all guest/foreign workers are illegal
There are ways to get them legally
They literally ship them in for the tourist season out here, all documented and legal

....not saying there is not a ton of illegals out here too, but not ALL "outside" help is illegal

Scah Roooooooo That!!!!!
DON'T DISCIPLINE THEM??????
Not when the homeowner's daughter finds them waxing the dolphin in the outside shower?
Not when they delay the start of work for their crew everyday for a week because they are late?
Not discipline them? Then what...just fire their azz?

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mdshunk

I think that categorizing a group of people based upon when they were born is bogus. It's all about how you were raised and educated. There are hard workers and lazy people of any age and demographic. Boomers, Gen X'ers, Gen Y'ers.... bull crap. People are people, I don't care when you were born. There has been a morality shift, so to speak, over the years, but people are still people.

What a bunch of goofy hogwash...

Mike Finley

There was another generation that thought they had 'entitlement' too.

This generation in the 60's ... spent their college years smoking dope and dropping acid...



Then grew up to have to become the rank and file blue suits of IBM in the 70s and 80s.






and then became your dad.

The Yers will grow up too and go into business and go out of business and like Darwin's Finch's those that adapt will stay in business...

BKA

Well I don't agree with the assertion of entitlement. Just because someone wants something to change does not equate to entitlement. I do not agree that they want something for free. Y'ers will work hard but like the people who made Microsoft and Apple in the 80's they will force a change in the system as they enter it. But does that apply to the contracting world where the rules are being broken using this "outside" labor? In a closed system you can force change. I just dont see it hapening in the contracting world.

Tell me this.. what happened to the Gen X'ers? Did they just conform? Or did they just never enter our workforce?

Gordo

It was Bill Gates that just a few years ago came out with an interview check list that was the antithesis of the threads topic quote. One of the points in Gates' list was "do not take a job to find yourself". Another was [paraphrased], "the world does not revolve around you".

I think we are talking in broad strokes.

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George Z

I agree.

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Mrmac204

its the same in every generation- some work hard, some don't - most do pretty good. everyone has different motives, and they are in different places when it comes to figuring out what they want in their lives. YOu never stop learning! becoming aware of that though can take decades

gen x, gen y - what the heck do you call guys like me born in the early 50's? gen half dead? LOLOL damn whippersnappers!

woodmagman

They may be Gen Y ers, but if a X was added to the mix it help consideralbly. As Y is geniticly nothing without a X or XX. What I have seen is that some of the Gen Y should just stay Home and play videos and let the XX go out and really get something done....
The Generation Y has not been taught to focus and complete a task...and after a while of not completing tasks, they begin to not start them either....The work place is not day care! It is a time to build and create, a place to put in time and earn food and shelter for youself and your family. Kick the little bastards out of the nest and make them fly. There are consequences!

woodmagman

I think it is true to the degree, our enviroment helps to mould us. As business people, breaking the mould is sometime a waste of our time....That is what the interview process is for.
Or Hire, work them into the ground and Fire process..

mdshunk

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. -Proverbs 22:6

To put that verse another way:
If a person's having trouble with Gen Y'ers, I'd put it like Daisy "Granny" Moses from The Beverly Hillbillies did... "He ain't had no upbringin' "

Mike Finley

The generations x'ers are the people in my post in post #11.

That's the point!

That generation thought they were going to change the world.

Tune in, turn on, and drop out.

Funny thing was eventually they started wanting the same things the generation before them wanted, a nice car, a wife and kids, a house, they had to get jobs, become part of productive society....

Same thing will happen to the generation y'ers.

We all turn into our parents.

If you don't believe it, you just aren't old enough yet.

POOLMANinCT

Xer here, from what I see we did what all do, got "it" out of our systems, now its time to earn.... granted some of old "friends" are still bums, suits, professionals, cops, prison guards....

good kids bad kis every genration, I believe good parents make good children. I was raised under "the iron fist," always thought parents to be excessivellly strict, now I understand. (just like mark twain)

with the young bucks on my crew I see the good ones have good homelives & the bd ones hve fukked up parents.

ray

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