Generation Y
Intro
Let’s start with a disclaimer: Who expects to receive a patent recipe from me, should close the article immediately again: I can’t offer a master plan either. Generational problems are becoming increasingly apparent in project work.
Generation Y
What exactly is Generation Y? Even if Wikipedia tries, I describe you as “Millenials”. Anyone who has experienced this in project work does not know how to assess this generation. On the one hand, new values are maintained: Leisure time is more important, dependence on the employer (or better the loyalty) is less and this is also expressed.
On the other hand, I personally feel (attention: empirically not proven!) that this generation is very formalistic and rule-oriented: Give a Millenial an Excellist to unhook, and sheer luck is apparent.
For me, these contrasts are completely disturbing. What is disturbing about the project work: This generation seems less solution-oriented and less pragmatic to me. If a project goes well, everything is fine. When the first disturbance occurs, the “old” are increasingly looked at.
Tolerance is required
I had to learn to handle it myself. Often one is irritated when the priorities are set differently by the Millenials. But: Is the young generation always wrong? Shouldn’t priorities be set differently? Does the client die if a release is not completed on a fixed date in line with the acquisition?
On the other hand, generation Y tolerance is also in demand: not everything that the old generation has done is really bad. This behaviour (in sum) has brought us to where we are today.
As I said before, I cannot offer a panacea. But: We were the ones who moved us forward. Generation Y are the ones who will continue it. And as I see it, not necessarily worse, only different.
Tolerance is demanded of the “old”, but also of the younger.
Tradition is not preserving the old, but preserving and transforming the good. However, we “old people” must press ahead with the transformation. The boys have yet to learn.