Mike Rowe’s message continues to find traction
Posted On September 21, 2016
Mike Rowe has made a career out of, for a day, doing jobs that most people wouldn’t want. The host of the Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs” is a funny guy who isn’t bashful about making fun of himself while he’s elbow deep in mud, manure, fish entrails or some other nastiness, and that makes his show entertaining. But beyond cracking jokes, grossing out his audience and drawing ratings, Rowe’s show has a purpose – demonstrating that one doesn’t have to work in an office building or wear a coat and tie to make a good living. He has doubled… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Work, Workplace
Entitled? Or bad timing? Or maybe a little of both?
Posted On July 21, 2016
Are millennials really the lazy, entitled brats they’re made out to be? Or is the millennial stereotype a media creation? Sarah Kendzior suggests in a recent article for Quartz that the image of millennials as spoiled narcissists is a media-generated “myth” that ignores the economic conditions under which the generation has grown. Far from expecting a plethora of options to cater to their whims, Kendzior argues millennials have suffered from a lack of options in the wake of the Great Recession, with lower incomes, less mobility and greater dependence on relatives than previous generations. Let’s say this out the outset:… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Recession Economy, Uncategorized, Work
What’s Old is New Again. And Again. And Again.
Posted On July 8, 2016
Eleven years ago, in 2005, the Work and Family Researchers Network presented the findings of researcher Paulette R. Gerkovich, who’d studied the views of Generation X professionals. At the time, Gerkovich touted her study as breaking new ground, noting that much of the information available about Generation X prior to her work was “mostly anecdotal” or “gleaned from marketing studies.” Among her findings: There was a widespread belief that Generation X was not committed to their organizations, but this impression was false. Generation X placed a higher priority on personal and family-related goals than career goals. Generation X might be… Read More
Categories: Generation X, Work
Boomers as Workplace Loyalty Role Models? Hardly.
Posted On April 27, 2016
If you’re an employer you might worry about retaining workers, and the difficulties that high job turnover presents to your bottom line – such as the costs of finding and training new workers. Millennials, in particular, can’t hold down a steady job because they don’t know how to, and/or they don’t want to, or so we’re told. They are just too selfish to commit to anything or anyone, including the people who sign their pay-checks. Fret not! Recent research highlighted on fivethirtyeight.com under the heading Millennials found that Millennial disloyalty is – a bit of a myth. Researchers from the… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Generation Y / Millennials, Work, Workplace
Should employers care what employees think?
Posted On April 17, 2016
I’ve written in recent months about the wisdom in moving slowly when modernizing a workplace with millennial touches, if one doesn’t want to alienate Generation X workers. One Gen-Xer’s experience, however, has been that some employers could care less about turning off employees. Dan Lyons went to work for a start-up software firm after being laid off from a 25-year journalism career and, as he noted in a recent piece in the New York Times, found a “surreal, and cruel” culture that chewed up and spit out employees, simply replacing them with fresh crops of new recruits. Lyons initially found… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Work, Workplace
The Job of the Workplace to Fulfill Every Desire?
Posted On February 2, 2016
How important is workplace atmosphere to a millennial? Apparently it was important enough to at least one of them to blow off one of the premier employers in her desired profession. Hannah Gordon, a journalism student at St. Bonaventure University, recently shared her thoughts about a visit to the New York Times in a letter to TAPinto.net. The Times is considered by many journalists to be the pinnacle of the profession, a place to which the most ambitious reporters and editors aspire. Gordon, however, saw it differently, noting her disappointment at finding a “near-silent newsroom” instead of “the bustling, comradery-filled… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Generations, Work, Workplace
Coach v Mentor? Hard to argue with that…
Posted On January 3, 2016
As a card-carrying member of Generation X who also participated in sports from elementary school on up through high school, I get a very clear picture in my head when someone uses the word “coach.” There is a whistle, a certain comically ugly style of beltless shorts, a lot of physical exertion and pain, and usually a lot of yelling. That’s not to say I questioned their methods. All the wind sprints and all the yelling were designed to make me and my teammates better athletes. The fact that most of it failed miserably reflects more on me than on… Read More
Categories: Baby Boomers, Generation Y / Millennials, Work, WorkplaceRestlessness knows no generational bounds.
Posted On December 1, 2015
In the 1996 film Trainspotting, one of the characters deliberately tries to tank a job interview without allowing the interviewers to catch on, in order that he might remain on government assistance. Among his strategies, all of which prove wildly successful, is to describe himself as a perfectionist. “For me, it’s got to be the best or nothing at all,” he says. “When things get a bit dodgy, I cannot be bothered.” This quote, minus the ulterior motive and deliberate deception behind it, would seem to be the impression many Baby Boomers have of millennials in the workplace. They have… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Work, Workplace
“Tell me again how good we have it, Dad?”
Posted On July 21, 2015
If you feel like you’re making more but have less, you might be Generation X. According to this report from Stony Brook assistant professor of finance Noah Smith, writing for Bloomberg View, the Pew Charitable Trusts tracked Generation X households like mine and found that we typically make about $12,000 more than our parents at the same age, adjusting for inflation and household size. That’s the good news. Now for the bad: Less than half the Gen Xers in every income bracket are wealthier than their parents at the same age. Part of that, of course, is that we’re spending… Read More
Categories: Education, Financial Services, Generation X, Work
Entitlement: Perhaps it’s not just for the kids
Posted On January 26, 2015
When considering the different generations in the workforce it is easy to slip into blame and pointing fingers: “Back in my day, we would never talk to our superiors like that” and “They are just so out of touch.” Some folks just like to simply deny the problem off the table: “Oh, the younger generations have always pushed limits, nothing to see here.” It’s not surprising that neither of these approaches helps attract, engage and retain a diverse workforce. But even as companies are looking at how to focus on the similarities between the generations (rather than complain about the… Read More
Categories: Generation Y / Millennials, Work, Workplace