Posted: Friday, 4 January 2019 @ 13:43
Recently, I read a thoughtful paper written by Rosalyn Rahme CEO of Goldjobs, which is the appointments portal for salaries commanding £100,000 / €140,000 and above. She writes:
"Generation Y (defined as being born mid 70’s to early 90’s). As many senior executives are left standing open mouthed when the 10th mid management employee who has spent the last year working 9-5, ignoring the financial and business crisis of the past 12 months asks about the level of his ‘bonus’ for this Christmas and an ‘oh by the way what will my expected pay-rise be for next year’ I believe we must first look at ourselves. Those glib expressions we could not resist feeding to the media in the 80’s and enjoying the good times with no reference to the difficult struggles so many businesses faced in the 70’s.
Perhaps one of the biggest killjoys of the late 20th century has been the teaching of ‘work/life balance’. By inference, the term itself has an entire generation thinking consciously or unconsciously that work is somehow ‘outside’ of what is life. The phrase ‘work/life’ balance has inferred a negative connotation on working – be it a job or career. I have worked alongside a generation who justify any shortcoming in their lives by saying ‘work is spirituality void’, ‘work was addictive and the cause of a marriage break-down’ or ‘work is unenjoyable: an experience endured rather than enjoyed’; a generation able to make excuses for failures, or the cost of success, by looking at work as separate to everything else that makes up our lives.
Of course life is one holistic whole rather than a juggling or balancing act between work and all the rest of our existence! We led Generation Y to believe ‘they could have it all’ and forgot to say how…."
This is thought provoking material.
1 I can think of at least two companies I work with where they prefer to avoid recruiting so called Generation Y people and they prefer what they perceive to be older, more commiited workers. The type of worker they like are those which are committed, will not turn to their lawyer at the first sign of trouble and have loyalty to the organisation.
2. As a society which can now live in an era of conscious choice brought up on an entitlement to human rights, there is a danger of tipping the other way. We expect everything for nothing. We have perhaps got to learn that in order to obtain great money, we have to work for it. In order to find work fulfiling, we have to graft at it.
3. I can directly vouch for the tendency of clients to blame work problems for say marriage difficulties. Sometimes this can be someone just looking elsewhere for problems which stand closer to home.
4. Of course there is no turning back. We will not go back to the job for life, the paternalistic organisation which knows it is great at everything. But maybe, just maybe, Generation Y needs to get rid of its sense of entitlement. The danger is that they will lose out in the job market unless they change their ways.
Justin Patten, Employment Solicitor