John Linton I read an article yesterday (which was in print so I cant cite a URL) concerning the changing attitudes of the current generation to work versus their personal lives. Like all such articles it generalised because it is clearly impossible to particularise on such a topic and, obviously, no research could actually be done that would be possible to provide any sensible 'statistics'. However this article was in a reputable business publication and was by a pair of reputable academics - at least as far as I could judge. The thrust of their writings was that 'Generation Y' was totally different to the 'baby boomer' generation and 'Generation X' in their attitudes towards their jobs and careers than those two previous 'generations'.
They were putting forward the view that 'Generation Y' was far more relaxed about getting a job and retaining it let alone building a "career" than previous 'generations'. This was a US based article so it may not have any relevance to anywhere else but it was well written and relatively cogently argued in as far as it could be. Personally I have serious reservations as to whether the overall attitudes of people starting their working lives in the mid sixties is recorded anywhere - principally because no-one at that time would have thought of trying to analyse it. I am not going to use my own personal experience to extrapolate from as my personal circumstances were very different to the overwhelming majority of other people of my age that I knew at that time.
The article claimed there were significant differences between the attitudes of people joining the work force today and those of the previous two generations. Ignoring that this claim is based on no rigorous research but on interviews with some 3,000 people (approximately 1,000 from each 'generation') it is highly subjective and subject to 'memory modification'. Obviously the clearest recollections were from 'Gen Y' and perhaps this caused the writers to believe there was a significant difference. Their overall conclusion being that previous generations were far less 'adventurous' and far more easily satisfied to stay in jobs that didn't bring them fulfillment than the current generation was prepared to accept. They cited very low first and second job lengths of employment as 'proof' of this view as well as the comments of the interviewees that were all along the lines that most 'Gen Y' responded that they were not concerned about developing a career until their late 20's/early 30s when they would have a better idea of what they might like to spend significant time in doing.(there were no doctors, lawyers or accountants in the group interviewed).
As an 'employer' I found the results of this article worrying to some degree. I don't think it is really any different to anything that I have seen over my time in business. I would have liked to have seen two, in my opinion, very 'telling questions' in the survey. They would have been:
1) Do you currently live at home with your parents?
2) Do you plan to buy your own 'home' in the foreseeable future?
I think the answers to those questions would have explained the attitudes to 'careers/jobs' better than any of the extrapolation that attempted to do that in the article. It's always important to check any opinion given concerning making better employment decisions. Obviously employing 'good' people is the essential requirement for any company to remain in business - let alone grow. Interviews are the only opportunity of gauging the likely success of the applicant both in the short and perhaps, the medium term. The better questions asked within this brief period the better the hiring 'decision' is likely to be. I don't think this particular article helped in that way except to make the point that such people write articles without any factual evidence for their opinions and, certainly in this case, no possible personal experience of what past 'generations' of people commencing their working lives may have had in mind at that time.
PS: For those who are interested in a digest of the recent LTE forum this is as succinct as I've read:
http://technologyspectator.com.au/nbn-buzz/nbn-must-face-wireless
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