Why we should be grateful for Generation Y

Why we should be grateful for Generation Y Whats the point of baby boomers complaining about Generation Y at work? First of all, its a cliché, because people over 40 have been complaining about young people since forever. Even worse, its a losing battle. Generation Y is huge. Its one thing for boomers to verbally squash Generation X that was no problem. Gen X is tiny and the baby boom was huge. But in Generation Y, baby boomers have met their match. And in the demographic catfight of the century, Gen X aligns itself with Gen Y over baby boomers, which means that the workplace gripes boomers have about young people are going to be moot in a matter of years. Generation Which? So maybe the over-40 crowd should spend less time talking about trying to bridge the generation gap which is really a euphemism for get Gen Y to be more like us and more time celebrating the great things that Generation Y brings to the workplace. Gen Y isnt going anywhere, and its not like theyre about to conform to  baby boomer  demands. But before you continue reading, understand that the world doesnt actually adhere to demographer datelines: The generation you fit into is more a function of the choices you make than the year you were born. So if you want to know where you truly  fit along generational lines,  take this test. And if you want to know why baby boomers should  ease up on  Generation Y, consider the ways that these youngest workers are making  life better for everyone: 1. They wont do work thats meaningless. These kids grew up with parents scheduling every minute of their day. They were told TV is bad and reading is good, and are more educated than any generation in history. They just spent 18 years learning to be productive with their time, so theyre not going to settle for any photocopying/coffee stirring job. But thats good, because we all want meaning in our jobs, and we all want to understand how were contributing to the world at large. Why should anyone have to wait until retirement age to start demanding that? These days, the workplace can be restructured so that we all do a little coffee stirring in exchange for each of us getting to do some meaningful work. And if work can be in some way meaningful  for all of us, then the workplace in general will be a better place to spend our time. 2. They wont play the face-time game. Weve known forever that it isnt necessary to be in the office from 9 to 5 every day to get work done. But many of us have missed family events only to sit at a desk all day getting pretty much nothing done because of the stress of missing a family event. And there didnt used to be any option if you wanted a successful career, you made sure co-workers saw that you were putting in the hours. Generation Y wants to be judged  by the work they do, not the hours they put in. And what could be more fair than this? In fact, a good portion of the workforce has been requesting flextime for decades, but the requests have gone unheeded. We  have Gen Y to thank for  forcing the switch, because if Gen Yers cant leave the building whenever they want, theyll walk out the door and never come back. Face the truth:  Boomers werent willing to go that far, but  they sure are benefiting from it. Now they have more opportunities for flextime, too. 3. Theyre great team players. If youve climbed a corporate ladder your whole career, then its probably inconceivable to you that Gen Y doesnt care about your title. But its true they dont do rank. Chances are they saw their parents get laid off in the 80s, so they know how ephemeral that special rung you stand on is and they dont want to waste time trying to get there. Generation Y played on soccer teams where everyone participated and everyone was a winner, and they conducted playground politics like diplomats because their parents taught them that theres no hierarchy and bullies are to be taken down by everyone. And Gen Yers take these values to work they expect to be a part of a team. Gen Y believes that no matter how much experience an individual has, everyone plays and everyone wins. Maybe its annoying to you that you dont get to be team captain, or worse, the bully on the playground. But youve read the  Harvard Business Reviews decades of research on  how essential workplace teams are  and how  older people have little idea how to be good team players, so relax: Gen Y is doing the teamwork for you. In fact, theres no way to work with Gen Yers except on a team. They go to the prom as a team, so theyre certainly going to go to product reviews as a team. That makes us all lucky.  We dont need any McKinsey person coming to our company for $10 million a minute telling us how to promote teamwork. We can just follow Generation Y. 4. They have no patience for jerks. Generation Y changes jobs every two years, typically because the work isnt a good fit, or the learning curve isnt steep enough, or they dont like their co-workers. And Gen Yers will disengage  from a jerk before trying to get along with him or her, according to  a report  by  Stan Smith, national director of Next Generation Initiatives at consulting firm Deloitte. They have no desire to bother with somebody they dont like. This is really how we all should function. After all, according to  research by Stanford professor Bob Sutton, the cost of putting up with a jerk in a company is about $160,000. Moreover,  Harvard researcher Tiziana Casciaro found  that people hate working with high-performing jerks so much that they would rather work with someone incompetent whos nice. Nobody likes having to deal with jerks, but weve always believed it was asking too much to have a workplace full of decent people. Generation Y sets a new standard for this, and companies are having to dump jerks quickly or risk losing their ability to recruit and retain Gen Yers. Dont Fight the Future So lets get off our high horses and stop evaluating whether or not we like working with Generation Y. Its members have  incredible leverage in the workplace right now, and theyre not going anywhere. Its time to admit that the workplace is changing and that were lucky to have a group as optimistic and self-confident as Generation Y leading the way.