Please… Make it stop…
Just take point #1 in the video — “they’re not afraid to tackle big jobs.”
As Yoda said: “To me a break please give.”
This supposed characteristic of “Gen Y” is different from, say, what? The generation that built the Internet? The generation that built the computer industry? The generation that won WW2? Or maybe the generation that built the railroads? Or the pyramids?
It absolutely astounds me that anybody takes this “generations” stuff seriously.
This is not to say that there’s not some value in adapting your management or selling style to fit different age groups. But variations in style due to gender, background and nationality are far more likely to be significant than differences in age.
Look, I’m on the lower cusp of the so-called “baby boomers,” my close friends are all “Gen X”, and my wife and her close friends are all “Gen Y.” Everybody in all three groups watch the same movies, the same TV shows, and share basically the same values. So does my mother. So did my grandmother, who started using email when she was 92.
The only impact that age has one the business world is that younger workers are more likely to be immature. Even then, immature behavior is hardly limited to young people.
People are people. All this agonizing about “Gen Y” taking over the business world because they use Twitter more often is so ridiculous, I can barely stand it.
