Renee Hillman, 22, is the marketing director for Raleigh, North
Carolina-based Concept 2000 Realty Inc., a 17-employee firm. She
agrees that today's job market, combined with Gen Y's
tech-savvy abilities, has made people in her age group very
optimistic. "We have lots of expectations paywise and
respectwise when we're first going into a job. We've been
overwhelmed with options," she says. "In fact, I left my
last job because I felt that my work wasn't appreciated or my
opinion valued." What do Gen X leaders need to realize about
today's younger twentysomethings? "Remember that we're
not that much younger than you are. Speak to us and involve
us," she says.
Her boss, Sheri Phares-Moritz, 27, Concept 2000's owner,
says the younger twentysomethings in her company want instant
advancement, total involvement and regular bonuses. She and Hillman
discuss a raise every six months. "She lets me know her
worth," Phares-Moritz says with a smile. Even though the age
difference isn't huge, Phares-Moritz feels light years away
from her younger workers in what she's experienced in the
working world. When she told her Gen Y employees that one of her
first jobs in the mid-1990s had a salary of only $18,000, they were
amazed. "For a whole year?" they asked.
Phares-Moritz constantly assigns of-ficial benchmarks so
she's ready when Gen Yers approach her for raises. "It
gives me a tool based on company policy," she says.
Discussions about raises often concentrate on long-term goals and
on what employees' skills are worth. "They want change
right now. You try to keep them focused and tell them the money
will build if they stick with it."
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Rothberg says Gen Xers misinterpret Gen Y's desire for more
money and responsibility early on as a signal that they want to
leave. That's because the groups have different time frames for
advancement. "Gen Xers want to get two to five years on a
re-sume or they think it looks bad. Gen Yers think that if they
have two to five years in one place, they're not
advancing."
And Gen Y is only the tip of a very large iceberg. The
Millennials-the kids of the Boomers who will be entering the work
force over the next decade-are hot on the heels of Gen Y and will
have even higher expectations toward work, says Bill Strauss,
co-author of Millennials Rising (Vintage).
For Gen X leaders, Gen Y is just a test-run for bigger changes
ahead. Raines says that as today's teens move from the soccer
field to the office, Gen X entrepreneurs can expect calls from
anxious Boomer parents checking in on their children's career
progress. "This is already starting to happen," she
says.
The challenge for thirtysomething entrepreneurs is to keep
everything in perspective and to acknowledge that times have
changed since they started out in the early 1990s. Chuck the
dues-paying mentality, Rothberg says, and stop trying to apply
yesterday's rules to today's jobs. Failing to change is
counter-productive, and Rothberg has seen leaders struggle.
"Some Gen X company leaders refuse to acknowledge that reality
has changed," he says, "and they're having a
difficult time recruiting."
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