Comments on: Use Gen Y Stereotypes to Your Advantage

By: TenderNYC

TenderNYC — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 23:54:49 +0000

My main complaint with Gen Y types is that you’re no fun in bars. I have to listen to your crap as a bartender in NYC 6 nights a week. The happy hour crowd is great: mostly Gen Xers and maybe a little bit older. As soon you folks hit the bars, the conversations become so vapid and uninteresting that I usually sneak a few drinks myself to deal. No senses of humor, no senses of adventure, a lot of bickering about really lame crap and frankly, from what I see, a generally less attractive generation. Lack of P.E. I guess..

By: alexklevine

alexklevine — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:17:47 +0000

I so want to be on board with this article, but I feel like your point further propagate misconceptions. I think the bottom line is that the blanket statements people make are just like any other blanket statements: inherently flawed. As a society we’re now starting to realize that making blanket statements about any group (ethnicity, gender, etc) are ridiculous and unfair, so why would generalizations about this group be any different? In ANY demographic you’re going to get entitled jerks, people who are “philanthropic” for selfish reasons, and so on. I can give you plenty of examples of other generations exhibiting these same qualities. The propagation (and “confirmation”) of such stereotypes only serve to feed these. As a fellow gen y-er, I’m a bit bummed that you (a thought leader) are telling people that all that bull is true. That said, you do have a point about us being rewarded for making little to no effort. However, saying that that dictates how the entire generation acts seems far-fetched, as individual character will be the deciding factor if an individual accepts that model or not. I noticed the Gen Y bashing around the same time that companies were firing upper level people and replacing them with Gen Yers to cut costs. To me, that is more indicative of the reason for all this negativity than anything else.I will still continue to read your blog and actually enjoyed the article, even though I disagreed with the majority of it. I greatly enjoy reading well-written, thoughtful opposing viewpoints, especially on this topic!

By: Social Media weekly round up « Social Web Thing

Social Media weekly round up « Social Web Thing — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:02:23 +0000

[...] However, it’s not at the bottom of the social media heap; MySpace received one point less. Use Gen Y Stereotypes to Your Advantage What is the first thing you think of when you hear “Gen Y”? Almost unanimously, the first [...]

By: krystalpazanti (Krystal Pazanti)

krystalpazanti (Krystal Pazanti) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:04:44 +0000

Great article on how to use being Generation-Y to your advantage http://tinyurl.com/25xslax.

By: Nina Cross

Nina Cross — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 03:50:35 +0000

Spot on. Generation Y wants it all and wants it all right now. Your article brought me back to high school. My Baby Boomer Physics teacher despised the infamous “Baby on Board” declaration. He would rant and rave almost weekly about it, saying things such as “How dare someone tell me how I should drive just because you have a baby on board. What the heck does that mean anyway? Shouldn’t you be the one who is mindful of this baby rather than me? I personally don’t care who is in your car and it’s none of your business who is in mine!”

I didn’t really understand his take on a seemingly pointless topic at the time. However, I see his point-of-view in a different light now. In a way, our parents did bring on this feeling of entitlement to our generation since they felt obligated to tell the world about their greatest accomplishment – us. Our parents put all of their effort in ensuring we were appreciated. And here we stand in 2010, ready to be appreciated by the world.

I, too, had loads of ribbons from various school functions during my elementary days. I actually had a sixth place ribbon from a spelling bee. Sixth place?! Yep, and I was damn proud of that ribbon.

And why? Because my parents were extremely proud of my effort. Is there something wrong with that? Fast forward to right now – I would much rather have a hardworking employee who sometimes makes mistakes than an employee who is always right but could care less about the work. Passion is what separates Generation Y from those before us. Generations before us needed to work to support their families. Our generation chooses to work for what we are passionate about. There’s no doubt that we still want it to happen right away, but even when it doesn’t, we still persevere. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. I predict effort will trump precision forevermore.

By: Nathaniel Southworth-Barlow

Nathaniel Southworth-Barlow — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:32:39 +0000

Whilst there will be common threads and some common stereotypes there are differences which a superb talk I attended given by Dr. Paul Redmond in March ’10 explained very clearly. (If you have get the opportunity he is very entertaining – there are YouTube clips of various keynote talks)

Like myself Paul is based in the UK but the research behind the findings is from at least two dozen countries. Having lived in America however I can attest to the fact that there are broad ‘generational markers’ that cross country/cultural divides.

Interestingly the talk I attended was organised help marketers market to GenYs.

And yes I am GenY (also called Millenials in some books).

By: Matt Cheuvront

Matt Cheuvront — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:04:30 +0000

Hi Dave. Thanks for the comment. Yes…”potential” is extremely buzz-worthy these days, eh? We all have potential, but you can’t survive on ‘potential’ – it’s about taking action, getting out of your own way, and earning your keep.

Interesting that all of the comments here are focused on the ‘entitlement’ issue…There’s much more to us youngn’s than this idea of being ‘entitled’…

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:29:25 +0000

Matt:
Nicely done; way to turn conventional thinking on its head. On your initial issue, while entitlement can have a way of wrecking the meritocracy system (interesting thoughts, Betsy), sometimes it’s a matter of bridging that gap between “This is that to which I am entitled” and “This is the path I will take to achieve it” that makes that sense great and powerful in its potential. After all, “potential” seems to be one of those buzzwords thrown at Gen Y by more seasoned folks.

By: Matt Cheuvront

Matt Cheuvront — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:21:06 +0000

It’s interesting that there are so many ‘generational’ stereotypes that are perceived as exclusive to a particular generation – but I’ve never really understood this. Through my conversations with folks from all age ranges and demographics, this has been a repetitive pattern time and time again. The preceding generation thinks the generation following them is a bunch of over-entitled know-it-alls, yadda yadda yadda.

The bottom line, the stereotypes Gen Y is faced with isn’t (or at least doesn’t appear) to be anything new. The only difference between us and the folks who came before us, and the folks who came before them? We grew up in a different environment with new technologies and tools at our disposal. We’re defined by different historical events (like Columbine and 9/11). But in the grand scheme of things, our attitudes and beliefs aren’t so unique…

It’s an interesting conversation, to be sure. Thanks for coming by and adding to the discussion!

By: Matt Cheuvront

Matt Cheuvront — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:13:29 +0000

I apologize for this coming across as selfish and arrogant – it was not my intent at all, and for the people who DO know me, they know that selfish and arrogant are two things I very much am not. But it’s silly to think that our upbringing has absolutely nothing to do with where we stand today. It very much does. Did my parents have the baby on board sticker? No. Did they reward me for doing nothing? No…but this post isn’t about me and my life (or ‘taking ownership of it’) – it’s about a ‘generalized collective’ stereotype of an entire generation.

My point? Instead of debating whether or not it’s valid, whether or not the ‘definition’ of entitled is negative or not – figure out how to tap into generational behaviors and attitudes and, in the case of this post, use them to your advantage professionally.

Thanks for the comment!