starMetro, sAruRDAy ll MAy 2013 ###'ffi-42ffiw"*ew il
Fl ECENILY, I've stumbled uponftf manv articles on Gen Y,I
\Milldnials, Echo Boomerswhatever you want to call those
ffiiiJJiil'"r"':ir:iildilt"."'" ^, I |lFBBeing a Gen-Y myself, I
canstomach all those generalisations, butthe one that really got my
goat was a
under 30 year olds -
in themainstream media.
We are typically creditedas being disloyal, lazy, surgi-cally
attached to our phones aswell as being self-indulgent.
write-up on the blog of an Australian,radio station.
It wrote that apparently not onlyare we incredibly selfish, we
also liveoffour parents for almost everything.
The writer cites a study, whichnotes that only a third of
AustralianGen Y rated their jobs as being'veryimportant" while 18-
to 3g-year-oldsin the UK "expect" their parents tocook and clean
for them.
The ignoramus goes further to saythat these parents even lend
financialassistance for entertainment expens-es or to pay off their
child's phonebills.
While the writer does not specifi-cally state who commissioned
thesestudies, or gave any indicationon what the methodology
usedwas, it is rather disconcert-ing to see how peopleattempt to
categoriseour traits, hopes andambitions ratherincorrectly, I might
add
- despite us being very
disparate individuals.However, although I do appreciate
the need for stereotyping -
ater all, it!s an important part of us trying tobreak down the
complexities of-theworld and life in general into bite-sized
pieces
- there are oftentimesthat we get it wrong, and gives a badname
to the individuals at hand.
For instance, I don't actually knowof anyone who "expect" their
parentsto do chores for them, nor am I famil-iar with anybody
who
- at this age
-still asks their parents for money towatch a movie,or have a
drink.
And if the general election hastaught us anything
- it is that Gen y
are not as self-involved or apolitical aswe were made out to
be.
So, I am hoping to debunk the manymyths of what under-30s are
com-monly typecast to be.
Myth #l: We are disloyal.If I had a dollar for the number
oftimes I have heard this stereotypebeing thrown about I would be a
mil-lionaire.
We are not disloyal, we are simplyon the constant lookout for
betteropportunities. And if a better prospectcomes by, logically,
who wouldn'tsnap it up?
I once had a boss that wanted me topromise that I would dedicate
the nextfive years of my life to staying in thecompany that I was
then working at.' "Stay and you'll go far," he said. Butmy question
was, where would thenext five years take me? What posi-
tion would tr have achieved after theend ofthose years
oflabour?
With no clearanswerin sightand noreal reason to stay, I left for
greenerpastures. Gen Ywant a solid, long termrelationship with a
company, but wemust also be certain that the organisa-tion wants
the same thing for us.
As Bruce Tulgan, co-author ofMana$ng GenerationY puts it :
"They'revery loyal. It's just not the kind ofblind loyalty you get
in a kingdom
-blind loyalty to the hierarchy.';
Myth #2:We are tech mvw.No, actually, we are not. There aremany,
many others out there who aremuch more technologically inclinedthan
us Gen-Y.., Take larry Page or Bill Gates, whoare both 40 and 57
years old respec-tively, as a case in point. There isilsothe
brilliant Steve Jobs, who passedaway at the age of 56.
I think what we are, though, is beingtechnologically dependent.
There is adifference
- admittedly; we are
attached to our devices.The Connected World Technolog
Reportby Cisco revealed that a third ofAustralia's Gen Y crowd
suffer with-drawai symptoms when separatedfrom their
smartphones.
And it is true, we do love our gadg-ets. I am even guilty of
texting myhousemates when they're in the'nextroom.
My!h- f3: t{. arc an increasinglyselfish bunch.
But we'are not. In fact, according toDeloitte's Volunteer lmpact
Suitey,there is an extremely stiong correli-tion between workplace
volunteeractivities and promoting positive cor-porate culture.
Employed adults between the agesof 2'l to 35 prefer to work at
compa-nies that provide volunteering servic-es, and tend to feel
more loyal towardsorganisations that offer ttiese
oppor-tunities.
An article in Bloomberg BuSinessweekalso notes that members of
Gen yhave volunteered in their commun!ties more so than any other
genera-tion in American history, aird areknown to be the
"most,civic-mindedgeneration since World War II".
But perhaps we shouldn't even betermed as being a "generation"
alto-gether.
Afterall, we're not just a category ofpeople, with stereotypical
quirks, per-sonalities and traitq.
We are more -
as Karen Foster, asociologist at Saint Mary's Universityin
Canada
- terms it, a "matter of
ideas", which shape, mould and growin response to various
happenings insociety; be it the state of the econo-my, the
fast'paced world of tectrnot-ogy, or the ever-changing face
ofpolitics.
Joyce Au-Yong is a Malaysian who is arelent Masters graduate the
universityof Sydney, and rarcls in the many iois(and idiosynrasies)
that the city hds tooffer.