Calling some heritage into questioning
The other day a friend asked for my opinion about a certain Gen Y post. “The worst generation?,” as it was entitled, discusses the terrible reputation Gen Y youngers have at work environments. Based on a research that points out how narcissist these young people are, the text goes on with critiques towards Gen Y: a very inflated sense of self, unrealistic expectations (and the subsequent chronic disappointment) and automatic, knee-jerk reaction to criticism. The salvation would be the idealist facet of Gen Y, the post suggests… just before quickly dismissing that possibility with researches that show that, when it comes to work, what really matters for Gen Y is the combination of high salaries and lots of leisure time.
What I replied to my friend was something like this: “the post and the researches are great, but the conclusions are ridiculous.” As far as I could see, all the arguments were based on the principle of evaluating Gen Y according to a specific professional environment. And if this generation really thinks that they are special, if they really are a bunch of stubborn dreamers, then they just don’t fit this professional environment.
But what’s the problem if they really don’t fit? Or, in other words: do we see more young people complaining about the dreams they haven’t achieved, or do we see more young people complaining about gazillions of overtime they have done — and which have been keeping them away from doing what they really love to do? My point is that, if Gen Y doesn’t fit this traditional professional environment, the latter also does no fit Gen Y. And then I ask: why do we criticize just one side and not the other?
I can’t believe it’s such a terrible thing to dream and to end up frustrated about it. For me, the real trouble is being assessed, being evaluated by a professional environment that doesn’t enable you to do whatever you believe, whatever you judge relevant to the world. And maybe that’s why Gen Y wants money and free time so bad. They want it in order to do what they believe in, what they judge that has to be done.
The post my friend shared only employs arguments that avoids the twofold relationship between Gen Y and professional environment. In a very partial approach, the underneath logic of its criticism relies on verifying whether Gen Y satisfies the professional environment expectations or not. Thus, through these lenses, it’s kind of obvious that the results wouldn’t be favorable to Gen Y.
This isn’t a problem to the journalist who wrote that post, neither to the researches he mentions: their focus is, indeed, the existing idea of a professional environment. However, the problem isn’t Gen Y itself, but the persistent need to put each and every thing — people, world, professional environment — under the scrutiny of productivity, of the idea of a specific career path. And, subsequently, the problem is to regulate one’s whole life according to these parameters. What bothers me here is to weight Gen Y according to a set of values, to a lifestyle, and to a life plan completely intended by _baby boomers (_corporations, long and stable careers, etc.). What bothers me is the lack of calling this heritage into questioning.
Therefore, the problem is to believe that this way of life is the best one, the only viable one. The problem is the fear of diverging from it, the fear of challenging it and, mainly, the fear of creating different spaces where Gen Y can enjoy the world and give off their best to the world.
When I resigned from my last formal employment, one of the company directors asked what they could do to attract more people with a profile similar to mine, and, at the same time, what they could do to avoid these people to leave. Another director, quickly and sharply, replied: “nothing.” And he was right. I’m not exaggerating if I say that, largely, my lifestyle was what made me interesting for the position I had there (in sum: I love to travel and cook, I’ve completed an Ironman, I hold a bachelor degree in design and a master degree in sociology, I know how to code, I have threw everything up in the air a couple of times, and had learned a bunch of things each of these times, etc.). But it’s part of my lifestyle to be eager to change from times to times. I’m afraid of becoming an executive of a corporation just as the devil is of the holy water. The second director, the one who said that there’s nothing to be done in this case, he got that. He understands Gen Y. The other one, I’m afraid, doesn’t.
UPDATE: A couple of minutes after posting the first version of this text (in Portuguese), another friend, Barboza, called the attention to the fact that, regardless of the generation, being egocentric and narcissistic is something typical of people around their 20s and 30s.
Originally posted in Portuguese at Estaleiro Liberdade blog.
As you could’ve probably already noticed by yourself, I’m not a native English speaker. So, I’m really sorry for all the little crimes I may commit with your beloved language. I’d be really glad if you could point them out, so I can learn better and try to avoid them next time.