After appearing on a panel at the recent Mumbrella360 event in Australia, I was struck by one particular question from the audience: “Is being called ‘So Gen-Y’ an insult?”
The short answer is yes. Anything said with negative connotations is going to be taken by as an insult, regardless of age.
But after further discussion, it seemed some of the characteristics deemed “So Gen-Y” by older generations were viewed by the panel as positives:
Having started from the very bottom and now working my way up through the travel industry, there are constant generational clashes.
The concept of ”putting in your time at the bottom” doesn’t usually sit well with Gen-Yers.
We were raised by our elders to strive for achievement – now it appears that it is that drive which has us in hot water.
As Bruce Tulgan, author of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy explains, Gen-Y was raised in an environment where every kid got a trophy just for showing up.
Cultivating industry leaders from this group will mean using different managerial skills than we have in the past. As Tulgan continues, managers will need to be more like parents and take a role similar to a mentor.
Adding to the frustration of managers everywhere, the average Gen-Yer will stick around at the same company for 1.1 years and change jobs 29 times, more than double their baby boomer counterparts.
[For a classic rant on this from someone outside the age bracket, check out Jason Calacanis’ somewhat infamous tirade]
A common issue I hear from older generations is that Gen-Y has a lack for respect for its elders. This is possibly a side effect of being raised in a more liberal environment, some members of Gen-Y feel respect should be earned, regardless of age or experience.
I threw the question out to Twitter and Facebook, with interesting results. Almost all Gen-Ys (and some Generation Xers) felt respect had to be earned. Here is a snippet:
“When I was younger: automatic. Now: earned, after seeing some weren’t worthy.”
“(Respect is) earned. Always earned. No amount of respect is a birth right.”
“Respect is earned.”
“Every generation runs the spectrum of brilliance to idiocracy. I always give the courtesy of respect, it’s up to you to lose it.”
So what’s this doing to our industry?
Lets face it, travel industry events do not always attract the youngest crowds. Having managed a large Gen-Y team, I have had the opportunity to observe their career paths, if only for a short period.
What I saw breaks down very roughly like this:
- 50% move on to similar jobs in another industry
- 25% move to different jobs in another industry
- 10% go back to school for more training
- 15% actually stay within the industry
Keep in mind, this is a rough estimate from my personal experience, but this outlines a trend that could be building into a huge challenge for the travel industry.
Encouraging the most talented of the younger generations to stay within our ranks is going to become a focus for brands that value the input of Gen-Y.
I asked Wouter Blok, chief marketing officer of EasyToBook and manager of an all Gen-Y team, what it takes to keep things rolling from day to day.
“My solution to have the team fulfil their need to ‘know it all’ is to have weekly sync meetings, in which departments give updates, and quarterly workshops for the team. For the seniors in the team, 20% of their time is spent on an area they’d like to explore.
“[This means] they understand each others business better and come up with original ideas. Give your team autonomy, mastery and purpose, and they’ll become extremely engaged and thrive within your business.”
Of course, there are things we can do today to start making changes. WebinTravel, for example, has started WIT Next, a program to help mentor young people in travel.
Siew Hoon Yeow explains her vision for WIT Next as follows:
“We believe that with the right digital and social engagement as well as creating exciting, live experiences, we will be able to build a movement that will inspire new blood and young talent to look at travel and tourism more seriously, and to realize that our industry is truly the most exciting and most dynamic space to build a fulfilling career.”
So instead of going to your fifth conference of the year, try sending one of the youngsters instead. I for one would love to have some company at the kids table!
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The article was definitely worth the wait to read! Good article and obviously I find it very interesting as I am interested in the industry, but my involvement was fleeting as that was just the way things panned out.
From a member of Gen Y who also manages members of Gen Y, I loved the article. Agree with everything but the title. We aren’t the problem. We are the solution. Just kidding, but really. On respect, it is gladly given in proportion to how it is received. See you at the kids table!
Thanks Paul! Always room at the kids table for another.
The title was more referring to the problem of how gen y is being managed right now (With a few exception), and the issue the travel industry will have in the next 3-5 years when gen y move further up the ranks. Retention is going to be a key issue, at least I think so.
@paul – actually the headline is correct. It’s a problem for management, not the problem OF the folk being managed.
Just sayin’
Yes, I got it, just be facetious. Cheers.
This certainly is a concern moving forward. Owning a travel agency, I know how hard it can be to train, monitor and get a return on investment when hiring industry novices. It is vitally important we do so though, or the problem will continue to grow.
Graham, WOW! I thought I was the only one who knew this secret. At Everbread’s founding I made a decision to focus on younger developers because of the grueling pace we were shooting for. I quickly learned how much emotional reward they needed. Yes, everyone needs a trophy. But that’s okay, give them trophies. You’ve hired them, so reward them. Just make sure to reward performance and not just “showing” up.
I found that including them in Sales meetings, conferences and strategy sessions (developers) was enough to help them feel like they were valued in the way they were used to.
The hardest challenge I had was teaching them to respect slower more mature developers.
This always began with the “Two bulls on a hill, the young bull turns to the old Bull and says…see those cows down in the pasture?” Joke. Overtime I eventually managed to get them be excited about my hiring in more seasoned developers/managers and still managed to maintain that energy and creativty that is the hallmark of Gen Y. In So many ways they just “get it”.
It’s like everything in life, you need a balance. Gen Y and X will learn from each other and need to respect this. You are right that Gen Y don’t stay around long in roles, but this is mainly because they are not being developed or not being financially compensated. Or is it because they are fickle and move for money?
But if the employee only stays for 18 months and has made an impact, then they have provided an employer with value in any case. There are plenty of unemployed students to afford this churn. The only point I would make that when these candidates are on the market and have moved 29 times, I would question their loyalty and commitment, but of course not their adaptability!
@gail – thanks for commenting, Gail, great to get the perspective from the recruitment agency side.
There’s a fundamental issue here – generation/age is not a part of whether somebody is competent or not, just the same as sex/nationality/ethnicity is.
And please let’s not listen to recruitment agencies, rather business owners/managers.
Completely agree that generation/age is not part of whether somebody is competent or not, but the problem is that so many people in the industry think it is.
I’m Gen Y and in quite a senior production role at an online travel media company, and yet I regularly feel like I’m having the same conversation I had daily when I was 18 and working in retail:
Irate customer: I want to speak to your supervisor.
Me: I am the supervisor.
I am a business owner/manager like yourself Phil, and I urge you to not be so disparaging about recruitment consultancies…in fact we tend to have an insight into what is happening within our clients’ businesses and therefore have a holistic view of the industry!
Nice angle on the Gen-Y thing Graham… but a few points:
. The piece is very anglo-western centric. Gen-Y behavior in emerging markets, Middle East and Asia does not reflect the same well documented attributes of the western Gen-Y persona. Even in places like Germany where company loyalty has always been strong… I have spoken and dealt with several Gen-Ys and they are definitely more inclined to remain with a company for longer than you would expect.
@Kevin if TNooz wants to have more global relevance they need to start ‘thinking’ more globally. It’s a missed opportunity that so many standard blogs fail to address.
. This piece is very one-sided as well. It is asking for companies to make changes to hand-hold and parent Gen-Ys… which may not always be possible. Sooner or later Gen-Ys will learn that they’ll have to conform and compromise to integrate and help make change.
. It is also a very temporal piece… we’re talking about Gen-Ys now… who are of a certain age range, that in the past have also been difficult to assimilate with. For instance the 18-25s of the 60s and 70s in US, UK and a few other countries were all about anti-capitalist, non-conformist, liberal, peace-loving life-styles. Where are they now? I’m willing to bet most of them have are still part of the rat-race (or have recently retired from the rat-race).
I have had no problem mentoring, coaching and giving more time to some of my Gen-Ys… and I acknowledge there is a different mind-set and attitude… but I feel compromise has to go both ways.
@hichame – I will leave Graham to respond to your specific points about Gen-Y.
But your comments about Tnooz are a touch unfair though. Of course we want to have global relevance and, yes, we are thinking globally (we wouldn’t have 18 or so contributors around the world otherwise).
But, equally, we’re only 19 months old, and even the most fantastically funded media business (which we are not at all) would struggle to achieve not only global coverage but global relevance/impact in less than that time.
We will certainly get to that stage, but one step at a time eh.
I’m pretty sure Hotelscombined didn’t have a global presence from day one, or manage to place its ads on all those travel blogs in every relevant market or niche immediately, right?
Unfair? maybe… but take it as constructive criticism
Besides I think you misunderstood.
I was not referring to global coverage and reporting what’s happening where, which admittedly you do better than anyone in travel tech. I wasn’t even referring to presenting the news in other languages (after all you are ultimately a business blog – and English is the main language of business)… but was referring to ‘thinking’ globally… and encouraging/challenging contributors to avoid assuming one audience and broadening their research to include other cultures..etc.
You’d reach a much broader audience and isolate less people if you positioned yourselves as thenextweb of travel… and not the techcrunch of travel…
Looking forward to the 24 month milestone..
@hichame – do not want to move this thread away from the original subject.
So, thanks for the feedback. Frankly, at this early stage we’d be happy with either “techcrunch for travel” or “thenextweb for travel” as monikers.
We never knowingly intend to isolate, and I’ve been in this game far too long to know that it is impossible to keep everyone happy.
Nice article Graham.
As a Gen Y myself I’m getting a little tired of the negative stigma attached to Gen Ys.
I don’t know where the idea came up that Gen Ys want hand-holding as I don’t see this at all. Guidance, mentoring and two-way feedback for sure! More importantly I see Gen Y’s looking for a career path that, if EARNED, happens and isn’t just talked about in the job interview! I’m now in my fourth full-time job spending 5 years in my first job – getting to 29 job changes doesn’t seem realistic nor something I want a trophy for.
I think Gen Ys can and do stay in the same company (not necessarily the same role) so long as they are learning, achieving, have a level of independence, have involvement and engagement with the company, and they are progressing both financially as well as in terms of responsibility and job scope.
If an employer doesn’t deliver on the development aspects of a role or the career prospects within the company talked about in the interview despite the Gen Y delivering their objectives, then yes, they will likely move on. What’s so unfair about that? If there’s a contract between two businesses and one business doesn’t deliver, is the contract going to be renewed? I doubt it.
Employment should be a two way street – the employee delivering what’s good for the employer and the employer delivering what’s good for the employee. If one of these isn’t happening then either party should be free to walk away, but ongoing feedback should uncover this well before it becomes too big an issue!
what are the stats for how many people stayed in travel tech for other generations? I’m whatever came before X…. and I’d say only 10-15% of us stuck around. For Baby Boomers, ok, they stuck with their jobs to begin with, truly cultural. But travel tech isn’t for everyone, and I have not witnessed a decreasing pattern of those who want to make it a life career. Perhaps only 10% of the pool is smart enough to deal?
“the average Gen-Yer will stick around at the same company for 1.1 years and change jobs 29 times”
Is this stat just extrapolating what Gen-Y has been doing while in the under-30 age bracket? I don’t think it’s outrageous to expect that even gen-Y’ers will end up staying in their job a lot longer once more of them have kids and mortgages to deal with. Stability becomes more important as you get older, regardless of which generation you’re in.