A Gen Y speaks up: If you don’t know how to engage us, don’t put the blame on us

Not all Gen Y’s are like this, and this is not the norm but rather the exception. I for one am a Gen Y and my office does have quite a number of Gen Y’s too.

You said it yourself, the one who left after 2 weeks left for a better offer. If you have children would you tell them to stick with the first job even though it offers less simply cos they signed an offer. Don’t tell me about loyalty to companies. Companies have one principle, no one is irreplaceable. Therefore don’t expect employee loyalty cos no company is irreplaceable too! You wanna attract local talents, then learn to pay more! To get an S-pass you need to pay a minimum salary of $2000, plus levy of anything between $200-$400. If you can take out the same to pay a local, I’m sure you can retain them better. So stop complaining when you think peanuts can attract anything more than a monkey.

Spending time on FB is a common thing, Korean dramas are a little too much but do they make up a majority of your Gen Y employees? Maybe cos you are only an SME, but I know of MNC’s that actually encourage the use of FB, some even recognize that in this day and age, social media is the way forward and setup teams to man their social media tools. Maybe you are the one who needs to change your midset, we live in the age of technology now, where the internet opens up the world to us. We are no longer in your age of using paper and pen to send snail mail or reading an encyclopedia to find info. And threatening someone with the sack? This has to be the most immature thing a company and a man of your position can do. You wanna sack her, just do it. Don’t make empty threats cos everyone around can hear it and they will know it’s nothing but words. I’m sure you have a brain, think of how it looks on you instead of how it looks on the employee. Stop expecting Gen Y to behave like adults when you are not setting a good example!

I don’t take MCs unless the doctor tells me it is absolutely needed. Ask yourself this, why in the world would someone take an MC if all the work for that day is just gonna pile up causing him/her OT for the next 3 days!? And obvious point, MC can’t be obtained in advance. You fall sick can predict one week in advance I seriously think you should just spend your prediction efforts on gambling. Then no need to deal with these “strawberries” as you Gen X like to call us. If an employee goes to the doctor and returns to work why do you blame them for not having a valid MC? It just reflects that your company doesn’t have good policies in place, if you don’t allow them to leave work then tell them you don’t allow. Why allow them to see the doctor only to complain they don’t have an MC? If they have an MC they won’t head back to the office right? Then you start blaming them for taking MC. If an employee is really sick, would you prefer them to be in the office and spread the virus around causing more people to be sick and lower productivity? So you tell me, take MC also wrong, don’t take MC also wrong, what do you want from us!?

Job hopping? As mentioned earlier, don’t expect loyalty from employees when companies believe that no one is irreplaceable. If they have time to look trough the classifieds during work you must really not have much work for them to do in the first place. Gen Y needs to be constantly challanged, you need to understand that we grew up in a fast paced environment. In an era where technological advances at a mush faster rate than the time you were brought up in. Gen Y employees learn fast, develop fast and expect a company to retain them with a clear career path. If all you can tell your employee is your job will be an administrator for now and the next 5 years, who will wanna stay in such a mindless job? I would sprint out of your company in a heartbeat! And honestly, no right minded employee will want to pay their own short notice. If they can afford to give you short notice, it must be because the new hiring company is paying for them. Which means that new company recognises their talent much more than you do.

So after all I’ve said, maybe you should be the one to stop whining and start behaving as an adult. If we were really the ones hiding behind mama’s shadow, I’m pretty sure we mimic our mama’s action. Judging by your word’s, our mama’s are probably your age, so we are afterall just following the example set forth for us from people like you. I’ve finally decided to say this as there are recently so many acticles on how Gen Y’s are weak, easily crushed strawberries. If you don’t know how to engage us, don’t put the blame on us. Blame yourself for not having an open mind.

GEN Y

*The above was first posted as a comment on The Temasek Times.