More on Y’s supposed narcissism
There’s a good post and discussion over at Tamara J Erickson’s blog.
The critics are concerned that the culture of praise Ys experienced as a child will reach deeply into the adult world, suggesting that they feel insecure if they’re not regularly complimented. Bosses are being made to feel the need to lavish praise on young adults with the threat that they will wither under an unfamiliar compliment deficit.
I’ve written about the narcissism issue before but it’s one that keeps popping up. It seems like a lot of employers and managers are seeing their new Gen Y employees constant desire for feedback as a narcissistic trait. I certainly grant that Gen Y requires a lot of attention from their bosses and managers, but I’m not sure how that can fairly be called narcissistic.
Building the perfect résumé
Look, Gen Y has been résumé building since we were nine years old. And just because we’ve found employment in our twenties doesn’t mean we’re looking to stop. Past generations were content to wait and let the corporate structure for advancement carry them forward, but Gen Y, while they’re working for you currently, hasn’t stopped thinking about their next job. And probably the one after that. And the one after that, too.
We want constant feedback because we want to know if what we’re doing is making any difference to that résumé. The motivation isn’t “I want to know I am valuable!” it’s “I want to know that this job I’m doing is valuable to ME going forward.” Because if it’s not? We’re looking for the door.
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 am and is filed under At Work, Attitude. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
