I’ve been telecommuting frequently for about a year and a half now. Some weeks I’ll do only one or two days at home, and the rest at the office. Other times, I’ll spend very few days in the office. There’s no fixed schedule and it depends on things like meetings and events. For the most part, it’s an arrangement that has worked extremely well.

My commute is roughly 50 kilometres – a little more than 30 miles – which is, looking at averages, not out-of-line with a lot of other people who do drive in to work every day. If I got into the habit of slogging through it every day I’d probably adjust and get used to it. It would just become part of my life. Like so many others, I’d spend two hours of my life on the highway every day.

But I made a promise to myself that I would never do that. If I was in another field – something that required the use of specialized equipment or demanded person-to-person interaction every day – maybe I would do it. But my job generally involves little more than me in front of a computer answering email, writing documents and creating concepts.

I challenge anyone to logically explain why that kind of work – the kind of work that millions upon millions of people do every day – would ever require people to drive to some arbitrary building every day.

So I won’t do it.¹

Telecommuting, like any other mode of working, presents its own unique set of challenges. Over the past 18 months I’ve developed a pretty good groove, but there were definitely obstacles to overcome. As a service to all those who telecommute, manager telecommuters or who are considering giving it a try, here’s a quick list of five things I’ve observed while working at home.

1. People will think you’re ‘cheating’

It doesn’t matter how productive you feel you’re being at home, there will inevitably be people in your workplace who think you’re somehow ‘cheating’ by working-at-home. Often they’ll make subtly snide comments, insinuating that you’re not working, that you’re sleeping in, watching TV or getting household chores done. The under-the-skin message seems to be that if you were REALLY committed to work, you’d be AT work.

Combatting this is hard. When I started, I used to be so aware of this kind of attitude that I’d specifically send emails to people before the start of work hours (so people knew I was awake) and would literally dive to make sure I answered my phone on the first ring. The goal was to let no one think I was doing anything BUT working.

2. You’ll work longer hours than you would otherwise

In an office, the people around you kind of set the tone for your day. If they’re working, you’re working. If they’re by the water cooler chatting, then maybe you’ll join them. When lunch comes, you eat because everyone else is eating. When people start to pack up for the day, so do you. It’s very much a herd mentality, and it’s effective in setting an underlying schedule to your work day.

At home, there’s nobody but you. Instead of having a quick chat with your co-workers first thing, you’re diving right into email and projects. And why would you stop for an hour at lunch? Might as well keep going as you’re eating your sandwich. There’s nothing to break up the day.

My biggest bad habit lately is pushing certain items into the evening. I’ve started setting aside 11 p.m. to midnight as a ‘work hour’ and using it to do things. Often I like this strategy – no one’s emailing or calling during that hour, so I can focus and complete work faster than I would otherwise. The downside is when I end up accidentally working to 1 a.m. and then need to get up the next morning.

3. People will get jealous

This one is hard, especially if your workplace doesn’t have any kind of ‘telecommuting policy’² – inevitably co-workers will start to quietly resent that they’re in the office every day and you’re not. They’ll start wondering why they can’t work at home too.

Of course, there are lots of reasons why someone wouldn’t be able to work at home. Maybe they’re a receptionist. Maybe they’re a teachers. Maybe they’re a firefighter. These are not long-distance jobs. Maybe their manager hasn’t developed enough trust with that employee yet. Maybe the manager just flat out DOESN’T trust that employee because they’re irresponsible. Maybe the manager is an old-school jerk who defines ‘management’ as walking around catching glimpses of employee computer screens. Maybe the employee just hasn’t asked yet.

Whatever the case, it’s not your fault. Don’t dwell on this one.

4. It helps to be a computer nerd.

If you’re considering telecommuting, it’s important that you don’t become the telecommuter that everyone hates. The one that’s always calling in every 20 minutes asking if someone can email them a file they need to work on. Or that you’ve forgotten your VPN password again. Or that your laptop is just sooo slow. Or that your Bonzi Buddy isn’t dancing as well as he used to.

Cardinal rule of telecommuting: your doing it cannot create MORE work for people in the office. You need to make it effortless for all your co-workers, which means knowing how to troubleshoot your own networking problems, shelling out for a faster home internet connection if you need to and making damn sure you have access to the files you need to get your work done. Being a tech nerd is absolutely an asset.

5. You’ll feel left out sometimes

Even though I’m a bit of an abolitionist when it comes to the traditional office, I can’t deny that offices – when they’re staffed with good people who like each other (and isn’t that always the dream?) – can lead to great camaraderie. Even friendship. And no matter what kind of allowances you try to make for yourself as a telecommuter, the very act of removing yourself from the office on some days is alienating. Suddenly you’re not there for the hilarious thing that happened at lunch yesterday. Or for so-and-so’s birthday cake. You miss out on the moments, both large and small. And that kind of sucks.

So, is telecommuting worth it?

Is it worth it? Again, that depends on the kind of person you are, and the kind of office you work at. For me, it was worth it – without this arrangement I’m not sure I’d have stuck with the job as long as I have. And I’ve definitely learned how to mitigate the negatives and focus on the positive: the stuff that makes the work I do fun.

The take-away? Don’t be knee-jerk about telecommuting. Just because one person can’t do it doesn’t mean everyone can’t. As we move forward into this crazy new generation of mine, recession-addled as we are at the moment, the managers who success will be the ones who stop obsessing about the modes of work and instead direct their energies toward quality outcomes delivered on time.

Photo by langui. Licensed under Creative Commons

1. It was a lot easier to make sweeping, declarative statements like this when the job market was better and unemployment wasn’t at 1-in-10 people, but screw it – we must not sacrifice career principles just because the stock market is slumping hard.
2. And I’m not sure your workplace should have a telecommuting policy. Every person is unique and has a different work style – stop pretending otherwise.

Update: This post was featured on Brazen Careerist, where it got a bunch of really interesting comments. Check it out.

There’s a recession all over the world. Which is nice, because I like it when we all have something in common. I’ve written about the recession a few times. I’ll write about it some more. Much like the Jonas Brothers or skinny jeans, it won’t last forever, but it’s definitely not going away for a while. So we’ve got to learn to cope.

Like any recession, there’s a lot of hype these days. Newspapers, maybe because they’re shedding jobs faster than everyone else, are banging a ceaseless drum about this presumed fiscal apocalypse. And yes, it sucks, and yes, it will suck for at least another couple of years, but it’s important for members of Generation Y not to take all this doom-and-gloom rhetoric and make bad choices in the short-term that could seriously screw with their long-term career goals.

It’s critical that young people, in the face of the specter of soup lines and cardboard houses, not give in to hype-driven impulsiveness and make mistakes. Don’t panic.

No one’s in greater danger of this than those who are looking at graduating college or university this spring. When I graduated in 2006, I was looking forward to it — there was something exciting about stepping out into the world. Now, it’s a little bit like walking The Green Mile.

Take this article from the Kansas City Star: The perils of graduating college in 2009:

With so many experienced people out of work, how is a new grad supposed to compete? Many companies prefer to hire someone who is tested and knowledgeable in their industry rather than taking a flyer on a new kid. And those laid off folks are desperate too, often willing to take significantly lower salaries to land a gig.

Columnist Michael Stahl is right, of course, in that you’d have to either be a supergenius or an incredible moron to expect lucrative employment right out of college these days. But, again, I have to emphasize how important the ‘not panicking’ part of this is. I’m hearing about a lot of grads who are making really dumb decisions in light of the economy.

Here are three big career mistakes you should avoid right now, no matter how safe and secure – and even sensible – they might sound:

1. Don’t go to grad school

Look, I’ve got nothing against graduate school in theory. And, by all means, if you’re the kind of person who legitimately loves learning and being in academia — if you could see yourself spending your life tangled up in it — than grad school could absolutely be the right path for you.

But don’t do grad school because you have some misguided notion that it’s going to magically help your employment prospects. Penelope Trunk already covered this pretty well::

Applications to the military increase in a bad economy in a disturbingly similar way that applications to graduate school do. For the most part, both alternatives are bad. They limit your future in ways you can’t even imagine, and they are not likely to open the kind of doors you really want. Military is the terrible escape hatch for poor kids, and grad school is the terrible escape hatch for rich kids.

Even short grad school programs (One or two years) tend to offer little more than lipstick on a pig. If you don’t have the drive toward academia – and especially if you’re considering paying for grad school through student loans that will bury you into your forties — all you’re doing is avoiding reality.

2. Don’t become a teacher

One of my big anger-triggers these days is the seemingly widespread belief that teaching is a universally-palatable career choice that pretty much ANYONE with a BA can get into, be good at, and secure sustained employment. It’s not, it shouldn’t be, and trying to push the teaching profession down that road will undoubtedly screw with the education of young people for years to come.

Ignoring the fact that teaching is an incredible important occupation that should be the domain of our best and brightest, teaching isn’t even really all that stable these days. It made all sorts of sense when birth rates were high all over, but demographics are changing. Teachers are facing layoffs all over because there are a glut of teachers and not that many students.

I have a BA in History. I know that a lot of BAs get fed crap about how teaching (or grad/law school) is the only career option out there for them. But that’s not true. Just because your pathway isn’t lit up for you with guide lights doesn’t mean it’s not there.

3. Don’t base everything on statistics

There is, and there has always been, a lot of merit to looking at statistics before launching yourself toward a certain career. Researching your employment sector, looking at employment trends and average salaries — these are smart things to do.

But the danger here is in putting too much weight on the stats. The stats will say, for example, that you’re far better off going into structural engineering than, say, journalism. Many orders of magnitude better off. The difference between those two career paths is literally hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But if you have no desire to be a structural engineer — and your whole life you’ve wanted to be in journalism — none of that will matter. Life is always easier when you have a ton of money in the bank and you’re not living off Ramen noodles, but it’s not necessarily always better.

Giving up on your passions is absolutely the biggest mistake you can make in this economic climate. Not only because it’ll probably make you miserable, but also because that which you’re passionate about tends to be what you’re good at. It sounds a bit cliché and kind of like something the Care Bears would chant, but I believe it: your talent follows your passion.

Accentuating the Negative

I know, I know — I’ve only told you what NOT to do, and not given you any kind of advice on what TO do. But that’s kind of the point. The current job market demands patience. The only proactive advice I can really give at this point is to be vigilant. And to get a job — any job you can — that will provide you experience and the money you need to get by.

The best thing you can do for yourself right now is NOT screw up. You don’t have kids, a mortgage, imminent retirement plans or other major liabilities. You’ve got patience that others won’t have. And time will reward Generation Y for that.

Photo by Jim Linwood. Licensed under Creative Commons

Hey, have you heard? There might be a recession! Maybe even a depression!. And as much fun as that kind of thing might be for those who miss the convenience of the bindle and loved old silent films where men in ratty suits cut up old boots for supper, for the 3.6 million people who have lost their jobs in the last few months, things kind of suck right now.

I’ve written one or two things about the recession on this site already, but for those of you just tuning in, here’s the short version of my feelings on the economy, Generation Y, and the perilous future we face: It will be bad for a while. Maybe a long while. Gen Y is in the best position long-term, because we’re not exactly too concerned about losing our retirement savings. The best strategy is to think long-term, and be patient. (Failing that, just go hide for a couple of years in grad school. You’ll be fine!)

So that’s the recession. And hopefully you’re nodding along at this point. But those sorts of macro-level thoughts and long-term generalizations are only one side of the coin. The other side is simpler, and more personal. It’s got to do with young people who are facing an imminent graduation date and, while maybe they’re not thinking about dashed retirement dreams of foreclosed yachts, would still really like to have a job in the next few months. Because they really don’t want to have to go back to living with their parents.

But how do you get a job when the economy sucks? You make yourself exceptional. Now, more than ever, you’re only going to get your foot in the door if you can offer something that very few others can. There are literally thousands of skills you could develop and highlight towards this end, but there’s one giant ability that I think stands out above the rest: writing.

It seems simple — almost trivial — but there are very few occupations that don’t benefit from strong writing abilities these days. Think of how many emails are sent a day. Think of how much time is wasted by people who can’t string a coherent sentence together within those emails and thus cause titanic communication headaches. Think of how things are moving online — to blogs, to wikis, to twitter — to an internet that is still (and, I think, will always be) predominantly comprised of text. Of written communication.

And the great thing — from this perspective, anyway — about the job market right now is that very few people can write. There are lots of people who think they can write just fine. They probably put “Strong Verbal and Written Communication Skills” on their “résumé” and everything. But odds are they’re either abbreviation-abusing hunt-and-peck typists who respond to emails with single sentences that make no sense but are in a stupid font like neon green Comic Sans or they’re academia-clinging malcontents who write run-on sentences that use buzz words incorrectly due to the value-added paradigm that existing vertical touches base with vis a vis existing synergy or whatever.

You can be different. You can be better. Being among the effective written communicators in your office isn’t likely to win you a ton of overt recognition or anything, but it is something that will inevitably be noticed. It’s the kind of skill that has obvious application outside of whatever you were hired to do, and that is actually notoriously hard to find in applicants.

So how do you learn to write? You just do it. You write. The internet has given you an incredible platform filled with people who will read and respond and help you get better. It’s a wonderful tool that will help you get better every time your keys hit the keyboard. Embrace that.

And don’t be embarrassed. We’re all still learning.

Photo by soartsithurts. Licensed under Creative Commons

• Why Gen Y workers bypass IT usage policies
• How Gen Y workers turn CIOs into IT watchdogs
• Gen Y workers: We know all about this IT stuff
• CIOs: Learn the wireless workaholic ways of Gen Y
• One in five choose relaxed IT policies over money

Shane also followed up with a really good blog post about the series. He asks:

Much in the way we try to encourage bookworms to take up sports, and get the jocks singing and dancing in high school musicals, wouldn’t employers prefer a Gen Y that was a little more well-rounded in their approach to work and IT? There could be young employees who tap into social networking services, but who also keep a log of what they’re doing for potential audit purposes. There are those who use mobile computing devices, but who also demonstrate leadership in backing up data and ensuring antivirus software is updated. Imagine a Gen Yer who not only thinks they’re computer-proficient but can identify areas about technology they still need to develop.

To which I responded:

I really like your last point, and I think it’s an important one. Am I, as a 25-year-old guy in the business world, fully developed? As much as it’s tempting to throw to the ego and say ‘Hell yeah; I’m the best at everything there is!’ I’ve been smacked down enough times in my three years on the job that I know that I still have a lot of things left to learn and a lot of skills to acquire.

It’s a bit of a cop-out answer: but the solution here really is a matter of balance. Gen Y will try to convince managers to throw out all their policies and just go with the groove. The other side will just tell Gen Y to shut-up and be thankful they even HAVE a job. There’s a ton of value in the middle: in questioning long-standing probably nonsensical policies, in exploring new technologies and ways of working (’going with the groove’), and, then, synthesizing all of that into something that can work, and make money, and be tracked, and shared vertically.

I’m biased, sure. And I have a strong voice. But I think strong, sensible voices in organizations are always valuable, even when they’re wrong. Or thought wrong.

Lots of interesting stuff here — and much of it very positive. There wasn’t even any real, solid examples of someone saying “Let’s ban all fun websites from work!!! For productivity!!” Granted, I think that might be because IT companies are a few steps ahead of other sectors when it comes to understanding these kinds of things, but it’s good to know that the leaders in the race are running in the right direction.

1. He even spelled my last name in a couple of totally awesome ways — it has too many l’s and t’s as it is.

A simple thought for this week: if you’re a young worker coming into an organization with policies — whether they involve start time, sick days, internet use, music playing, dress code, whatever — that you don’t agree with, don’t just demand that exceptions be made for you because that’s the way you like to work. Instead, start by doing work, and doing it incredibly well. Show off those abilities that make Gen Y a force to be reckoned with. Make yourself uniquely valuable. The best way to get exceptions to longstanding policies to be exceptional.

Because employers are wary and only getting warier. John Barwis of the Holland Sentinel in Michigan in a in a familiar-sounding column called “Generation Y meets real life” writes:

Our Generation Y professionals regularly met in groups to share and track each other’s salary and performance-bonus information. Many expressed the feeling that everyone should receive the same bonus, and that it was impossible or even unethical to differentiate performance. Where did they learn to expect reward for effort rather than results?

I believe as much as the most militant member of Generation Y that old work paradigms need to die off to accommodate this new generation at work, but when you get away from that macro level and down to the micro level, it does become all about results.

Does this require sacrifice on the part of young workers? Sure. In some organizations, it could require many years of sacrifice. (And in some organizations, due to institutionalized bureaucracy and lame duck management, differentiating yourself could prove impossible — or dangerous. But let’s not go there now.) But, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t need to be that difficult.

Even with the economic downturn, employers across the globe are hurting and will continue to hurt in their search for qualified people. That initial period right after you get your foot in the door is CRITICAL, because if your boss or manager starts to see you as expressly and keenly qualified for your job (and, hey, it doesn’t hurt to make it clear that you’re qualified for OTHER, more important jobs within the organization, too) suddenly you’ve made yourself very valuable. You’ve become a rare commodity: a talented knowledge worker in an era where fewer exist.

Don’t screw it up. Remember that, until you define yourself in your organization, there’s very little difference between you and the five candidates they interviewed but DIDN’T hire. So don’t go in and start making even reasonable demands in week one. Because while you know your skill level and know that you, say, can get just as much work done listening to your iPod or working four ten-hour days as opposed to five eight-hour days, your boss doesn’t.

Start slow. Remember the order of operations. Prove to your employer that he or she doesn’t want to lose you, then start defining (with your employer) the work environment you’d like to have to ensure a positive, long-lasting employment. In short: be exceptional, then start asking for exceptions.

Photo by Wayne’s World 7. Licensed under Creative Commons

A couple of months back, my girlfriend and I hired someone to come clean our apartment. We went through a service, of which there are a zillion in this city. After setting things up, getting a key made, and working out a schedule, it’s been pretty much a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. Every other Monday, we leave our house and, when we return in the evening, it’s much much cleaner than it was before.

I’ve gotten some pretty extreme reactions from people I’ve told about this arrangement. Most just think it’s funny — something Matt has to do because Matt’s messy. Others understand, usually because they had a cleaning service come to their house growing up. Some people, though, react almost with a hint of disgust — like I’m doing something wrong by doing things that way.

I can’t draw any kind of clear generational lines on the issue: reactions were diverse amongst young and old alike. But what I can do is give you my perspective in the form of some advice: there is nothing wrong with outsourcing the parts of your own life that you don’t have time for, dislike or outright dread. There’s nothing noble about spending your time doing something you either are no good at or dislike.

We live in a time where households are increasingly dual-income, which means both partners are busy. And the line between work and home is blurring, though not necessarily in a bad way. Due to increases in technology and direct access to revenue streams, online and off, more and more people are finding that the old “time is money” adage now applies directly to them.

If you’re a writer, or a blogger, or a designer, or any kind of freelancer, is spending four hours in the evening cleaning your house really a cost-effective exercise? Or is there a more efficient way to do it? And even if you’re not a freelancer type, you too should weigh the benefits in terms of your work/life landscape: maybe it’d be better for you if you spent that time enjoying a dinner with friends who you never get to see.

This doesn’t just apply to house cleaning. We live in an era where many facets of your day-to-day life can be outsourced. Hate laundry? Set up a pick-up/drop-off service. Always scrambling to find time to go to the grocery store? Consider an online grocery delivery service. Hate shopping for Christmas gifts? Consider a concierge. Hell, some people have even gone as far as to outsource their daily email, as Tim Ferriss of Four Hour Work Week has done:

1) I have multiple e-mail addresses for specific types of e-mail (blog readers vs. media vs. friends/family, etc.). tim@… is the default I give to new acquaintances, which goes to my assistant.

2) 99% of e-mail falls into predetermined categories of inquiries with set questions or responses (my “rules” document is at the bottom of this post — feel free to steal, adapt, and use). My assistant(s) checks and clears the inbox at 11am and 3pm PST.

3) For the 1% of e-mail that might require my input for next actions, I have a once-daily phone call of 4-10 minutes at 4pm PST with my assistant.

The point is not to assume everyone can just throw money at stuff like this and live a life of luxury, but just to consider not doing something you dread. These services are frequently far more affordable than people assume, and if the net benefit to your life is evident, then why question them?

There’s nothing noble about sacrificing for the sake of sacrificing. If there’s part of your life that you loathe managing yourself, look at the alternatives. It may make a world of difference.

Photo by derek*b. Licensed under Creative Commons

Just an idle thought to keep this site going this week: do people who exhibit so-called “workaholic” tendencies inevitably end up out of touch with the the latest goings-on?

I think they do. I don’t see a way around it.

One of the first things people sacrifice when they get overwhelmingly busy is their intellectual curiosity and inventiveness. When you’re stressed, you stop learning, and just start relying on the things you already know — the old chestnuts that have worked in the past and will, presumably, continue to work.

Further, this kind of work environment kills any kind of cultural connection. And I don’t just mean that in the “let’s go look at paintings or listen to beat poetry” sense. I’m speaking more broadly: of tech culture, of greater trends and shifts, of people and how they think and what they do.

It may not seem like much when your overworked co-worker tells you they haven’t seen a movie in years, haven’t finished that book they started five years ago or that their RSS reader has over 40,000 unread items in it, going back months, but these things don’t just happen in a vaccuum. Any employee that far removed from the world at large is, at best, going to be operating at a diminished capacity for creativity.

It’s an odd situation we find ourselves in with work culture, because while we’re finally starting to understand on a macro level that people working themselves to death isn’t a very good thing, we still tend to see honour in burning the midnight oil (or the candle at both ends, or whatever you happen to be setting afire) to get work done.

We need to get away from that. It’s not a good idea in mental or physical health terms, and it’s not a good idea in the knowledge economy, because working all the time impedes knowledge.

Take a break. Read a book. Go to the movies. Learn something. It’s important.

Photo by truthlying. Licensed under Creative Commons

Weird editorial in the Financial Times UK today from Michael Skapinker, which is a neat name. He titles it A dose of austerity for a pampered generation, and is sort of all over the map.

Look, he starts here:

This recession has already hurt people such as over-mortgaged home owners and bank staff. But employers and headhunters predict a real shock for one group: those in their 20s and early 30s who have never experienced an economic downturn before.

Then hits us with this old chestnut:

For the baby boomers’ children, mass unemployment will be something new. The shock will be all the greater because the best educated of them have had it their own way ever since they entered the workplace.

Doom! Gloom! We’re so screwed. If only Generation Y hadn’t been so pampered and demanding. If only we were more like the boomers.

But wait — maybe we’re actually okay? Skapinker continues:

In one sense, today’s younger generation are better prepared for economic hard times than their parents or grandparents: they were not expecting jobs for life.

Nor did they ever think they would have defined benefit pensions, calculated as a proportion of salary at retirement. (One young worker was astonished when I explained the idea to her.)

However pampered Generation Y may have been, switching jobs and reconsidering careers are second nature to them.

It’s always nice when an author refutes his own headline. It just sort of wraps everything up nicely, doesn’t it?

I’ve written about this already. It’s still way too early to really speculate on how the economic downturn will affect Gen Y’s employment prospects. My personal feeling is that if it does hurt them, it’ll be a very short-term period of pain, and then it will end. But regardless: I think claims that Gen Y needs to adjust their attitudes in light of the recession are completely insane.

Here’s why: Generation Y hasn’t demanded greater work/life balance and so-called perks (Skapinker makes reference to Gen Y getting time off work to “train for the triathlon”) solely because they can. We’re not holding jobs ransom, hoping to get a sweet flex-time schedule out of the deal. We ask for these things because we feel that they’re important. They’re not frivolous or expendable and, most importantly at all, they don’t actually affect the quality or amount of work we get done.

Seriously, if your employee can do great work, get things done on time, and also takes two extra hours every morning to train for the triathlon, what does it matter?

Am I missing some logic here? Have I just not taken my dose of austerity yet? Should I really take austerity on an empty stomach?

Photo by Pulpolux !!!. Licensed under Creative Commons.

The study found that two of the top five places to work were tech companies: Google and Apple. According to DECODE partner Eric Meerkamper, “The brands that were chosen are considered to be authentic and innovate; part of some new and important values emerging in the workplace. All of these organizations are places that resonate as being stable and secure. This is an important variable considering the substantial debt load many students will carry upon graduation given rising tuition costs.”

You could essentially distill this down to “people want to work somewhere cool.” And a lot of what’s cool is admittedly perception more than it is reality. Is that fair? Not particularly. But I’d argue that’s almost unavoidable. Think about this question, and answer honestly — would you rather work at Exxon Mobil or Google? Deloitte or Apple? Ernst & Young or Nintendo?

People tend to gravitate towards the younger, hipper companies, even if there’s really not a huge difference in individual experience at the entry-level. And what makes these companies seem “young” and “hip” are actually small things, which don’t have to impact your bottom line. In fact, employers can make their businesses instantly more Y-friendly through just a few small changes to their corporate culture.

Here’s five to get you started:

1. Cultivate an environment of questions — with answers

Current corporate culture often encourages passive learning. New people are expected to attend meetings, stay quiet, take notes, and learn slowly through osmosis. This doesn’t work in the twenty-first century. Without the expectation of a 25 year job with a gold watch at the end, young workers don’t really feel like we have time to just sit quietly and absorb information.

So we tend to ask questions. Often it gets us in trouble. There’s a comment thread on BrazenCareerist wherein Quarter Lifer Amanda notes she’s been fired for asking too many questions.

This is crazy. In the information age, questions are the foundation of learning. Think of google — each search query is a question, and answers are delivered immediately. This is the kind of information environment your new hires grew up with.

Obviously you can’t spend 8-hours a day answering questions, but don’t discourage people from asking. Set up infrastructure — like a twitter account — where employees can ask senior employees questions. That way, everyone will be able to follow along with the answers.

And, no matter what you do, don’t avoid the tough or “insulting” questions. Confront everything head on. If you can’t answer something, then maybe ask your new employee to come up with alternative solutions — you’ll have instantly made them feel valued.

2. Get away from the boring work environment

You don’t need to rip out all your cubicles or put down new carpet, but small things can quickly take an office from “soul-sucking” to “fun”. If your type of business allows, consider setting up a shared music system, where everyone can contribute mp3s or CDs. Instead of those cloying “Motivational” posters, throw up a bulletin board and let people post funny signs or photos (within reason, of course). Don’t use Group Policy to lock everyone to some bland desktop wallpaper — encourage people to individualize their computers.

And, when the situation calls for it, don’t be afraid to use a little bit of profanity around the office. It boosts morale. Really.

3. Embrace — and try — new technology

Too many businesses are still using sales software that’s straight out of the 1980s. Nothing kills morale faster than knowing that you have to deal with cludgy old technology. Especially when the employee knows that they could accomplish the same task in half-the-time if given better software.

This doesn’t have to cost you. A ton of software these days is open-source and free. If someone has a suggestion involving new technology, give them a chance to pitch it to you and, if it makes sense, give it a week-long trial run. What’s the worst that can happen?

4. Be Open

This doesn’t mean you need to hand out your budgets to all employees, but it’s no secret that closed door meetings are divisive. Inclusiveness is a vital part of retaining your Gen Y employees.

So be open. Invite people involved in other projects to sit in on meetings. They’ll feel more plugged in, and you may end up getting some interesting perspective. If something big has happened to the business — whether good or bad — consider letting the whole staff know about it. If you start crafting an ‘inner circle’ of only your senior staff members, those left out can easily become disgruntled.

If you’re worried about the time this might take, leverage technology. CEOs from all sectors are blogging regularly, to great effect. It lets people know what’s going on at the top-level, and also has the bonus side-effect of making people who can easily seem distant more relatable.

5. Don’t try too hard

The last thing I want is for people to take this list and instantly become the boss that wanders around trying to be everybody’s friend. Don’t be that guy. The kinds of changes outlined in this list shouldn’t be forced. Nor should you implement them then act like you’ve given all your employees a great favour.

This works in tandem with the point above — in addition to being open, you need to be honest. Ultimately, when it comes to managing people, if you’re not happy and motivated in YOUR position, none of the people under you will ever give a damn.

This kind of change needs to be made in the spirit of making your business more efficient and your team more effective. Go forward in that light, and your intergenerational team should hum along just fine. Start making changes because you just want those damned young employees to play nice and stop jerking you around, and you’re not likely to get anywhere at all.

Be open. Be honest. Be real. Be cool. It can be that simple.

Photo by Steve Deger. Licensed under Creative Commons

Studies continuously show that we’d rather feel like we’re contributing something or building our skills than we would just sit around, twiddling our thumbs, collecting a salary while waiting for those higher on the ladder to either retire or get high by a cement truck. Even if that salary is large, we’re often still not content: only about 20% of the interviewees stated that salary levels were “very important” to them.

Is this a bad trait? Not really. The same studies also show that Gen Y employees are completely willing to work their asses off if the right opportunity comes their way. It’s only if we feel stuck in some soulless, static position that we start to show off some of that now-infamous Generation Y laziness.

Where things DO become problematic, though, is that I think we often don’t give our employers a chance. We can be impatient, and we can be impulsive. If we don’t feel immediately like we’re being valued in a position, we’re liable to job hop, skipping from one employer to the next in the hopes of finding the position that does give us meaning right away.

The reality is that most employers are not going to thrust their new employees into important and meaningful work from day one. And their reasons for not doing so are actually pretty solid. First, because it can be business suicide to give something that could seriously impact your company’s bottom line to a untested newbie. Second, because they’ve likely been burned before by people leaving less than a year into the job.

You can see the Catch-22, can’t you? It’s that big, obvious thing heading straight at us. Young people don’t want to wait around for meaning, so they leave. Employers don’t want to give their new people big projects, because new people are notorious for leaving after a few months on the job.

It has all the qualities of a vicious cycle, and indeed, I’ve heard anecdotal reports of people bouncing around, from entry-level position to entry-level position. These are often talented, well-prepared, skilled individuals, but after eight months of doing nothing but shuffling paper around and watching older, more seasoned employees juggle all sorts of meaningful projects, they bail out.

I think this is one situation where the younger people need to adjust more than the employers do. Gen Y needs to remember that it can’t be so idealistic to think that they can just slide into a high-paying, high-responsibility position² and that, in this case especially, patience is a virtue.

However, employers need to understand that this attitude is commonplace, and adjust for it. Even just a little communication goes a long way here. Give constant feedback, let your young employees know where you see them going in the organization. The absolute worst thing you do is just leave them behind their desk, convinced that all they’re ever going to do is staple, copy and add formulas to your spreadsheets.

In sum: patience and communications. They just might be the fundamental building blocks of the effective intergenerational office.

Photo by gilberts. Licensed under Creative Commons

1. NGO is a really stupid, term, by the way. Here are a list of literal non-governmental organizations: Wal-Mart, McDonalds, The Pittsburgh Steelers, Sony, Ben & Jerry’s. But I digress.
2. Yes, this is true even if you went to Grad School. I know they might have tried to convince you otherwise.