What’s Wrong With Generation Y?
Contributed by J.R. Noble
I was attending a youth soccer tournament earlier this year and overheard three of the tournament staff (two in their mid-forties, and one in his mid-sixties) discussing the problems associated with today’s youth. I overheard the two mid-forties staffers say things such as, “These kids are so impatient,” and, “They’re always questioning the rules and asking, "why, why, why" about anything and everything told to them.” The elder staffer just shook his head.
As a coach of a team of 16-year olds, I was interested in hearing others’ opinions about the perceived “problems” with my players. Besides, I was interested on another level as well. As an HR professional, I will increasingly have to deal with the hiring and training of the Y generation.
So far I had to agree, at least somewhat, with what I'd heard from the tournament staff. Generation Y’ers can be impatient and they seem to question everything. But I hate to pigeonhole an entire generation, so I decided to do some reading to see what the experts and research had to say.
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