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How Gen Y Should Talk To Old People At Work
jfruh writes "A lot of ink has been spilled explaining to Boomers and Gen Xers how they can best manage, motivate, and retain talented members of the Millenial generation on the job. But it's a two-way street, and those born in the '80s and later could also use a lesson on how to best communicate with older co-workers, who after all will determine their promotion and pay raises for the foreseeable future. Advice includes: make actual phone calls, mirror the level of formality your co-workers use in e-mails, and for Pete's sake don't ask them things like 'R U going?' in a non-texting medium."
But I guess the "kids" think it's funny to use text-slang instead, further exposing their ignorance and lack of respect for others.
I realize you're being rather tongue-in-cheek - but I wanted to say...
I work at a university, routinely interact with student workers, and have to say - these sorts of "stories" are garbage. Kids vary in terms of their work ethic, as has always been the case. There's nothing particularly different about recent generations compared to earlier ones. Even the kids who need to improve their work ethic mostly know the right way to communicate with their bosses and co-workers. They get a bit loose when talking to coworkers who fall in their own age group - but that was true even way back when *I* was the new kid.
And, incidentally, back when I was a new worker - trimming the wicks on the gas lamps - there were magazine articles saying basically the same sorts of things to people my age.
The real lesson here (if there is one) is that the folks who are attempting to make a living giving career advice to young people haven't changed significantly in many decades.
#DeleteChrome
manage, motivate, and retain talented members of the Millenial generation on the job.
in the wake of the enron scandal, the recession, and the fact that most of my friends and peers are not only out of work but saddled with 50k or more of unforgiveable debt, the idea of "corporate loyalty" is laughable. If you want to motivate me and retain me, pay me. To me work is work, a means to get paid and do something i genuinely appreciate. im sure any generation can relate to that
beyond the most generic office etiquitte noted by OP, here are a few others:
read your IM's, i use them more religiously than you can imagine to convey important information.
Do not call me. the phone is on my desk and i've an extension, sure, but its far more natural and efficient for me to email or IM you. If you have to call me, keep shit brief. no um's or err's or giggles...just the facts. telephones are incredibly distracting.
try to maintain communications parity. for example: if i email you, email me in response. dont take every IM as an occasion to march down to my cube, its a timewasting distraction.
I dont care about the office politics. dont bring it to my desk.
Good people go to bed earlier.
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
Socrates