Gen Y in the Workforce

Facts about the case

Josh Lewis is a young staffer at Rising Entertainment. He is frustrated because of his boss,
Sarah Bennett, marketing chief. He thinks that Sarah doesn’t listen to his ideas of using new
media to promote films like making the movie theme song available for download for Guitar
hero or making one or more of the “Fire Force Five” movies available online and embedding
teasers for the latest sequels within them. He thinks that she is trapped in the 1990’s when
people actually watched network TV. Rushing through his assignment for a team
presentation, he works up a plan and pitches it to the CEO in the hallway. The CEO loves it,
but Sarah is upset with Josh for going over her head - and submitting subpar work on the
presentation.

Issues involved in the case

 Josh being a Gen Y employee expects to move up the ladder quickly. This causes
some friction as he is not shy about telling his boss what he actually wants from his
job.

 It is a difficult attitude for Sarah to accept as she being a Gen X employee, grew up
valuing seniority.

 Also, Sarah didn’t give much appreciation to the new ideas of promotion by Josh.

 She didn’t try to understand the reason behind the subpar work submitted by Josh.
Josh was frustrated and to he did that intentionally.

 Though Josh and his friends were at good positions but jobs at Rising Entertainment
were not challenging enough to give job satisfaction to Gen Y employees.

 Josh didn’t try to understand the reasons behind not considering his ideas by Sarah.

 Josh didn’t respect the authority of Sarah and passed on his ideas to CEO without
completing the work on presentation properly.
Sarah and Josh can work more effectively
Clashes between impatient Generation Y and pay-your-dues Generation X are inevitable but
certainly manageable.

 Sarah should reprimand Josh for bypassing her; he should respect her authority and
work with her, not around her.
 But Sarah must address Josh's frustrations. Like many Gen Yers, he wants to know
that his work is meaningful, and he needs constructive feedback on suggestions.
 Given the CEO's enthusiasm, Sarah should commend Josh's initiative but remind him
to keep her in the loop.
 Sarah and Josh also might be able to forge a more productive relationship if Rising
Entertainment set up training and feedback programs to help integrate Gen Yers into
the workforce, as Enterprise has.
 Josh may put his team in jeopardy by doing his assigned tasks poorly. Sarah needs to
coach him on being a team player and set clear expectations about performance and
communication.
 Sarah can do a much better job of validating his good idea - perhaps by asking him to
spearhead some experiments for the group.

Recommendations
 New Attitude and Work Habit-

With shifting in the workforce culture from Gen X to Gen Y, rising Entertainment should
find different attitudes and work habits that need to be incorporated into the existing
culture.

 Job Satisfaction-

Newer, younger employees are less committed to staying with the same company,
whether they have a loyalty problem, see better opportunities elsewhere, or just get bored
with their jobs. So jobs should be challenging enough to hold the interest of the Gen Y
employees.

 Social Events-

Rising Entertainment can arrange group lunches and social events so that communication
among the employees can be increased and this can fill up the gap between Gen X and
Gen Y employees.

 Frequent ongoing coaching-

The traditional performance reviews should be replaced by daily ongoing contact with
managers who know the work and who can become coaches. This can nourish the new
ideas introduced by Gen Y employees like Josh, such that they can be converted into
functional aspects.

 Tech Savvy-

Technology has allowed this generation to multitask and find shortcuts in achieving tasks.
Texting, instant messaging, social networking, and Web surfing have all made Generation
Y workers more competent, efficient, and productive. Short hand text messages on Josh
Lewis’s iPhone clearly show that. The key for employers is to accept that there may be
multiple ways for workers to accomplish their tasks.

Gen Y workers may need to demonstrate that they are working just as hard as everyone
else, but perhaps simply performing the job more efficiently.