Upstarts calling the shots

When a keen young upstart is hired at the office it can be a bit disconcerting for some established staff, but Eugene Ng, director of H2R says it can also be a win-win for both parties.

Sometimes young workers who might start with the company on Monday will think that they can make team leader by Friday without so much as even taking off their iPod.

Ng says established staff should avoid any temptation not to give the best possible assistance to the new person despite their cavalier attitude.

"Older workers should use their experience and savvy to smooth the way for them."

Anything less, he says would be self-destructive. When called upon to train them, staff should make every effort possible to make sure they learn everything they need and put any potential jealousies aside.

"Bosses will see if new staff are not receiving the help they need. It is not a good look for established staff and it will create an even deeper divide between the old and the young."

But Ng says the established workers should be just as attuned to how the new upstarts are doing the job because it will often help them learn as well. Process roles, especially those in banking or government, can sometimes use a fresh set of eyes, he says.

"The Y generation often find ways to skip processes. In very process-oriented types of roles, they will find new ways of doing things."

Workers who insist on doing things in the old established ways and try to protect their turf may be doing themselves a disservice. If a young keen upstart has a new way of doing things and the entrenched employee cannot keep up, then the choice to management is clear.

"Some of those who want to look back at the past rather than move forward may well be skipped over for promotions."

The Y generation is ambitious and is more likely to use shortcuts in an effort to save themselves work rather than to better the end results, Ng says.

"They are not afraid of hard work but they are rule averse."

Generation Y was aptly named because it followed generation X. But it could just as easily be because of their repeated mantra of, "Why?"

"Generation Y want to know all reasoning and the logic around why you have to do it this way and what's the purpose," says Jane Kennelly, managing director of Frog Recruitment.

She has placed young upstarts in various roles and has even hired some herself. The Y generation grew up in an environment where questioning was applauded.

"They can ask all the questions that they want but they still need to understand that there is a foundation of good old fashioned manners that still exist, I believe, in an environment. They should be cautious about being arrogant and rude. So there's a bit of massaging required there."

Kennelly says employers and senior workers should be prepared to answer the Y generation's questions about why things are done a certain way but only up to a point.

"They just come from a different platform. I shouldn't have to always have to explain every minute detail but I should be open to giving some foundation about the logic behind it," she says.

Some rules may be meant to be broken but for some young upstarts it seems any rules can be broken. The logic of the need to show up for work you would think would be blatant to any generation of workers.

"We worry about the Y generation from the perspective that they think it's OK to go to the Big Day Out without filling in a leave form and then ring from the concert saying that they're sick. The employer is saying, 'I can hardly hear what you're saying'."

Rather than getting the boot, with the skill shortage these days, many employers tend to beg them to turn back up to work on Monday, says Kennelly.

If young upstarts want to change the rules or avoid the rules, then they should be prepared to answer why they did so. Kennelly says to make it clear to new employees that if they want to try doing something differently, then they will be questioned about it.

"They've definitely got an attitude. But it's how they use that attitude that's the secret to success."

Kennelly says the attitude issue is nothing new with the new upstarts of the Y generation and has always existed.

"If you give it, you get it. That's still going to exist in today's working environment. It doesn't matter who you are or how old you are. Give a bit, you get a bit."

Kennelly has found a new appreciation for the young upstarts in that they can show a certain pride of purpose in what they do.

"They feel very strong about a sense of purpose in their work. There is no doubt about that. They want to know that they are making a good contribution."

But to fit into a corporate world, young upstarts will need some assistance from their older workers.

"They want to know that they are valued and they of course want everything their own way. You need to massage a little bit of corporate thinking into existence very early on in the piece, I feel."

Kennelly calls on both parties in this type of situation to actively discuss the generation gap rather than pretend it does not exist.

"What's really required is a degree of tolerance from both parties. A foundation of rapport needs to be established. Good conversations lead to good understandings."

When bringing a young upstart into the office, it is a good idea to sit them down and have a chat before things start to get uncomfortable.

"Have very clear guidelines at the outset. The less ambiguity the better."

Such a chat will lead to a greater appreciation by both parties and establish clear guidelines about the rules and expectations.

"Communication has never been more important than it is now with the mixing of generations."

Kennelly says established workers genuinely feel threatened by younger people who are more technically oriented.

"People that come into these environments are now genuinely quite frightened of them. For the baby boomers, this is the first technically savvy generation ever to really come into our work force the way they do now with the skills and the capabilities that they've got. It is a little bit daunting to employers."

The idea that someone can come into the office and download all of the company's intellectual property onto an iPod and walk out the door on day one is a real threat, she says. Employers today may need to do a little bit of a catch-up around technology but, she says, success is based on much more than any particular skill set.

"Performance isn't around just the management of tasks. It's how you operate as human beings together in one environment that's really important.

"Everyone has qualities and everyone has strengths that they bring to bare."

Given that, established employees should be able to rest a little easier.