Dealing with Generation X Zip the Zap!

Making generalisations about demographic groups is at best tricky, and at most times unwise and almost always politically incorrect is probably asking for trouble, but the Pontiff of Personnel, the Honcho of HR, S. Ramanujacharya celebrates the differences between the generations at the workplace.

The Scenario

WITH the burgeoning of the wired world the workplace is bulging with young and brilliant princes of panache. The talent today is packed with potential, having amassed skills in technical areas often before they have cleared their teens. With this brilliance comes a high-demand lifestyle, highly opinionated views and often very brash and blasi attitudes. Their views are often diametrically opposite to that of the older generation, often radically in variance with any views held by anybody else! They have strange work methods, unusual tastes in music and think nothing of besmirching the workplace with their version of grunge. Notwithstanding this, they have become invaluable to the IT-driven economy of today. The challenge is to source, hire, deploy and bind them to the organisation with hoops of steel.

Rather than let this group of high flyers throw you with their quaint behaviour and attitudes, you can create an ambience of all-round plusses by researching and appreciating their requirements. It becomes possible to utilise their technical savvy bolstered by the energy and drive they have to organisational benefit. Should you be able to do this, the company will be seen as a progressive 'with-it' organisation while your whiz kids will swear by you rather than at you!

The whiz generation

``Generation X'' is a phrase used to generically describe a group of young people between twenty and thirty years old. What sets them apart is that they are all techno-savvy, totally 'wired-in', sometimes solitary, wrapped in worlds of their own and often the high-speed, partying bunch that pump more into the world of today than any previous generation ever has. Like all youth, they lean more to the extreme than their elders. Lunch will often consist of high doses of coffee or coke, excessive, almost profligate quantities of fast, expensive junk food. There will be extremes of taste too with paranoid vegetarians, cheek by jowl with carnivores that would make Tyrannosaurus Rex seem moderate. They dress eclectically, seen often in designer clothing or casual to the point of grunge. Their talk- patterns range between the rarefied accents from the top B-schools to the peculiar patois of Java-junkies and Net-nerds.

Changes from below?

This generation were raised on technology. They have seen the proliferation of technology in every aspect of their lives. Even religion is made easy with a virtual darshan and aarti online before work, and it isn't unusual to hear the muezzin call from laptops several times a day. In a country that produces arguably the best tech-talent in the world, certainly the country that has the largest number of clued-in people, it is not surprising that technology has reached saturation. The result is that we have a generation that will not spend time on tasks we would have done by hand, or wait for something to get done when there is a better and more efficient way of doing it. They are well aware that they know far more than their forbearers did at their age, but the rub is that they feel oddly deprived of a never articulated something. Observation has indicated that this is the care and guidance of their elders while they were younger. They depend on themselves or their peer groups to meet their social and emotional requirements.

This group bonds more with their peers than their families, spending long hours in their company, making sacrifices for each other, contributing to the combined effort. They like to be informed and involved with the future of the organisation, and will put their best efforts only if consulted on every matter that contributes to the bottom line.

The red rag

The major turn-off for this generation is to dwell in the traditional form of top-down, bullyboy management style. They cannot tolerate weakness, the definition of which includes poor logic and capitulation.

They hate being told how to do something that they view as their domain area. You don't have the expertise to tell them, don't! Provide only the parameters and the deliverables and they will execute the brief without complaint.

They are chronic grumblers but delivering the expected result despite the whine. They are generally at a loss on holidays as they would far rather spend time on their work, but they will complain if you ask them to work on a holiday.

Balanced leadership

As impatient as they might be, the generation expects to have only reasonable and simple rules. They have little patience with rules that are applicable to them but not to the senior echelon of the organisation. This is the day of political correctness and ``we-are-all- equal-and-rules-apply-across-the-board''. It matters little that this had little currency ten years ago. These are the expectations today. Regulations that seem to them to be arbitrary, discriminatory or mundane are sure to be ignored. They need to see the value to themselves before they will comply willingly.

Gilbert and Sullivan must have had this generation in mind when they asked that the punishment fit the crime. Often, the more talented a whiz kid is, the more careless he is of organisational regulations. Dress codes are the first casualties. It is silly to deny him a productivity bonus for this, as his productivity is probably superior to the impeccably turned out loser in the adjoining cubicle. It is far better to tell him you are considering him for a senior, public-contact position provided his personal image conforms to the established code. The choice to shape up is his. If he has no desire to rise he will be happy in a forgotten corner of the office. This generation also likes discipline to be swift and focused, so time lags after the violation are counter-productive.

The driving force

Motivations are identical to those we have. There are some things that egg them a little more.

*Recognition. Opportunities to excel. Challenge, that can be met

*Prime compensations. Incentives and 21st century perquisites.

*Unstinted trust and reliance by superiors

*Freedom of action (being told what needs to be done, but not how.

*Individuality (freedom of dress, of sound and of personal habits, providing they don't impinge on the sensibility of others!)

*Free meals (For some reason, the whiz generation depend a great deal on their tastebuds and stomach.)

*Someone to listen (To act as a sounding board rather than as a judge)

Conclusion

The sheer energy and the innovative verve of this generation will stun everybody who has been part of the old order. The vibrancy will be missing if your company decides not to make these allowances for this generation to make their contribution. The organisation will lose out the emergent markets of the twenty- first century and that no company can afford to do.

We have a generation of individuals with distinct personalities of their own. We need to treat them with the respect they deserve, so as to get the most from their myriad abilities!

S. RAMANUJACHARYA

professor@webbox.com