CAUTION: Her transparency might be more than you can handle.

This is the second post in a two-part series on “Straight Talk from a Gen Y Apartment Manager.”

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a Harvard Business Review (HBR) blog post, “Solving Gen Y’s Passion Problem.” I strongly encourage you to take the time to read this in its entirety.

In a nutshell, the HBR blog addresses the fact that members of Generation Y demand a lot from their working life right away and are frequently disappointed about what they experience instead. This has resulted in a “passion” problem in the workplace.

I immediately shared this blog on Facebook, LinkedIn, and sent out a tweet. While a few of my social contacts replied with, “I agree” or “I still don’t get them” a few had more to say about it. One individual completely opened the “door to understanding.” She is a member of Gen Y and an Apartment Manager—jackpot!  She has some interesting thoughts to share about her generation, our industry, and why she believes this “passion problem” exists. The rest of this blog is dedicated to her, as she responds to “Solving Gen Y’s Passion Problem” in her own words.

5.    Paying Our Dues

While I feel like I still have a good grasp on the concept of paying my dues to get where I want to go, I do find myself feeling like that process is sometimes slower than I expected. And the feeling that the “growing” or “diamond-cutting” process will take longer than I originally expected, has at times, made me consider different career paths. I was a bit disillusioned after speaking to a supervisor about my future with the company. It was evident to me that her opinion of how long it would take me to become ready for a promotion was considerably longer than I was thinking, and not by a couple years…where I expected that opportunity within the next 2-3 years, she was thinking more like 10 years. That was an issue for me given that I already feel like I have reached a learning plateau in my current position.   

6.    We Like Challenges—Not Settling

I think my generation needs to feel challenged much more often than the older generations. We want to feel like we are constantly pushing ourselves to achieve more than we did last year or last month or yesterday…we always want to be “growing.”

For instance, over the last few months, I have been feeling like there isn’t THAT much new stuff for me to learn in my current position and I need to be pushing myself and stretching myself by learning new things—so I feel lazy staying in my current  position. I’ve done it now for 6 years (which I am well aware is still considered “young” in many circles) and while I do learn some new things at each property I go to, the overall, big picture is the same.

I know I am capable of more and it can sometimes feel like I am “settling” or being complacent to stay in this role when I know I’m ready, and very capable, of more…more responsibility, more intellectually challenging work, more problem solving. Don’t get me wrong…trying to figure out how to pacify my residents is thrilling, but babysitting grown adults who have nothing better to do but offer me “suggestions” on how I could run my office more efficiently is not exactly what I set out to do after college.

7.    Our Desire For A Promotion—Lack of Loyalty

So, really, this desire for “promotion” is not entitlement - it’s stemming from a desire for newness and more challenges and to push ourselves to always be getting better and never settling…not so much for a bigger title or more money…well… it’s a little bit about more money.

Our world costs more than it did 20 years ago, and my generation is experiencing the debt roller coaster right now. We used debt more than any other generation to get what we wanted - RIGHT NOW!  This invention of taking home our toys now and not paying for them til later was GENIUS! But then…we all realized how dependent it made us on jobs to carry around all this debt and we are furiously trying to paying it all off right now…which takes money.

Debt isn’t the only thing we are all freaking out about…how the heck are we going to retire?? Our parent’s 401K accounts lost thousands in the past few years…my grandparents conserve their income like they are back in the depression again because their money isn’t making money anymore. But my generation thinks that is the biggest joke we have ever heard, so our choices through our career are more selfish because we believe we have to plan for our own retirement, which causes us to make a lot of decisions that “are the best thing for me and my family” and in turn, not usually the best thing for the organization we are working for.  Here in lies the lack of loyalty I was talking about before.

8.    My Final Thoughts on Paying Our Dues

There is a slogan out there that I think can be helpful in painting the picture of “paying your dues” to the younger generations. Nike has picked it up and has a couple t-shirts that proudly display the “No Pressure. No Diamonds” mantra. The lengthy process of using high pressured equipment to slowly saw off small shavings of a diamond until it’s finally a beautiful gem is a great analogy…especially the part about lengthiness. Just like the farmer who plants his crops and waits for the harvest to grow and bear fruit…we also have to be reminded that “success,” in whatever form we seek it, must be earned and developed. It isn’t given to us.

I know the HBR article said Gen Y doesn’t need slogans, but since we don’t like to read instructions and just like to “DO”…the message should probably be short and sweet….I think this gets the point across…and in only 4 words.

No Pressure. No Diamonds.

Things that make you go hmmm…