I recently met a young woman who wanted to start a blog from a teacher’s perspective that revealed a teacher’s real and true thoughts. Like how bratty the kids are. How she cusses at them in her head and makes fun of how they dress.
She wasn’t alone; a whole group of her teacher friends were planning to anonymously co-author the venomous expose together. I felt sorry for her students. So very deeply sorry and guilty, but Ryan had left my side and I didn’t know anyone else at the party and I was stuck and uncomfortable and anxious for the future of kids I didn’t know and would never meet.
So we kept talking, and she told me more of what she wanted to do: Get into education administration, lobby reform to politicians, overthrow outdated lesson plans, revolutionize school requirements, change the whole entire educational system.
Turns out? Not so jaded. Just so desperately and achingly unsatisfied.
“Worker satisfaction in the United States is at an all-time low,” reports the New York Times. “Only 45 percent of workers are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61 percent in 1987. The findings show that the decline goes well beyond concerns about job security. Employees are unhappy about the design of their jobs, the health of their organizations and the quality of their managers.”
And it’s not just those people that have settled and resigned their dreams to the attic who are so unhappy, but a large percentage of what the Harvard Business Review calls “high-potentials” – those young rising stars that have the ability to have an enormous impact on how we work and live.
“One in three emerging stars report feeling disengaged from his or her company, and admits not putting all of his effort into his job,” the HBR study reports. These highly disengaged high performers have more than doubled from 8% in 2008 to 21% in 2009. And one-quarter of these highest-potential people intend to jump ship within the year despite the recession.
High-performance workers are being consistently and abhorrently under-utilized. Companies and managers must give motivated and ambitious young employees the ability to perform or risk irrelevance.
“When emerging talent is never truly developed and tested, the firm finds itself with a sizable cadre of middle and senior managers who can’t shoulder the demands of the company’s most challenging (and promising) opportunities,” the researchers warn.
So maybe it’s time to stop making young people pay dues. And stop assigning fluff projects. And maybe managers could stop putting the kind of hold on workers that is so tight that they’ll pop right out of their slippery control.
We are your sick, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free of the industrial age molds that keep us shackled in our desks from nine to five. Your greatest challenges are our greatest thrills. Let us execute, and then execute again. Let us fail, let us win. Let us do. Let us work.
“True leadership development takes place under conditions of real stress – indeed, the very best programs place emerging leaders in ‘live fire’ roles where new capabilities can – or more accurately, must – be acquired,” the researchers report.
Yes, let us work. Stimulating and meaningful work that leads to compelling career paths and the chance to prosper if you do.
We’ll hide the red tape in the breakroom.
22 replies on “The Young, Motivated & Unsatisfied”
What’s happened in the last couple years is that organizations flipped into “survival mode” thinking that engagement and retention could be put on the back burner. In many cases, companies either hoped for attrition or encouraged it, if only to avoid cutting more jobs. The backlash is that now they have a population of very unhappy people tired of playing the survival game. I’m not sure if this is true everywhere, but in many cases I’ve seen where the middle and bottom carried the organization through the worst of things, only to see the top still make idiotic decisions. You’re right, people are just tired of it. And the leaders that a company may be banking on for the future will go somewhere else. The Hi-Pos will be hot no matter the company. Yes, there’s a need to think about the organization, but to ignore the people who make it up is going to hurt more. They may find crawling out from financial strain is easier than pulling employees out of recession funks.
@ Emily – I think you’re right that it could be easier to come out of financial strain than pull workers out of recession funks – but to be stable again, companies will have to do so. I was actually really surprised by the figures I found because in my head, a recession – a great challenge – encourages you to be more creative and innovative allowing those high potentials to have more ability to make a difference in their organizations. It will be interesting in a few years to see the companies who made this happen and who let them fall to the wayside… thanks for the comment!
Your post makes the point I’ve been trying to make about Gen-Y: it’s not that we’re unmotivated; we’re motivated to do work differently. We don’t buy into the same system, a point made by your example of the young teacher.
I love when people say our generation is going to screw things up. Wake up, people; things are already screwed up. Put the politics aside and see what can be achieved!
@ Jake – Right on, thanks for the comment : ) I definitely think we don’t buy into the same system and I see so many great examples, especially in the start-up world, of new systems being built and tested. I’m a huge fan of putting politics aside – if that can be achieved, so much would be better.
I think this applies to all employees, not just Gen Y. The lack of engagement in the work tells you management just isn’t getting what it takes to structure a job right.
Results Only Work Environments, for example, require managers to very clearly outline what needs to be achieved and that engages employees. But that means there has to be some stability around, and effort put into, determining what really needs achieving. Most are not willing to do the work nor have the organizational backing to do so.
And top performers won’t wait for the company or manager to figure it out; they will go where the work is going to give them results and challenges to keep them engaged.
For all the talk about how “employees are our most important resource,” I think companies, through necessity and practice, really think employees are commodities. It’s still all about producing widgets.
It’s not about loyalty or earning dues or whatever. It’s about offering interesting work that a person can do that will directly impact other people in a good way. Seeing the bright line between your work and the benefit your customer (internal or external) gets from it help you get engaged into doing well for others.
Hope floats.
@ Scot – Great comment. I really love everything I’ve read about ROWE, but I think you’re right in that the majority of managers don’t have the ability to create the right structures and environments. It’s tough being a manager and a lot of people don’t have the chops which is why we need people to keep training and trying.
I think this shift in attitude you recommend would not only make work more satisfying for the already employed, but would open up doors for more unemployed to gain work.
If the “pay your dues, but you need to have proven you paid your dues SOMEWHERE ELSE first mentality were to vanish, more people could obtain entry level but challenging employment…instead of the same group of stale employees getting all the new jobs EVERY time.
@ Ty – Ha, yes, maybe. I know it’s tough for the unemployed, and certainly if more employed people were doing stellar work, that would open up more opportunities and more jobs. It really is all connected. Thanks for the comment!
Rebecca,
This is great. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, especially since I have incredibly talented and gifted young friends and coworkers who seem underutilized. Most of these people try to make the best of what they have, but my question to myself and to them is:
What can we do as individuals to improve our own situations? We can’t always pick our bosses.
and
What can we do as a generation to improve this?
I’m trying to ask for more challenging work, but it doesn’t always come. And it’s really hard since everyone has always told us, as Gen Y, we’re “stars”!
I really like the part about “breathe free of the industrial age molds “. An additional issue is that many young people aren’t being prepared to take on challenging environments. Most are just taught how to follow a list of directions and then wait when they reach the end of the list. My question is “How do you break people out of that mold?” I often challenge our interns by allowing them to make decisions on small projects while slowly growing them into a full fledged decision maker. It is hard though, since I feel I’m working against what they’ve been taught all of their lives.
I ran across some fascinating research the other day that got me doing some deep thinking on another side of this – and that’s why we work to begin with. Not just for money and bonuses, it turns out. Everyone highly underestimates the value of meaningful work. I’m mulling over a post on that now :)
I love Patrick Lencion’s book 3 Signs of a Miserable Job – it really gets at the heart of the matter: anonymity, irrelevance and immeasurement truly are a the heart of worker dissatisfaction, I think, and the values of this generation are even quicker to decry these injustices when faced with them in the workplace.
Great topic!
I recently had the privilege to attend a lecture by Gary Hamel the management guru – he talked about how we (all of us not just Gen-Ys) distrust large institutions and the types of change that is leading to within some organizations. He cites surveys statistics such as: “In its 2007 Global Workforce Study, Towers Watson found that only 38% of employees believe their managers communicate openly and honestly.” to make his point. Check out his Part I blog post on this topic here: http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2010/04/15/imperious-institutions-impotent-individuals/.
There are certain organizations that have fostered these types of changes by empowering everyone to challenge any decision or by giving them the freedom to choose their work. Zynga, Pixar, and W.L. Gore (makers of Gore-Tex) are some examples of companies that are perhaps leading the charge here.
Personally, I believe that Gen-Y has an opportunity here and maybe even a responsibility to undertake the challenge to bring about change in their organizations by effecting change from the ground up.
Interested to hear your thoughts.
[…] Rebecca on something I think about every day […]
@ Liz – I do think what you’re describing is why a number of people through themselves into volunteer positions, or blogging, or second jobs. Just because a job doesn’t provide the satisfaction, we can find it in other places… thanks for weighing in!
@ Talton – Hm, I don’t know about that : ) – I think there probably are young people like that, but there are a number of “high potentials” that DO know how to perform and are still being underutilized. That’s fantastic that you’re able to be such a good manager.
@ Tiffany – I agree about intrinsic motivations, but I also think people should be paid well! In the HBR study, they noted that something as simple as giving a raise to HPs was a sign that you appreciated and recognized their work.
@ Jarlath – Yep, definitely. The orgs you’re describing sound reallly similar to the ROWE offices Scot describes above. I do think organizations are moving in the right direction and Gen Y are doing a great deal of the pushing. Thankfully : )
I think @Liz was one of the first people in this post to accurately the reality of the situation. “What can we do as individuals to improve our own situations?”
It takes tremendous effort to truly identify and understand both what you are good at, and what you are passionate about. Not intimately understanding both of these factors will ultimately lead you down a path where you will not be happy. You are solely responsible for your own happiness and your own career. If you are not happy with your life, take a risk and do something to CHANGE it.
Additionally, the nature of White Collar work has fundamentally changed. Matthew Crawford in his book “Shopclass as Soulcraft” agrees, not only is it incredibly difficult to accurately measure an individuals’ contribution to the bottom line in an organization but White Collar work is moving to much more “rules-based” rather than “cognitive-based” work. Similarly to what happened to Blue Collar work in the 20th century.
Know your boundaries and desires. Personally, I found myself miserable in an entertainment marketing role. I realized the person I was being encouraged to become was far different than the person I was and desired to be.
Rebecca, I find this to be a really interesting blog post and I thank you for writing it. I think we have some similar ideals and thoughts about business. Feel free to check out some of my own thoughts and experiences at http://nickholtla.blogspot.com/.
I find the article and the comments about Gen Y very interesting in that we are perceived by society at large. It is funny that Liz says we have always been told that we are stars, I guess lured into a false sense of accomplishment. I am a frequent reader of a variety of Gen-Y blogs as it is interesting to see how we are portrayed by some as lazy and self entitled (http://bit.ly/djs7nq) when in fact we are just trying to win a metaphorical trophy and be rewarded for our efforts. We have never as a generation really been told about failure. We watch as people in our society make mistakes,be criticized, and even ostracized for their failures. All in all I guess my point is similar to Nick’s in that no matter what people will say, good or bad we must take risks and forge our lives by our actions not our words.
“So maybe it’s time to stop making young people pay dues. And stop assigning fluff projects. And maybe managers could stop putting the kind of hold on workers that is so tight that they’ll pop right out of their slippery control.” – Could not have said this better myself.
Seeing a fellow Gen Y/ friend/co-worker leave my company was the low point of my current job (which I really do love). Cheers to hiding the red tape.
This post made me do a virtual air-punch — especially the last line :-). I am passionately against killing a young person’s starting-block-enthusiasm by making them pay their dues. I believe it is one of the worst business choices an employer/company can make.
You got me thinking, though, about what identifies these “highly disengaged high performers” as such, since I believe that those who really ARE going to go out and change the world DO go out and change the world.
I wonder if their admission of “not putting all of [their] effort into [their] job[s]” is simply a manifestation of the fact that Gen Y’s expectations (and voicing thereof) have increased relative to previous Gens’, but the number of truly motivated, delivery-capable individuals per capita has not.
Increase in Expectations + Same Average Populational Ability to Deliver = Less Satisfaction…?
Work environments that encourage people to focus only on numbers and statistics have high turnover rates, especially with GenY. It’s not that we don’t care about numbers, but we care a little more about the engagement that should happen first in order to get those numbers. These companies don’t value the engagement process, which is the cause of this dissatisfaction. I think it’s unfortunate that the teacher feels it would be good to vent that dissatisfaction with a dedicated website, though.
Lately I’ve been thinking that one reason people fail to find engaging work is that they don’t treat their careers as something that should happen “on purpose.” Many of my friends don’t think about evaluating their future trajectory until they are miserable, underpaid, or about to get canned. Of course, management style and a failure for companies to recognize the way Gen Y wants to work is partially to blame as well.
Interesting. I feel a lot like the subject in your article. Well actually, my job would be great if it only paid more money! However do to its title (“secretary”), it is not something that will command a high salary. Also, unfortunately for me, I work in a very bureaucratic environment (a university) where management cannot really promote you are utilize you in any creative means beyond your job title. (Hence why job searching is ALWAYS on my ‘to-to’ list!)
[…] oldie but a goldie. Kontrary’s Rebecca Thorman explores the topic of employee dissatisfaction amongst young professionals and suggests a few ideas […]