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Engagement Generation Y Workplace

Generation Y is the ER doctor of generations

At the bottom of the hospital hierarchy are ER doctors.

I know this because straight out of college I dated two med-students back to back. Also, Belle’s boyfriend is a neurosurgery resident. He never lets me forget it. Which is fine because I’m not the one who thinks that great veins are a turn on.

An emergency room is open twenty-four hours a day, and responds to everything that comes in. ER doctors have no specialization. They know a little about everything, and so they also know nothing.

Generation Y is the ER doctor of generations.

We’re doing pretty darn good. We’re saving lives. But is it enough to live up to all the hype?

Not having a specialization means that we’re buying blueberry pies rather than making them from scratch. In other words, we’re not putting in the time to create quality, seemingly preferring quantity as proof that we’re a demographic force to be reckoned with.

What’s good about this is that we have the ability to respond quickly to issues that come up. The presidential campaign, for example, or the Virginia Tech shootings.

What’s bad about this is that it is an emergency room approach. We’ll fix things as they come along. Place a band-aid on and sing a song.

We’ve yet to look at the underlying structures of the workplace and the economy and cities and relationships, and therein lies the opportunity. It isn’t that we’re not making change already. It’s that we can be making more meaningful, more impactful change.

My own organization struggles with this. We often worry that in being everything to everyone in order to serve the varied tastes and interests of young talent, we are also nothing to nobody.

We also believe that we are doing many good things, and we certainly are. But we have issues. Issues that are symptoms of a larger underlying structure upon which the organization is built. And if you’re only addressing the symptoms, and not the underlying causes, you’re in trouble.

We’re scared to change, and indeed, we seemingly don’t have to change. We are a good organization. And Generation Y is a good generation.

But don’t we want to be great?

Without understanding, addressing, and changing our structure, Generation Y will forever be stuck in the emergency room.

We need not just to be the neurosurgeons of the world, but the researchers, the fearless learners, engaging in the constant “sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”

Ryan Healy of Brazen Careerist argues that “our fights and causes will be not to tear down established systems like the federal government and big business. Rather, we will strive to fix, repair and rebuild these broken systems, because history shows that the systems do work – if properly designed.”

And therein lies the point. The systems aren’t properly designed. If what we were doing was working, we wouldn’t have global warming, extreme poverty, and war.

Most of Generation Y is comfortable, yes, but the world is not.

Healy goes on to argue that our advances in the workplace are evidence of how “we aren’t revolting in the streets, but improving broken systems.” I hope that we don’t just improve, but redefine.

We do need to work within the system. It is only within a system that you will fully understand how to change it. It’s taken me six months at my new job to understand and grasp the intricacies of my organization in order to be in a position to actually address them.

It is only by being fully involved in the corporate cultures in which we work, in the neighborhoods we live in, and in the politics that govern us that we will be the civic generation of builders.

Generation Y is doing this already. As young workers enter the workforce, we begin to realize that life is harder than the sheltered life our Boomer parents led us to believe. This is good. We need to be a little surprised, a little incensed at what the real world has to offer. We need to test our idealism.

And then we need to use the gap between our current reality, and where we’d like to be, to not only fill the cracks in our foundation, but then engage in the often more interesting work of seeing what the foundation is made of.

Addressing the underlying issues, and not just the symptoms, is perhaps one of the most exciting things we as a generation can accomplish. Besides, we already have the passion and dedication.

Structural force.

By Rebecca Healy

My goal is to help you find meaningful work, enjoy the heck out of it, and earn more money.

29 replies on “Generation Y is the ER doctor of generations”

So true. In marketing, they say if you’re targeting everybody you’re targeting nobody.

You also mentioned experiencing something before trying to change it. I’ve noticed that the best leaders do this – they observe the current system and discover the pains. Much later, they offer solutions, or offer an environment and conversation to allow people to find the solutions to their pains themselves.

True leaders don’t bull their way into change.

In the Renaissance era, specialists were banal and jack-of-all-trade types were the commodity, hence the term “Renaissance Man.” To specialize was to miss out the delightful melange life had to offer. I’m sure you’ve heard of Michael Gelb’s “How to Think like Leonardo Da Vinci?” He takes you through the mind and life of Da Vinci, with exercises to stimulate the different areas of personal inspiration. A neat book.

My point is this: perhaps your organization is broken, but broken is all you’ve got, and broken is going to have to change the world anyways. Your team can create the specialists under your umbrella. I’m assuming that’s part of the mission? You can’t be all things to all people, but you can point them in the right direction and give them the kick in the butt to carve their niche. I think I know what I’m talking about…without revealing too much, our recent conversations led to an epiphany, which is leading to action, which your tenacity and prodding helped draw out. Without getting weird, (sheepish) thanks.

I also think there’s a lot to be said for our generation’s jack-of-all-trades nature. To specialize, you must be selective and rule things out. To be good at X means I will not spend time on Y or Z. And to rule things out early in your career can be both limiting both personally and professionally. Perhaps Y and Z are a hell of a lot more fulfilling than X but you eliminated them too soon. I think a lot of us are out there trying to spend time figuring out what we like and what we’re good at, which means we’re dabbling in lots of areas. I think that if you give us time to grow and weed things out, you’ll see a lot more neurosurgeons emerging from the Gen Y ranks. But it takes time.

@ Monica – No, you’re so true! I really wanted to make change from the moment I started my position, but it was impossible. The situation required me to get to know everything first. It requires patience that I didn’t know I had.. . thanks for the comment!

@ Milena – Whoa there. My organization is not broken. Like I said, we’re good, but I feel like we just scratch the surface. My organization will NEVER specialize to the point where we just focus on one topic, nor will Gen Y. But I do believe that we need to delve deeper into the topics that we do address, and have the ability to address more in a meaningful way. This is what I want for Gen Y too. I’m excited to hear about your plans and action. Given our conversation on your blog is it perhaps that you’re moving to Madison? ;)

@ Rachel – Ah, but I don’t want neurosurgeons! I would like Gen Y to be constantly learning. There’s a difference. I don’t think I was clear about this in my post. I want Gen Y to be constantly delving deeper into topics. In some cases, this means specialization, but mostly it just means learning. Right now we seem okay with just being the jack of all trades, but I fear that it’s not enough. You’re absolutely right though. It will take time! That’s okay. I’m learning to be patient. :)

Sorry! I tend to speak in hyperbole, definitely wasn’t trying to be insulting. I was just tailing on the Ryan Healy comment and something a mentor used to tell me when I’d express similar feelings that I could only scratch the surface. The word choice of “broken” isn’t meant to be negative, from a philosophical standpoint, everything and everyone is broken, but that’s what we got…yadda yadda. I think you get my drift.

And I can’t comment on moving to Madison. : )

@ Milena – Oh gosh, don’t worry about it. I wasn’t offended, and knew what you meant more or less, but just wanted to be clear : ) I can’t wait to hear your revelations .. hope you write about it soon!

Nice post! I agree that we are generally non-specializers. In fact, there is one young man my age with whom I work who is a specializer (and came straight out of school as one) – and he looks stuck. He seems bored. Maybe it’s just his general demeanor though.

On the other hand – after feeling out a profession, it’s probably time for most to add skill-sets. After being the generalist (as important as an ER doctor), there’s no better way to add value to oneself than picking up a specialty. When it’s one’s job description to answer Requests For Proposals, how else can you be picked as the best without specific, distinct, knowledge.

Rebecca –

I loved this post. Though not a frequent commenter, I am a regular reader of yours. As someone with the name “Jackie” who feels like a Jack-of-all-trades (talk about trying to escape your name-destiny), what I find most difficult is feeling like I’m spread so thin among work, volunteer, and side interests (because we want to do it all) and this day-to-day sense of urgency to figure it all out. And being a talented generalist doesn’t feel like enough for me, yet the road to finding a specialization seems longer than I’m wired to journey for. I will keep journey’ing, though, because the desire for ‘passion and dedication’ prevent me from settling. Kind of hard to convey, so I hope this makes some sense :)

@ t h rive – great points. I don’t think we need to specialize right away but not become complacent either. I think it will happen to some extent naturally as Rachel suggests, but if we’d like to make some major impact, we should be delving deeper quicker.

@ Jackie – Complete sense… story of my life, in fact! You sound a lot like me. I want to do it all so badly and feel a lot of urgency to try to change the world right away. That’s why I think it’s important to take a systems approach and discover how the pieces fit together and then figure out the best way to go from point A to point B. Not that I have it all figured out. But the “journey’ing” is what matters anyway. Thanks for commenting and sharing your story!

Part of this characteristic of our generations has to do with the fact that we haven’t had one unifying experience forced upon us in a way that the other generations alive today have. No world wars with evil dictators to overthrow. No common enemies, common efforts, common causews. Even the crises that have struck have impaced us all differently, as we have delved deeper into the fragmentation of our modern lilves.

Are we redefining unity by pouring ourselves into our individualism, or are we merely watering down the power that is our potential?

That’s why the idea of community is so important – and so crucial – to ensuring our generation makes the change we have the ability to.

Rebecca – thank you for the kind words on my blog.

I have to admit, like Jackie, I am a bit of a lurker. But I have been visiting and reading your blog for a couple of months now, and you so eloquently say what I want to shout from the mountaintops.

Thank you for offering a brand of advice to Gen Y that is honest, thought-provoking and relevant.

For a good read check out, http://www.disruptivethoughts.com/

I think you’ll like his blog.

@ Tiffany – I agree and disagree. We’ve had many experiences that could have been unifying but haven’t been. I’m not sure why that is. Regardless, you’re right that community is so important. Perhaps the election will be our unifying theme… we’ll see : ) Thanks for the thoughtful comment!

@ Kate – Thanks so much for the comment! I read a post about Obama and entrepreneurship over at Disruptive Thoughts and really did enjoy it, so I appreciate the recommendation!

I have always been the person who gets plugged in when there is no time, no training, and something needs fixing right now.

But I never get credit for the versatility because I was never in a position to do a lot about one thing (read: specialize).

I was happy to do the work; I wasn’t happy about not getting the credit, recognition, nor pay that specialists did.

But, now, in this day, versatility is a great asset. I wouldn’t be as concerned about knowing a little about a lot of things and working within the system as I would be about positioning this as a “versatility strength” that you bring to the work.

There’s enough stuff out there that says we need to be a “portfolio” working, bringing several strengths to the work that may or may not be connected.

This job skill needs to be positioned to show that versatility is the key to the work. Capable, able to immediately contribute, and flexible to move with the work that needs to be done.

@ Scot – In many industries, I agree. Versatility, and the need to adapt quickly and efficiently is needed. Flexibility is certainly key. I guess I am looking for this magic medium between depth and flexiblity. I’ll let you know when I find it… ; )

@ Dan – No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.. and I used to be so good at hangman! Darn. You’ll have to tell me next time we talk.

Interesting post – it definitely has me thinking. Rebecca, do you mean to say that we have no generational specialization? And more importantly, do we need a generational specialization? Our society moves forward when individuals specialize across the professional, economic, academic, etc. spectrum. While neurosurgery certainly isn’t anything I would ever consider specializing in, I am happy there are others out there that feel differently. Someday, one of us just might need someone with those specialized skills.

Professionally, I am working toward being a specialist in my field. I’ve worked in my field since graduating college (which isn’t saying much – coming up on 3 years), and I am currently working toward a masters in the field. I don’t want to be generalist. I think I would find it frustrating and confining to know a little about a lot, but not be able to go into much depth on anything. I actually feel that way at work right now. I feel like a sponge almost every day, just trying to soak in everything. I’ve been in my current position almost a year now and am finally becoming the go-to person in my organization for specific questions about my region (I hope I am making sense. I am trying to be vague – ironic given this post – since this is such a public domain!) and it feels great to know that I am contributing in my own way, however small or large that contribution may be. As I continue to specialize and my knowledge grows, it is my hope that my contributions will grow as well.

@ Sally – It makes perfect sense! I empathize with your frustration as I consider my own position the ER doctor of my field, as it’s a specialization in a way, but I feel I could have much more knowledge and am eager to soak it all up.

I’m not arguing that we need a generational specialization, but rather that we need to be the sponges constantly, searching for increased knowledge with which to take positive and meaningful action. To have more models like you, essentially ; )

So here I am surfing the net after a busy shift, and I came across your article. I’m sure you were using the whole ER docs being at the bottom as a analogy and all but its quite…well, ignorant. Med students go into their respective residencies because of their likes/dislike and what kind of lifestyle they want. Intelligence or ability has not much to do with what field you choose. Neurosurgeons have to know about the brain, ER docs have to have a broad base of knowledge and multitask to get the job done. Take a neurogsurgeon out of the controlled OR setting and put him in a chaotic ER to manage 2 heart attacks, a sick kid, a car accident, and EMS calling about an incoming stroke and tell me who is crapping their pants. I do that each day without breaking a sweat. Then again the OR is not my place. Our TRAINING is DIFFERENT. No one is superior to the other. Oh and talk to the CEO of any hospital and ask how much revenue ER admissions generate, see how important they think ER docs are. So please do your research before you make some dim witted comment…
Dating med students doesn’t really count.

@ ER Doc – I appreciate your comment and agree completely. I’ve been to the ER two years ago and they saved my life. So I’m forever in debt to ER doctors. You’re assumption that I was using ER doctors as an analogy is correct. It was a way to frame what I wanted to say about Generation Y and wasn’t meant to be insulting to ER doctors, although I understand it came off that way at times, and apologize for that.

Thanks again for your comment! It’s great that you love your profession.

I stopped reading when you said emergency docs are at the bottom of the hierarchy. Emergency medicine is one of the more difficult SPECIALTIES to match into. While emergency doctors do not claim to be the end-all experts in any category (except perhaps resuscitation), they are extremely skilled at identifying and stabilizing acute, life threatening disease. The social commentary you are trying to make may very well be valid. However, using misconceptions about a very skilled, intelligent, and hard working group of people is not a good way to get your point across.

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