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Managing the Facebookers

The Economist had some interesting comments on managing the careers of that young, self-absorbed generation we call the Echo Boomers. For Baby Boomer or Generation X managers, dealing with a generation of employees that was raised to believe that “everyone is above average and we’re all winners” can be a bit of a challenge. As the Economist writes,

“Managing the Facebookers”
Dec 30th 2008

Their defenders say they are motivated, versatile workers who are just what companies need in these difficult times. To others, however, the members of “Generation Y”—those born in the 1980s and 1990s, otherwise known as Millennials or the Net Generation [or Echo Boomers]—are spoiled, narcissistic layabouts who cannot spell and waste too much time on instant messaging and Facebook. Ah, reply the Net Geners, but all that messing around online proves that we are computer-literate multitaskers who are adept users of online collaborative tools, and natural team players. And, while you are on the subject of me, I need a month’s sabbatical to recalibrate my personal goals.

This culture clash has been going on in many organizations and has lately seeped into management books. The Net Geners have grown up with computers; they are brimming with self-confidence; and they have been encouraged to challenge received wisdom, to find their own solutions to problems and to treat work as a route to personal fulfilment rather than merely a way of putting food on the table. Not all of this makes them easy to manage. Bosses complain that after a childhood of being coddled and praised, Net Geners demand far more frequent feedback and an over-precise set of objectives on the path to promotion (rather like the missions that must be completed in a video game)

[ Read the Article ]

Philip Longman touched on this topic in his excellent book The Empty Cradle. Because raising children is so expensive, parents now have fewer of them. And because they have fewer of them, they coddle the ones they have far too much. The result is a soft-bellied generation that fits the stereotype of a spoiled only child, and one with attention deficit disorder at that.

To be fair, most generations face more or less the same criticism, and they eventually “grow up and get real jobs.” The generational divide is a little wider this go around mostly due to the new technology at the Echo Boomers’ disposal.

As the Economist says later in the article, the recession and the accompanying high employment rate is doing a lot to instill discipline in the Echo Boomers. Suddenly, “finding yourself” becomes secondary to finding a paycheck.

Regardless, like the Baby Boomers before them, the Echo Boomers will eventually leave their mark on American society and business. One of those kids instant messaging, blogging, and listening to his iPod while “working” may well end up being the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.