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Foreign welcome to Leading Organizations that Matter, a podcast about leadership and how we find impact, meaning, and joy in our work. I'm Ray Spadoni, and today's topic is why Are Young People so Lazy? Okay, I'll begin here with an apology. I'm sorry for this clickbaity title. There's a reason I used it, however, and that's because it's exactly what a C suite executive recently said to me. It's an exact quote. While he was discussing the challenges that his organization was facing hiring and especially retaining younger workers, he gave me a passionate speech about how, when he was coming up through the ranks, he put in his time, paid his dues, worked long hours without compensation or immediate reward, and that he did so tirelessly and without making excuses. Maybe this is his generation's equivalent of I walked a mile to school in the snow. Full disclosure, When I say his generation, I also mean my generation. We're in the same age group that came of professional age when Michael Jackson, Tears for Fears and Cyndi Lauper were on the radio. That said, I don't hold his view regarding young people being lazy. First, his logic. The younger generation employees are by boundary setters, keen to stop right when they're assigned. Day is done complaining about having to stay late to complete work. They're more demanding when it comes to understanding the context of their jobs and the factors that could influence their positions. And finally, when the going gets tough, they get going, meaning they will quit and move on at the drop of a hat. Not so with us, said the executive. We were nose down, focused on our work, and we would never in a million years quit too early due to fear over how that would look to potential future employees. We were the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow generation. This generation, well, you can roll all that up in a ball and call it laziness. Okay, well, I have some thoughts. First, though, since I'm not in the younger generation, I can only point out what I've observed. And I know this can easily sound a little preachy, so I'm going to try not to sound preachy. If I do, I'm sorry. I work with a lot of younger and as I describe them, emerging leaders in my coaching, mentoring and consulting practice. And while every one of them knows who Michael Jackson, Tears for Fears and Cyndi Lauper are, they have grown up in very different times with different challenges and so they have different expectations and I dare say different relationships with their jobs. I'm working with coaching clients who are in this in this camp. And I can tell you they're not lazy. They're not. Here is what I'm hearing from them, from them. First, many of them witnessed parents who were loyal to careers and companies that ultimately were not loyal to them. When the companies could automate or offshore or outsource, they did so, leading to their downsizing. This generation has responded by being quick to in effect downsize the company. First, they will leave to pursue a better opportunity. In some ways, it's kind of a quid pro quo dynamic in some, you know, in many respects. Second, many of them are worried about their finances. Studies are showing in a very compelling MANNER that millennials, that is people who are in the age range of about 23 to 38 as of this recording, are the very first generation to fare worse than the prior one economically. Why? Well, it's because of financial downturns and how higher education expenses resulting in huge amounts of out of the gate debt, stagnant wages, increasing wealth inequality, high cost of things like health benefits, and the staggeringly high cost of real estate in most markets. I'm hearing from my millennial clients that this is causing them a lot of stress and that is influencing their job related decisions. And finally, they, they all grew up in the cell phone, high tech, social media, Internet age. Information is readily available and so their ability to learn and wonder about context is vastly greater than mine was at their age. When I went to go work for a company at that point in my career, I just assumed it was doing fine, it was doing okay. Today, employees can ask AI to perform a thorough analysis on the prospects of a company on their cell phone while they're sitting on a subway headed to a job interview. That makes them much more context aware than I ever could have been. When I put this all together, I don't see it as laziness. I see it as different, very different. The implication for employers is that they need to understand where their younger employees are coming from, engage them in bigger picture understanding when possible, and build retention strategies that will provide some measure of financial relief and predictability for them. I'm seeing some great examples of this at some of my consulting clients that are focusing in on hiring and retaining these millennials. They're offering things like accelerated college, debt repayment programs, personal financial planning workshops. And senior leaders are changing the manner in which they relate in town hall employee meetings from you know, traditional PowerPoint heavy talking head presentations to more of a theater in the round open Q and a more sort of transparent style conversational approach. Our mission driven companies that is, Organizations that Matter need a strong and engaged workforce, and they also need future leaders. Those who are willing to step in and steer those organizations in their important missions forward and into the future would all do well to recognize the different worldviews that they have and then respond to them most effectively. Okay, I'm going back to listening to Tears for Fears. Thanks for listening. Leaving a positive review and letting others know about this podcast will help a great deal. My mission is to help empower Organizations that Matter by supporting those who lead them. I offer coaching, mentoring, and consulting services. You can learn more about me and my work@racepadoni.com sa.