Gen Y Work Culture: Don’t Show Up On Time, But Check Emails At 2am

For Gen Y, the work is an activity and not a place.

We are the first truly social/mobile generation that have very different expectations about office life. We are as comfortable working from home or in a café as we are in an office. We are as comfortable working with people online as we are face-to-face.

What we want from the company is to feel empowered; to be allowed to take risks, make mistakes, understand the grand vision and not just feel like a tiny part of a large machine.

Here are our core preferences at work:

– We want engaging and empowering work.

– 8/10 of Gen Y would rather make a positive difference to the world, than have a professional recognition.

– To almost half of us, flexibility is more important than pay.

– We would rather do what we are passionate about than earn lots of money.

Other amusing facts about us:

– We are the most educated generation in history.

– There are more millennials studying than working.

– 7/10 of Gen Y work as volunteer.

– 8/10 donate.

– More than half of the world’s population is under the age of 25. We are taking over the world! ☺

– 40% of Gen Y have a tattoo.

– Gen Y is the most advertised to generation in history. We are also the most aware, which makes it harder to appeal to us.

– Currently 50% of the workforce is filled with Millennials and as Baby Boomers head into retirement, that number will rise to 75% by 2030.

– 60% of Millennials left their company in less than three years, because company wasn’t a “good cultural fit.”

– 90% of Millennial entrepreneurs don’t think of it as starting a company. They see it as having the risk-taking and self-starting mindset of someone who spots an opportunity.

– One of the main reasons young people quit their jobs is because they want to work on their own projects.

If the “passion project” is related to the employer’s mission, you should encourage this entrepreneurial way of thinking. In fact, Google allows its engineers to take 20 percent of their time to work on something that they’re passionate about.

Yes, we work differently. We come in late, but check our emails at 2am and I hope by the year 2025 we will make working from home or from shared office spaces the norm — goodbye cubicles!

Reference: Business Insider, Forbes, USA Today, danschawbel.com.