BUTWE DID.

By Alan Oakes

What do you want to be when you grow up?

f ceN TMAGTNE nothing better than finding the right career and being extraordinarily Itrappy. I wonder how many of us find that. When I'm asked if I followed my dream path, I've always replied that I never had the imagination to know what I wanted to be; everything good and bad just seemed to follow on from the job before.

When I was 19, my immediate path was determined to a degree when I decided that I wanted a car, but could not afford one. So I began looking at sales positions that offered a company car. Soon after, I became the proud driver of a brand new station wagon, all paid for. AtZ2,after getting married the year before and with a baby on the way, we needed to buy a house. To do that, I had to up my earnings and get paid by a combination of salary and commission. The more I sold, the more I eamed. Naturally,I then needed more, and to do that I needed my first management job, so at 24... You get the idea. Of course, by 50' I was completely burned out. would I swap any of it? No! But I sometimes regret that I could not find a life balance. It took me to my 60s before I finally got it.

I am a true Baby Boomer. In today's workplace, we have three or possibly four generations working alongside each other, and each looks at the other with increasing incredulity. Interestingly, you read regularly how this industry is not attracting and retaining enough young talent, and this was a topic at the recent NAWLA executive leadership conference. As the industry moves back into a growth mode, I see a number of companies are concerned where they will find their new leadership.

Many of the new Gen Y'ers (bom from 1979 to 2002, with 70 million strong) are now hitting the workforce in large numbers. They cunently comprise abotrt l4%o of the workforce. They are quite different and have different expectations from my generation, as well as the Gen X'ers. As a seasoned manager, I imagine it would be difficult to manage this new generation, one that's incredibly sophisticated, especially technology-wise, and that wants to work, but doesn't want work to be their lives, like me and many of my generation.

Gen Y members are more racially and ethnically diverse, and they are much more segmented as an audience, aided by the rapid expansion of cable TV channels, satellite radio, the Internet, e-zines, etc. They have no compunction in changing companies or even careers, making them difficult to retain. Indeed, they don't expect to stay in a job long' And, because of my generation's hire-and-fire mentality, they see no value in loyalty.

They are also very sure of themselves and their abilities, appearing to want to run before they can walk, disinterested in long-term projects, preferring to multi-task, anddue to how they were raised, with no downtime and one at-school or after-school activity after another-getting bored easily. They are both high performance and high maintenance. More importantly, they possess a confidence in their own value that may not match our view of them. We are used to a command-and-control style of management, yet they grew up differently. We never questioned our parents; they grew up challenging everything, and they are now doing the same in the workforce, aggravating perhaps their different generational manager. They love their independence and are unafraid of challenging the status quo. They text the person in the next cubicle, when we would just get up and actually talk.

They also want great flexibility in how-and when-they work. This alone may be our industry's hardest challenge. Unlike us career-minded Boomers, Gen Y wants their jobs to accommodate their lifestyles and family life. They love working when they want to work, enjoy telecommuting, or feel they're entitled to the comer office after six months. In the end, they want a place to show their creativity and independent thinking, where they can work collaboratively and with great flexibility. After 9/ll, they saw that life can be short and should be valued more.

I deliberately framed this column with a "we"/"them" slant, since it's become clear there is a divide. This is our future. Every company will have to determine what it will or will not do. Many companies will have to change According to a recent survey, 6OVa of companies are experiencing generational divide, and TOVo of older employees are dismissive of younger employees and their abilities (and, I suspect, the other way round, too). Somewhere the two must meet and find an "us."

Alan Oakes, Publisher ajoakes@aol.com www.building-products.com

A publication of Cutler Publishing 4500 Campus Dr., Ste.480, Newport Beach, CA 92660

Publisher Alan 0akes ajoakes@aol.com

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