Where I think Y-ers differ significantly from their Gen X and BB colleagues is in challenging what constitutes ‘hard work’, or a ‘good day at the office’. This is where I think the task vs time argument comes in.

A lot has been written about how Gen Y are performance-driven workers whose main goal is to deliver on clearly defined targets. I agree with a lot of this. Gen Y seems less interested in processes and more interested in outcomes. Completing clear-cut tasks gives Y-ers an unambiguous sense of achievement and psychologically it allows them to shrink work down to a manageable size to prevent it from ballooning out of control and encroaching on their free time.

Work becomes a ‘things to do list’ as opposed to a period of the day spent in the office. So when the work is completed, a satisfactory outcome has been achieved, and there’s not much more which could profitably be done in the remaining time, shouldn’t the workers be able to leave? Corporotania more often than not will say NO, and will not expect to have to justify its response.

Y-ers, however, will expect a very good reason for having to hang around and sit out the clock with very little to keep them busy: after all, presenteeism for Y-ers is anathema.

But surely there’s a plus side to having staff who are task-focused. Gen Y workers may not want to hang around the office when they consider the day’s work to be done, but they are much more flexible about getting things done outside of traditional working hours if needs be: responding to emails in the evening, manning event stalls at the weekends etc. Alison Treppa’s post about Y-ers working for Not For Profit Orgs picks up on this idea.

In this market, that attitude isn’t going to go down terribly well with potential employers – many of whom may well be boomers and Generation X themselves and who had to really buckle down during the last major recession. And it’s going to be those people who can demonstrate that they can add real value to a business that will succeed. That means getting back to the Generation X ethos of hard work, long hours and potentially less time off.

Wow! Sounds like this year’s office party at Nigel Lynn is a guarenteed barrel of laughs with jokers like Steve on the job.

On a more serious note, can I remind those of you who have already received your Gen Y Membership Pack to post it back to the return address printed on the back of the envelope. Generation X (v.2) handbooks will now be issued upon induction.

CBS News Science and technology correspondent, Daniel Sieberg, argues that whilst many BB bosses see their younger employers as technologically savvy, they also think they lack crucial interpersonal skills.

Amy Manus over at Adotas concurs. Our over-exposure to digital media has left Y-ers struggling to grapple with the concept of face-to-face communication. We’re so used to having the time to formulate witty responses in the stasis of cyberspace that we find ourselves outpaced in real time conversation, where we are unable to hide behind the relative safety of the backspace key and ‘BRB’. Some of us even struggle to make eye-contact when conversing with colleagues. Yikes!

More worringly, Y-ers seem to be clueless when it comes to communicating in a formal, business register, as one of Sieberg’s sources, Ron Alsop puts it:

Some millennials will put this text-messaging shorthand in formal memos and business reports, might even put in a happy face…

Whilst I would strongly agree that using text lingo in a corporate report is a no-no, you do have to ask yourself how widespread the text type epidemic actually is? And as for the suggestion that generation Y inherently lacks the armory of social skills and sensitivity of approach needed to get on in today’s world of bussiness, surely this is an issue that needs to be addressed by a slew of employees from every generation?