Brett November 17th, 2008
I found an interesting article detailing how ESPN manages its marketing
workforce. The marketing department at ESPN is almost 70% Gen Y, so they have
had to quickly adapt to this generation’s attitudes towards work. The managers
at ESPN use an interesting technique that I believe could be applied to many
companies called clearing. Clearing focuses on having a team come together
every so often and air grievances and compliments from both employees and
managers. For any identified problem, the team should make an action plan to
deal with the grievance.
I think this works ideally with a group of young professionals because they
are so accustomed to being able to speak their minds. Instead of having
problems boil under the surface, clearings offer young people a chance to give
their opinions, feel like they have been heard, and that their manager respects
their views. The whole key will be to balance this technique, and make sure
managers do not overuse it does not go overboard, making everyone feel like
‘clearing’ is another worthless meeting.
For the full article please click the link below:
How ESPN Manages Their Gen Y Employees
Brett November 10th, 2008
Too often I hear from all the pundits, corporate execs, and basically everyone older than myself that my generation is lazy and out of touch. That I and all the rest of my generation have squandered all that America has created in the past half century. On a recent 60 Minutes piece “The Millennials Are Coming” (look at minute 3:50), one of the interviewees, Mary Crane, highlighted that Millennials have no idea what a day of hard work looks like. Instead (as she puts it) we have spent our summers excavating Machu Picchu, building orphanages in Mexico, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, and taking cushy internships with corporations. She explains that Gen Yers have never spent any time in the trenches doing ‘hard labor’ so that we would quickly learn that we did not want to dig ditches for the rest of our lives.
Continue Reading »
Brett November 5th, 2008
“Hi, I’m representing the Silent Generation (born before World War II) on today’s panel, and I can’t stand it when all these young kids always ask why.” And with that the panel introductions ended, and I found myself staring into a less than supportive crowd of 200 plus executives nodding their head in agreement.
Let’s back up a bit…
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Brett November 4th, 2008
When it comes to retaining young workers Google has it right. While almost every magazine and article points out the various perks workers enjoy like a cafeteria, filtered air, day care, etc., I think they are missing the point. It is not just these perks that young professionals respond to, but rather the atmosphere all of these things create. And that atmosphere starts from a single idea that Google is not just a place to work, but a college. In fact in some their promotional material they even refer to Googleplex as a college.
Obviously, Page, Brin and Schmidt do not mean it in the Van Wilder type way that so many people take college to mean today. Instead, they used the definition of a college as being a place where peers can interact, feel comfortable, and share ideas. Creating such a community where information and knowledge is readily shared and passed is quite unique in corporate America today.
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Brett October 28th, 2008
We’ve heard for years about the ‘Tweeners’. Those kids who are too young to be teenagers, but aspire to be like them. They have been a marketer’s little slice of heaven. Through targeted marketing campaigns that played on their anxiety and desire to be older, corporations have been able to create blockbuster products like Hannah Montana.
While the Tweeners are today a widely recognized group, another demographic has begun to develop on the other side of the spectrum: young professionals between the age of 21-30. This might strike everyone as incredibly odd, but in fact if you look closely, this age group is in as much a transition as the original Tweeners. Even though very few people talk about it, the tail end of Gen X and the beginning of Generation Y is currently in the middle of an incredible evolution. Continue Reading »
Brett April 27th, 2008
Some have called the ‘boomerang’ phenomenon currently sweeping the Western world the hallmark of the downfall of western civilization, others the epitome of this ‘entitlement’ generation, and finally others have called it plain ridiculous. I, on the other hand, think it is one of the smartest and most sensible things our generation will accomplish. I’m talking about the tendency for college graduates to return home at some point during their early professional careers. At first, this might seem counter-intuitive, but upon closer examination it actually produces the best mix for twenty-somethings (while not always for their parents). We have this American ideal that at 21, your son or daughter must be out of the nest or you are a bad parent and your child is bleeding you dry; fortunately that mentality is changing, and progressive parents are starting to see the value of the ‘boomerang’. Whether you agree with the trend or not, it is increasing, facilitated by economic and personal factors. This trend is also beginning to make itself felt in the workplace, enabling young professionals to change jobs if they become dissatisfied with their current one.
Economics 101
The cost of living for a young professional is skyrocketing while incomes remain stagnant. As everything from rice to rent jumps along with the commodity boom it puts increased financial strain on those recent graduates. Coupled with the fact that incomes have been rising at a paltry 3% and real incomes have remained virtually flat, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that a young professional’s budget is being squeezed. Since rent and food account for massive portions of a young professional’s budget, moving in with the parents provides immediate financial protection from the rising prices…I will grant that most young people squander this surplus rather than save, but that is for another post. Continue Reading »
Brett April 26th, 2008
I’ve always thought that I wanted to go back to New York. The atmosphere, people, and X were so fast paced, that I knew that is where I wanted to live. Then I came to California with my family and I saw the light. Warm winters, walking in sandals everyday, and most especially California Burritos beat out the snow of the East any day.
I’ve begun to notice though that here in my hometown of San Diego young professionals such as myself have been getting squeezed out. In some cases the city has actively tried to kick 20 somethings out of their neighborhoods because older neighbors feel that we are a distraction to their peaceful living. Don’t these older folks understand that we are the life of this city? As more and more restrictions are put in, I have felt the pulse of San Diego become slower and slower. Continue Reading »
Brett April 26th, 2008
Is it just me or has anyone out there found social networking sites not very social? Marc Zuckerburg and many of the other founders all talk about this grand society network that’s being created, but in all honesty are you even interacting with the person whose profile you are staring at? In many ways, you’re just a passive observer of your friend’s life, which seems almost opposite of what you’d want to do to be friends with someone.
The worst one of all, I think, is Twitter. When I first heard of the site, it actually seemed really interesting, but when I started using it, I felt almost like part of my humanity was being sapped out of me. Describing my entire life in 150 characters seems borderline insane. Then for Jack Dorsey to suggest that we must go to this level because we are all too busy to actually stop and talk with our friends or perhaps even meet them for dinner, also seems a bit absurd. Continue Reading »
Brett April 3rd, 2008
I recently talked to a friend, who graduated with me from Notre Dame, who works in consulting. After the normal exchange of ‘what’s up’, ‘nothing’, I asked what he had been doing at work. He casually (and I almost didn’t notice) said he spent the week carrying boxes.
“What???” I exclaimed confused, “why would you be doing that.”
He responded that his company had sent him to Cincinnati for the week to ‘consult’ (and I use that with extreme generosity) with a company there. When he reported for work on Tuesday morning, the company informed him they had nothing for him to do. After sitting around for a few hours, the company finally found a task for him: move boxes in storage up to their top floor because no one else wanted to do it. Continue Reading »
