Lessons in IT Transformation: Technology Expert to Business Leader

Adjusting to the Twenty-first-century Workforce

I was born in 1959, near the tail end of what we have come to know as the baby boomer generation. I was raised at a time when we were taught to respect authority, to be grateful to your employer for giving you a job, and to do as you were told. The fact that I went to Catholic grammar school (I still have flashbacks of nuns rapping my knuckles with a ruler) only further ingrained this mentality. We were led to believe that you found a company to work for, toiled in the proverbial fields for 30+ years, and at the end you received a gold watch, a pension, and the opportunity to wear plaid pants and play the back nine at some golf course in Florida. Somewhere along the way, this scenario evaporated as companies had to make difficult financial decisions, often at the expense of their peoples' benefits. The days of loyalty to an employee and a company seem in many cases to be a relic of the past.

Today's generation (called many things these days, but I'll stick with millennials) have a very different perspective on their work lives. They feel that they should be recognized and rewarded for their talents. They have grown up in the age of free agency where they are willing to trade their skills to the highest bidder. They feel a sense of entitlement that work is only a part of their lives and that their employer should create the kind of culture where they can have a holistic life experience.

Neither one of these generations are either right ...