Millennials: The End of IT?
Posted July 2, 2008 by kenya
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I keep seeing articles about Generation Y’ers in the workplace. A lot of them say that Gen Y’ers are self-centered slackers – that they don’t know how to work, that they don’t have work ethic, that they stay on Facebook all day, etc. A lot of this is sensationalism – pure and simple. About 15 years ago I remember all the coverage about Generation X: we were the lost generation. We were all a bunch of slackers that wouldn’t amount to much. What happened to all that?
These articles about the impact of Millennials on the IT department really caught my eye.
- IT managers: Prepare for the millennials!
- Sanity check: Will technology empower Gen Y to wipe away our institutions?
Essentially they are saying that since Millennials are already tech-savvy that they are going to jettison time-honored institutions (like the IT department) from business.
Depending on what you read, there’s still a shortage of qualified people in IT. I’m sure the recent trends toward globalization have not encouraged more young people to study IT-related fields. That being said what you have is tech-savvy end users. What IT-type person doesn’t want users who might have a clue about what value information technology brings to a business? As someone who has worked in an IT department it is hard to convey that value to people who have not a clue what you even do. I was a developer of enterprise software and most people immediately thought, upon hearing that I was in the IT department, that I fixed computers.
The introduction of Gen Y’ers might serve to help streamline inefficient processes because generally that’s what young people do. “Because we’ve always done it that way” is not a good reason to do something. Some older folks might be afraid of that, but the way I see it, making things more efficient is a good thing especially when companies are trying to save money.
I do acknowledge generational differences in mindset regarding work. Baby boomers have been brought up to believe that staying at a job for the rest of your life is a good thing. Gen Y’ers and some X’ers have seen from our parents that this is not a good thing. We’ve seen our parents in the same job forever not geting ahead or the company forcing them to retire early. Many baby boomers believe in the “pay your dues” concept where you get ahead slowly after you have put in enough time. Gen Y’ers and some X’ers reject this concept believing that if you know what you’re doing you should be able to do it instead of fetching coffee and making copies.
What is further interesting is that IT has always been a field where the younger folks knew more about current technology as technology has a shelf life. Historically older workers have had to retrain to get the most up-to-date tech knowledge that the younger workers automatically came with. With that, I don’t how how these articles can make a big deal out of Gen Y’ers entering the workforce and its effect on the IT department.
Older IT professionals would be wise to take a look at the social networks and other apps that the “kids” are using and find out what value these apps may have. They would also be wise to find out what kinds of security should be in place to deal with these applications as blocking them will probably not be feasible. Just like email and instant messaging, adoption of many of these new technologies in the workplace is inevitable.
That young man pictured above is my cousin Jason. We communicate primarily through Facebook and Flickr.
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