Not slackers, but so hard to figure out
By Rajan Chettiar, The Straits Times, 6 May 2012
When I was in school, my parents reminded my siblings and me incessantly (nagging was more like it) to get good grades so that we would find good jobs and enjoy a secure future. We were not allowed to miss school even when we were sick.
When we started work, we were told to work long and hard. We were constantly reminded to report to work on time and not take sick leave unnecessarily. We received no sympathy from our parents for spending long hours at work, even on weekends.
So I could not understand it when a close friend's daughter did not start working immediately upon completing her university education last year. 'I have just spent four years studying; I need a rest,' was her explanation. It did not help that her father was supportive of her decision. Six months passed before her mother began worrying.
A few years ago, I was surprised when my 23-year-old paralegal told me her mother did not want her to work past 6pm. I have since met many other like-minded Gen Y individuals who have made me wonder how and why the values of earlier generations have eroded. If one does not work hard during one's youth, when does one do so?
Having run a business with Gen Y staff for the last nine years, I sometimes still do not understand Gen Y, their characteristics and attitude to work.
Why is Gen Y averse to hard work? Are they slackers? Why is their work ethic so different from mine? Why do they have difficulty complying with defined work processes? Why are their work methods different? Why don't Gen Y employees stay in a job long? Why do they need to have friends at the workplace? Why are they distracted so easily at work by their mobile phones and social media?
When I spoke to lawyers of my generation about Gen Y lawyers, they echoed my concerns. I found some insight and answers on the Internet.
Gen Y people are described as confident, independent, ambitious, achievement-oriented and good at multi-tasking. They are technology- savvy, seek a lot of information often from alternative sources and enjoy interactive entertainment.
They care about family. In a survey, 'Harnessing the potential of Gen Y workforce in Singapore', the Singapore Human Resource Institute found in 2008 that Gen Y's biggest fear is losing their family.
Work-life balance seems important to most Gen Y employees. In a 2010 article for Inside Counsel magazine, 'Mind the gap: Gen Y attorneys enter the workplace', writer Lauren Williamson says Gen Y lawyers define success in terms of work-life balance and flexible arrangements. They are very family- centric. They are willing to trade high pay for flexible work schedules.
To Gen Y, she adds, success means celebrating the difference that an individual can make to his work and which will distinguish him from the rest of the pack.
The Gen Y lawyers she interviewed had a different vision of workplace expectations than their bosses did. They did not subscribe to traditional work methods. They preferred working from home or at Starbucks. They preferred checking and responding to e-mail with their smartphones and having virtual meetings rather than face-to-face ones.
Though Gen Y are perceived to become bored easily, to not stay long in a job, demand instant gratification, display distrust towards authoritative figures, have a high opinion of themselves and seek rewarding jobs with ample opportunities to move up in their careers, I have found that most are not the slackers they are made out to be.
Unable to achieve their objectives as junior associates in law firms, many Gen Y lawyers in Singapore quit law practice after a few years and seek jobs as in-house counsel, which enables them to do meaningful work and see the results of their efforts quickly.
Legal headhunters worldwide are of the view that it is impossible for employers to adopt the role of parent figure to change the characteristics of Gen Y. Rather, it would be easier for employers to re-adapt their work environment.
Should Singapore employers cater to the high demands and expectations of Gen Y? This generation makes up more than 20 per cent of the workforce and is indeed the future of our workforce. Re-adapting would require customising work solutions, being flexible and accommodating the needs of Gen Y.
Gen Y and their older colleagues must take steps to understand each other. Most Singapore law firms are aware of the need to engage their Gen Y lawyers and to understand the different language they speak.
Gen Y associates expect a lot of their Singapore law firm partners today. They expect bosses to inspire, guide, provide regular feedback and frequent praise, as well as provide fulfilment, allow them to speak their mind and question management.
We can try. While law firms attempt ways to meet the needs of their Gen Y lawyers, one basic and important tenet of law practice remains, and cannot be compromised or changed. For Gen Y lawyers aspiring to rise in the profession, there is no escaping the long hours the job requires.
The writer is managing partner of the law firm, Rajan Chettiar & Co. This article is adapted from a commentary that first appeared in the April issue of the Singapore Law Gazette.
Why work so hard unless it's fun?
No need to remind us that our jobs are not our lives - we already know that
By Rachel Chang, The Straits Times, 6 May 2012
The curriculum vitae of a friend of mine would throw any headhunter a curve ball.
It is impressive and not padded out at all. She did a financial-type degree at one top school and then a humanities-type master's at another.
And while in a management position in her day job, she spends an almost equal amount of time outside of it indulging her love for art - working at galleries, interviewing artists and writing for an art magazine.
She was asked once why her professional pursuits seem so unfocused. 'Why not?' was her reflex reaction. We were always encouraged to be well-rounded, and to follow every passion.
Surely the enjoyment of many activities in one's life is as valuable - if not more so - than a single-minded, intense pursuit of one career path.
But one man's definition of well-roundedness may well signify dilettantism to another. Perhaps what Generation Y defines as good living is what older generations may call lazy and capricious.
We want to have a life outside of work, have an array of hobbies, and switch jobs early, and often. They call us jacks of all trades and masters of none.
I once attended a women's networking event, where a politician in her 50s was imparting words of wisdom to professionals in their 20s.
One participant said that she was in her third job, after graduating in 2007.
'Wow,' said the politician. 'I'm in my second job, and I graduated in 1978.'
I saw a generation gap yawn open in the silence that followed.
It's the same sort of chasm between workaholic bosses and their resistant underlings in offices around the island. An editor once told a few of us young journalists not to put work ahead of our personal lives.
When she was a cub reporter, the demands of the newsroom superseded everything, she recalled. Even if you were meant to celebrate your mother's birthday, if the newsroom needed you, you worked.
Don't be afraid to ask for that time off for personal commitments, she told us. The thing is, I don't think it ever occurred to us to be.
Of course, there are still people out there burning their 20s off in blocks of 100-hour work weeks. Presumably, they will wake up one day when they're 35, look at the worn face looking back at them in the mirror, and quit their jobs to run a scuba kiosk on a Malaysian beach.
But by and large, this isn't the generation that had to invent a term to remind themselves that their jobs aren't their lives. It's the generation that is living 'work-life balance' for real.
The circumstances that enable this well-rounded, unfocused lifestyle are the same blessed ones that engender all of Generation Y's other failings.
Affluence, choice, entitlement, time spent on the Internet - all abounding in inverse proportion to real responsibility.
But what if this isn't just the whimsy before the wake-up call of adulthood? What if it's not Peter Pan syndrome, but a genuine desire to live a different sort of life - one that is broad, rather than deep; one that is enjoyment-driven, rather than achievement-oriented?
I cannot deny that well-roundedness seems unlikely to be a trait of anyone who has ever changed the world. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates - those guys probably didn't take archery classes on weekends and spend time perfecting their downward-facing dogs.
They probably didn't have a thing for Werner Herzog, or a Pinterest board that is repinned constantly by like, everyone.
But how many of us are really going to be one of those people anyway? And since the great majority of human beings are going to be quite average in the grand scheme of things, why spend our lives striving for ultimate mediocrity, working 100 hours a week for a two-bedder near Somerset and a set of broken personal relationships?
Why not spend quite a bit of it just having, well, fun?
I believe it was a dilettante who drank too much and flunked out of law school who envisioned a world where nobody would be defined by an 'exclusive activity' - what we would nowadays call a career.
He dreamt of a world where it would be possible to 'do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner - without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic'.
I guess Karl Marx never changed the world either. But he sure had a lot of fun.
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