When asked to characterize the youth and young adults of today, often the term people use is Entitled. According to a study…
Nearly 83% of Americans surveyed strongly or somewhat agreed that America’s youth feel more entitled compared to 10 years ago, according to a national survey conducted by the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute.
Many blame it on the “On Demand” world this generation is growing up in. Further fed by a generation of over nurturing, large middle-class, well-to-do parents. But is this sense of entitlement a negative trait, or simply evolutionary?
According to Maslow, we naturally aim to achieve each level of the pyramid in order, starting with Psychological, which includes the bare necessities of life like breathing, food, water, etc., to eventually striving to reach a sense of self-actualization.
Abraham Maslow’s Pyramid
Could entitlement stem from a societal achievement of Esteem? According to the same study…
About half of all respondents said America’s youth are more confident, more educated, and have more self-esteem – 53.7%, 57.3% and 55.6% respectively.
Could be… as long as it’s coupled by a sense of respect and responsibility I believe this will be a positive change.
But what will the socioeconomic impact of this evolution be? Specifically to our work environment? Well we see today already that many new employees are more comfortable to change their career several times in their lifetime, unlike our parents and grandparents that may have worked for a single company all their lives. In fact, Generation Y is expected to change jobs about 29 times during their life, with an average job lasting about 1.1 years. Although this allows employees to align their careers more readily with their evolving interests, resulting in a happier work life. This will obviously put a strain on large, long term projects that require a certain level of steady commitment to be successful. Building agile teams who are certified in their trait and adhering to the growing number of industry standards certainly would help ensure a project continues along its path regardless of change and with minimal impact. But there is something that will be lost in the ways of yesterday: commitment, loyalty, responsibility, are all important in a stable society and an economy. Though that can be argued is a two-way street.
