In our workplace at flyte new media we are blessed with an extraordinary group of co-workers – one of the best (and funniest) designers around; a web guru whose expertise continues to save me from the leap out the window; good natured, sunny, funny and very smart co-workers.

One of my co-workers closed on her first home today.  By her own admission she is 22 going on 40.  Another is mid-twenties and last year she got married and purchased their first home.  Why am I writing about these two in particular today?  Because of how impressed I am with them and how they break the stereotype of Generation Y.  They are two very pretty, young blonds; and if you believed the Generation Y hype you would expect them to come and go as they please, have an entitled attitude, and expect to be promoted by the end of their first month.  But this is not at all the experience of working with these individuals.  Yes, they are the young pretty blonds that so many of us  middle aged women would like to dislike – but they are also very smart, very dedicated, forward looking, budget planning, high work ethic, responsible and focused on improving the company.

In doing a quick bit of research to check on my use of  “Generation Y” in this post, I came across this CBS 60 Minutes article from a couple years ago.  I found that by half way through the article I was actually embarrassed that at that time I would have swallowed it all hook, line and sinker (and I have definitely worked with some of the types outlined in the article).  But, as has always been the case, forget the stereotype – we are working and interacting with the individual, and should manage expectations accordingly.

Lindsay and Nicki, I can only wish I had had your focus, planning and decision making ability back in my early twenties.  Congrats to both of you!   And if someone out there reading this has co-workers you respect and admire – tell them so – even the non-Generation Y folks like to have a pat on the back.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 7:26 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.