“we are preparing kids for that jobs don’t exist.”
Are we sometimes preparing kids for jobs that will no longer exist
As we seek to retain Gen Y into the teaching profession, the school as a workplace needs to think about these elements and reinvent. One of the reasons why activity-based work has taken hold in the corporate sector, is that this generation are motivated differently and command and control culture is no longer achieving results. Gen Y employees will leave if they aren’t sufficiently engaged and they will take their talent and build their own start-up.
What are the key elements of activity-based work that can, and are, relevant in school education – for staff, as well as students?
When it comes to the psychology of leadership and creativity there are few people who I find more insightful and inspiring than Simon Sinek. He gained fame after his ‘Start with Why‘ TED talk that went viral and has really reshaped the conversation around creativity at pretty much every level of the agency and corporate world. I recently came across a new video of his called ‘Millennials in the Workplace.’
The statistics he uses are generally accurate, although they may show more correlation than causation.
Agree
– Desire to be “liked” in social media
– Texting while at dinner/meeting shows addiction/impatience
– We can be impatient when it comes to job fulfillment
Disagree
– Entitlement- more for those from upper class families?
– How many of the older generations- baby boomers, Gen X- love/are satisfied with their jobs?
– Hard to leave phone at home when expectation is to be “on call” 24/7
– Social media can help spark innovation because it provides one with knowledge of what’s “out there,” but agree that innovation can’t happen if we don’t let our minds wander
– Anxiety from other sources playing a factor? E.g. college debt, health care costs, etc.
But the question he posed at the very beginning was “Why are Millennials tough to manage?” The question itself implies that the issue here is with the Millennials, not with the Baby Boomer or Gen X managers. Most of my frustrations regarding my job stems from (what I perceive to be) inefficiencies. They’re partly because of the frustrations from the “old-school mindset” that is resistant to change- i.e. “we’ve always done it this way,” “don’t question me, I’m senior to you,” etc. So it’s not just millienials.
