Generation Y

The unemployment/underemployment problem facing millennials predates the great recession. It goes back to the early programming they received from their parents when the economy was booming in the early 2000’s. And parents haven't let up. Dreams? Passion? Love? Sounds more like the teaser copy on the back of a smutty romance novel than sage career advice. The mindset of today’s parents is all about getting their kid to aim for the stars, to believe their dream, and to

With roots steeped rich in Celtic, Roman Catholic, and Protestant tradition, the annual Trick‑or‑Treat ritual that takes place this week can be traced back centuries. Originally, children would adorn hand‑made ceremonial costumes and go door‑to‑door singing out “a trick a treat!" Then they’d entertain their neighbors with carefully rehearsed songs, skits, and dances. If they performed well, the neighbor might reward them with some bread, fruit, or nuts. This encouraged the

My daughter and her husband have a handsome 2 yr. old Boxer. Titus is 70 pounds of energy, love, and affection. And man, he is a handful! He chews, digs, barks...and when she's walking him, Titus pulls my 105-pound daughter like an eighteen wheeler with an empty load. Whitney did a lot of research to find a really experienced behavioral trainer, and she hit pay dirt with Clem, an honest-to-goodness dog whisperer who's worked with canines for almost fifty years. Clem doesn'

My last day of teaching high school and coaching football was June 3, 1986. Due to declining enrollment of the school district where I was employed, my position was being eliminated. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back, I think I escaped just before the Apocalypse. Back then, I never feared parental retribution by giving a student a bad grade or by getting up in a player's facemask and yelling "Dammit Johnson, you're not giving 100%!" In all but a few isolated

Ever have a job where you felt picked-on, intimidated, harassed, and micro-managed by a tyrant boss? Most of us can recall working for a real jerk at some point in our job history, most likely when we were just entering the workplace and at the bottom of the totem pole. And maybe the way you were being unfairly treated made you want to 'get even' with your boss, so you called in sick on a day when you knew you were desperately needed, or you found a quiet corner to take per

The wife and I were out running errands on Saturday morning when we happened upon an unexpected and rare energy explosion. As we approached an intersection, we noticed a human billboard doing his very best to get the attention of the passing motorists; and getting attention from motorists is obviously what an individual in this occupation is paid to do. Human billboards have become commonplace in our metropolitan area, but this particular young fellow was going all out. He

The employment landscape in America for 16- to 24-year-olds is abysmal; the worst it's been in more than 50 years. So if you've got a teen or a young adult on your holiday gift list, don't head to the mall or to your nearest big box retailer. What they need most from you cannot be found in stores. According to Opportunity Nation, 5, 527,000 young adults (or one in 7 young adults ages 16-24) are not in school or working. Unemployment rates for youth ages 16-24 are double the

Every company that employs teens and young adults wrestles with the boundaries of professionalism. How do you get the emerging workforce to set aside, if only temporarily, the supposed “personal right of individual expression” in favor of representing you and your organization without completely zapping them of their enthusiasm, creativity, and energy? Sometimes their personal preferences line up squarely with your organization’s needs, but often, especially for the emerging

This headline makes absolutely no sense, but please don't shoot the messenger just yet. If you're confused about what's really going in with regards to Generation Y/Millennials in the workforce, turn off the news and stop reading the papers. The media is more confused than you are. Either that, or they're purposely trying to confuse you to force you to buy more papers to get unconfused. Yesterday, a story appeared in USA Today under the headline "Gen Y Most Likely to Hold L

Since my new book launched in January, I've sent out 273 complimentary copies. I know for a fact that at least four of those books were delivered. These books were not sent out unsolicited to a random list of people I was hoping to engage, but rather to clients, prospective clients, major media contacts, and close colleagues who requested them. Each received a personalized, autographed hard cover book accompanied by a hand-written postcard. Reviving Work Ethic retails for

Distracted workers are to employers what distracted drivers are to other motorists -- a constant and growing threat. There isn't a manager on the face of this planet who is willing to share the focused attention of her employees with the screen of a cellular phone. The reality is that employers are being forced to find ways to contend and compete with a ubiquitous technology that didn't exist when they, themselves, were just coming into the workplace. But as you'll see in t

In this highly entertaining infographic produced as a join effort between the University of North Carolina Business School and the Young Entrepreneurs Council (both largely comprised of the under-30 crowd) viewers are able to see the clear cut differences between older workers and millennials (a.k.a. Generation Y, Generation Why, Boomlets, Nexters, etc.). Through surveys, the respondents that represent this young cohort indicate their preferences and desires when it comes to

In 1989, 56% of the 16- to 19-year-olds in America were actively participating in the workforce. This meant that an employer hiring a young person in the late eighties and early nineties had better than a one-in-two chance that the young person they were considering understood what it meant to hold a job. In 2012, however, only 33% of those in the same age group are actively participating in the workforce. And the numbers for African-American and Hispanic teens are much lo

Are your seasonal employees going to have a blast this summer? Not away from work; but rather, at work? If not, they’re likely to vaporize before Labor Day. Job seekers are attracted to opportunities where ‘fun’ is included in the job description, so employers use the heck out of it. (Good thing for them the FTC isn’t monitoring their job postings or many would receive hefty fines for bait-n-switch advertising.) The reality is that work, in its purest form, is not all that

Any manager worth his salt knows exactly what to do when he notices an employee arriving late to the job. He'll have a line or two memorized for the first (and the second) time he observes a front liner who’s not wearing their uniform correctly (i.e. exposed tattoos, hat on sideways, etc.). He'll have HR on speed dial just in case he should ever spot one of his direct reports removing a $20 bill from the register and slipping it into her apron. It’s a manager’s responsibili

"Success comes from good judgment. Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." I can't verify the correct source of that quote, but I've heard many a version of this little axiom over the years. Makes me wonder how old I'll be before my experience will pay off and I'll stop doing so many stupid things. That day of enlightenment is nowhere in sight. As you'll see from this video, my latest blunder involves a surgery that I could have easily a

Quid pro quo (from the Latin meaning "this for that") is a commonly used term in business negotiations. It’s also the foundation of every employer/employee relationship. To illustrate, let’s say the quid represents the compensation an employer is willing to part with in exchange for labor they need to operate their business. The quo, then, represents the amount of work an individual agrees to provide in exchange for an agreed compensation. Our free market economy serves as

Infographics seems to be all the rage, and I enjoy them as much as anyone. But rather than take the information at face value, I feel it's a good practice to first examine the authoring organization, and question their stake in the implied conclusion(s). This one offers an interesting look at the use of technology and how it ultimately impacts the academic performance, behaviors, and even the mental state of teens who are the heaviest users of technology and the Internet.

I love it when an article writes itself. This is a gift from heaven. The company, Tempo, has creating an entertaining and revealing infographic that defines the problem (wasting time), the biggest offender (young employees), the reason (lack of job satisfaction) and offers several ideas and solutions, including (but not limited to) their own software product. All I can do is sit back and applaud. Er, ...I mean, all I can do is sit up and get back to work! Like this infog

by Mark Sanborn and Eric Chester (This is Part 2 of 2 offering ideas on how to recruit, manage, and retain 'firsters' - i.e. young adults entering their first 'real' position. Here's a link to Part 1.) In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dennis Nally, the chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), summed up the challenge of today’s first time, entry level employees, or “firsters”: “How they want to work…is very different than the prior generation. If your