I don't know about you but I get frustrated with baby boomers who simply bad-mouth Gen Y employees and don't think more about why they behave the way they do.

As a baby boomer, I would love to be as seemingly fearless as Gen Y. I would love to not worry about whether I kept my job or not. I would love to just decide to move on if I got fed up with my manager. It would be amazing to know that mum and dad would be there to pick up the pieces, provide me with the extra cash to pay my mobile phone bill or give me back my room that never really was vacated.
 
Many negative generalizations are made about this generation born (depending on the research you read) between 1977 - 1992 or 1980 - 1995.
 
What is true is that this group of employees is relatively new into the workplace and is causing angst among some managers and employers who have to respond to Gen Y's different values, drivers and fears.

Baby boomers are scared of losing their jobs

The key is that baby boomers (and some Gen Xers) who manage Gen Ys are fearful of different things and so are motivated, or not, in different ways.
 
For example: many baby boomers are fearful that they won't have enough money to fund themselves in their retirement - and for those with hefty mortgages, their amygdalae really fire up when an increase in interest rates is announced. For Baby Boomers, job security is a big issue.
 
On the other hand, Gen Y doesn't want to own property yet, or has decided it can't afford it anyway. And, though they definitely want a job, a good salary, career advancement and to be independent, they certainly won't hang around in a job they don't enjoy, with people they don't like, that's not giving them the opportunities, involvement and satisfaction. The threat of being fired, not promoted or no salary increase just doesn't motivate or inspire Gen Y.
 
Gen Y is not frightened by the future

Gen Ys want job stability and money to fund their lifestyle and especially work/life balance. Yahoo! HotJobs has recently published some interesting research on Gen Y professionals' priorities. Another important driver for Gen Y is peer group acceptance and involvement.
 
But, money won't buy their passion or commitment at work.
 
Why? Because unlike Baby Boomers and to some extent Gen X, they do not have a fear of authority nor of the future. The neural patterns stored in Gen Y brains are recession free, equity based, see plenty of job opportunities and cheap travel and are full of memories (even expectations!) of their baby boomer parents' indulgences.
 
Experiences and fears

We know from our own lives that the things that worry us, cause us fear, agitation, and make us stress - are mostly determined by our experiences. Those events and occurrences lodge in parts of our brain including our hippocampus (some of you will remember I talk about our ‘database of nasty things' in my workshops). Reflecting on the experiences Gen Y have had, or not had, is important in trying to figure Gen Y out.
 
Their brain isn't fully developed

The other factor is the stage of development of their thinking/rational/mediating part of the brain. Let's deal with this physiology first.

In another article, I talked about the fact that the pre-frontal cortex in young people is not fully developed until early to mid-20's. I was talking on that occasion in the context of fast and risky driving.

We are all born with a stress response and our fight/flight reaction is developed extremely early in life. What I've termed The Almond Effect® is when our flight/fight response is activated and we react accordingly but the situation that has triggered it is not really a true life/death event even though it has caused a fright; e.g. the boss imposes an unrealistic deadline.

Our amygdalae don't ‘know' that the event is a false alarm so it just responds - making us aggressive, defensive or simply frozen in the moment, unable to respond at all - primitive reactions in a contemporary world.

With a fully developed pre-frontal cortex, we can learn to recognize a false life/death alarm for what it is and modify our reaction so that we don't do and/or say things that are inappropriate and/or we later regret. We can train ourselves to Think before we Act (STAR).
 
Teach Gen Y about STAR as soon as possible
 
This is harder for younger people because STAR depends on the ability to use our pre-frontal cortex. And some scientists say this is not fully developed until about 25 years of age.

If it's not fully developed, then it's may be difficult for Gen Yers to not simply say what they think and do what they want to do in situations where something has triggered their fear response. Their mediating frontal cortex is still forming.
 
I'm not excusing some Gen Y behaviour on this basis. Rather I'm hoping that by reflecting on brain architecture and development, we baby boomers might calm our own amygdalae (almonds!) when Gen Y does something that annoys or frustrates us and not get ourselves so stressed about it.
 
That way we can engage our own thinking capability to teach Gen Y about STAR. This in turn will help them develop the required brain circuitry to reflect and mediate their responses. That'll be faster than waiting for nature to take its course.
 
Developing these kinds of emotional management skills is already becoming a part of some progressive schools' curriculum for their young people.
 
Gen Y experiences and fears

The other factor to consider when managing Gen Y is we all learn what to be afraid of based on our life experiences.

Gen Y has grown up in a very different world to baby boomers and Gen X. There are any number of books and research papers that spell out these differences and there are plenty of experts, e.g. Peter Sheahan.
 
From my perspective, looking at the neuroscience, Gen Y simply has not accumulated memories and events to trigger the same fears as baby boomers. We all know that they haven't grown up through recessions, high interest rates, ‘command and control', little or no IT and slow communications to name a few differences.
 
So when Gen Y doesn't have the same priorities, expectations and responses that we expect them to have or believe they should have, we shouldn't be surprised. But we usually are and so it's we who experience The Almond Effect!
 
So what is Gen Y concerned about?

Mission Australia's November 2006 report on Young Australians provides food for thought.
 
Body image is reported as a major issue by about 30% of young males and females. Yet the Report also says that less than half of the young Australians surveyed in the Mission Australia report were involved in sport. And almost paradoxically, there is plenty of research now to say that obesity is an issue especially for young people.
 
Another major significant concern for 2 in 5 young Australians is depression, suicide, self harm and coping with stress i.e. mental health issues.
 
It's particularly worrying that coping with stress is a big concern for this group. Here are some of the reasons why:

In the long term, stress may affect memories by destroying neurons in the hippocampus (part of our memory bank). If they start stressing young, what does this mean for their future mental health?

Stress also stimulates our appetite for ‘comfort' foods - usually foods that are high-fat high-starch and high in useless calories. What does this tell us about the obesity problem?

Stress also makes us sick - because the fight/flight mechanism (The Almond Effect®) is constantly running in the background. When we are stressed, adrenaline, cortisol and all the other chemicals that we need to "save ourselves" are flowing around our bodies negatively impacting all the usual healthy non-stressed body activities like our immune and digestive systems with potentially awful consequences.
 
It's no surprise that stressed people get every virus that's going around and sometimes have heart attacks and strokes. And if coping with stress is a problem for young people, what does this tell us about their present and future physical health?
 
Envy Gen Y? No, I'd rather be me
 
So next time a Gen Y'er frustrates you at work or at home - take a deep breath and think about the context that they are coming from - their brain physiology, their database of experiences and the matters they are fearful and worried about.

It won't make them change their behaviours but it might enable you to engage your pre-frontal cortex, calm down, use your emotional intelligence, be a STAR and maximize all the great things that creative, energetic, demanding and wonderful young people offer.
 
Ask Anne

Do you have a question or comment about The Almond Effect®, or how to use neuroscience to understand impediments to change, resistance to change, and how to overcome them? Perhaps you want to know more about how to attract and retain great employees, great customers and/or great relationships? If so, e-mail me at Anne@AnneRiches.com and I will do my best to provide you with an answer or solution privately or on my blog.