The greasy pole

I’ve frequently opined that the greasy pole of management progression would beat out the radical thinking of Gen Y’ers. Seems I was wrong. According to AccountancyAge, we have a new breed of entitlement employees who job hop and are unwilling to volunteer:

Generation Y also have little job loyalty, often being prepared to move on every year or so, with Reed in part blaming this ‘have it all’ approach on the fact they are the first generation to come into work saddled with heavy student debt.

‘There can be a sense of “I am better than that” or, somehow, what you asking is beneath them. They have a degree or loads of A* A-levels and you are asking them to do some photocopying. They don’t volunteer, or the ones that do really stand out,’ complains one senior accountant…

…Karen Young, business director for Hays Senior Finance, concedes this clash of expectations can be cause problems. ‘Often the managers or partners will have worked really hard to get to the top and these guys seem just to want a fast track,’ she says. ‘Often they do not fully realise the value of core work experience on their CV and, on top of this, have a very strong concept of work-life balance.’

If true then this is a dangerous trend. In marketing, it is said that your half-life in a management position is around two years. That seems to be about right given what I’ve seen over the years among peers who are in those roles. But that only comes after spending years in the trenches learning their craft. But perhaps there’s another side to this.

In a case study from Menzies in the same article, the interviewee is quoted as saying:

‘I completely disagree with the idea that Generation Y want too much. But what we do want is mentoring, training and recognition when we have done something well. If you put in extra effort you do want some feedback to help you know that are going in the right direction. If you don’t know what you are doing well or badly you can never improve.

So what are we missing? This is something I’ve discussed with Francine McKenna in attempting to understand why so many of what I thought were the basics of auditing have gone so awry.

I remember when I was training that for whatever reason, I could not get my head around contra eliminations. OK – so I was juggling hand written spreadsheets with upwards of 25 companies and multiple currencies but even so, it was one of those ‘mental block’ things that drove me nuts for about three months.

I was fortunate that I had an open door to my grey haired mentor who day after day patiently worked through the examples, never once losing his temper or consigning me to menial tasks. I wonder whether such people still exist?

It turns out the senior partners and staff in large firms are so busy running around to meetings, making sales and keeping clients happy that there is little time devoted to skills transference. That leaves less senior (and by definition less experienced/skilled) staff to pass on their knowledge to the next generation. Worse still, supervision that would act as back stops for errors or omissions are eroding. Is it therefore surprising when young hopefuls simply shrug, pack up their bags and move on to the next opportunity? Given the extent to which Gen Y’ers are job hopping, has this change at senior level become endemic?

That may have been the position until most recently. I suspect the recession, a contraction in job opportunities, coming regulation and the continuing litany of failure will serve to reset and redress the balance. Or at least I hope so.

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Tagged as: Francine McKenna, Generation Y, Work-life balance