Related Article: Generational Differences in the EMS Workplace - Part 2
Your Next Employee May Be Unlike Anything You Have Seen Before
Part 1 of 2
Wanted: An EMS organization that is fast-moving, progressive and innovative. Must provide a learning environment, real feedback and sincere management. Don’t waste my time or micromanage me; the organization must provide flexibility and a balance between work and life. Understand that I still might leave for the next higher-paying offer that comes along. If interested in hiring me, call and I will set up an interview to consider your offer…because I have other options.
- The New Generation Employee
Everywhere I go, I hear the people talk about how “today’s employees just don’t care”, or “today’s employees just don’t have the work ethic we used to.” A friend of mine sold his ambulance company in the mid-nineties and started over again several years ago. After his first year back in the business he said to me, “Steve, everyone thought I was a hard-ass the first time, but in this last year I have fired more people then I ever did in my prior 19 years in the ambulance business.”
What changed in the 9 years he was away to create the perception that new employees are so bad? Many psychologists and organizational behaviorists will tell you the real change is that today’s employees are coming from the new generations – Generation X (ages 29-43) and Generation Y (ages 18-29) – and employers haven’t taken the time to understand or prepare for them.
There is a chance that most of your employees today and all future employees coming to your organization most likely will be Generation Y and you may not be ready for them. This generation, also referred to as “Generation Why” in reference to the question that forms on their lips constantly, are technologically advanced, restless and, as a generation, concerned first about themselves. These characteristics are often interpreted by older generations as as “uncaring” and “disloyal”.
The potential effect of the integration of this new employee group into the EMS workforce is massive, and EMS, often slow to change, will have to prepare for it. Generation Y is rapidly becoming the largest segment of new workers entering the workplace. Four million people a year are turning 21 years old and many of them are looking for careers in healthcare and EMS.
Those That Came Before – A Generation Gap in the Making
EMS organizations have often thought of diversity in ethnic and gender terms, but diversity across generational lines is equally important when it comes to management sensitivity and effectiveness. One author categorized the mixture of ages, values, and views as “diversity management at its most challenging”. Today, as many as four generations can be working in your organization, each possessing different perspectives and motivations. Try to manage and motivate them the same way and you are likely to see a “generation gap” in the overall performance of the group. Tulgan, in Managing Generation X says, “We are living through the most profound changes in the economy since the industrial revolution, and all the forces shaping the economy are shaping our new generations.”
This generation gap is seen in EMS and fire services alike, and it isn’t likely to just go away. A recent post on a fire engineering listserv summed up the feelings felt in a traditional fire department role:
I hear people talking about the generation gap. The older guys don’t understand the kids today and the kids don’t understand the “old guys”. With all the changes over the last 10 years, the gap seems to be more prevalent.
The new kids are glued to their cell phones, BlackBerries, laptops, etc. And they want to be Captains tomorrow! The word family doesn’t exist in the fire service anymore; after all, it’s just a job.
The gap is more prevalent and the pace is quickening; the Veterans and Baby Boomers each had a span of 21 years, while Generation X and Y only cover 14 years each. It is expected that the Millennium Babies and future generations will “turn over” even quicker.
There is no unanimous agreement about the lifespan of each generation, and at each end there is a generational “bleed over” of characteristics. But in general, the following generations have preceded today’s Generation Y employees:
- The Veterans, age 64 to 85 years (born 1922-1943)
- The Baby Boomers, age 43 to 65 years (born 1943-1964)
- Generation “X”, age 29 to 43 years (born 1964-1978)
Even the youngest Veterans are nearing retirement age and probably make up a very small percentage of an EMS organization’s workforce. The Baby Boomers are the employees that are remembered fondly when EMS managers talk about the “good old days”. The Boomers are the largest generation and were raised in an era of extreme optimism, opportunity and progress. As a generation, they were raised in the “nuclear family”, watching their Veteran parents who were raised through the War and the Great Depression. They had a lot of babies (76 million of them) and worked hard to raise their kids right.
A lot has been written about this generation, including the effect the vast numbers of aging Boomers are going to do have on our social security system. But for now, the Boomers are still having an impact on EMS workforces.
I recently presented this material at a state association meeting where Boomers made up the largest population in the room. These Baby Boomers tend to be more competitive and are likely to have a tenure three times longer than the newer generations. Boomers grew up watching their parents have jobs that lasted a lifetime and they expected one as well. Loyalty, workplace process and output is important to the Boomers – values typically not echoed by subsequent generations.
The Boomers who have moved into leadership and ownership roles are most directly affected by the “new employee” entering the workplace today. This generation gap in management has created challenges, as the Boomers have attempted to attract, retain, manage and motivate the Generation X employee. And it only gets tougher with the Generation Y kids coming in.
Part 2 will discuss the Generation X and Generation Y employee and strategies to improve the work environments where multiple generations exist.
References
Tulgan, B: “Managing Generation X” New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2000
Twenge, JM.: “Generation Me” New York, NY: Free Press, 2006
Zemke, Raines, Flipczak: “Generations at Work” New York, NY: American Management Association, 2000
