[Editor’s Note: I hate the term Millenials so I use Gen Y to help avoid many of the common mental stereotypes that exist around the term.]
Everyone in the CRE space is familiar with the sensation of seeing articles talking about how Gen Y are changing the way work is done. They don’t like to go to offices, they don’t work from 9 to 5, they text instead of calling, they prefer social media to email. The tropes are many.
I get very frustrated reading this because it’s not a Gen Y thing, it’s a technology thing. Smartphones and internet connections on the go make it convenient to work whenever and where ever necessary. Social media platforms are a better communication platform than email. Text messages are more convenient than phone calls. This isn’t something that is true for just Gen Y – Baby Boomers and Gen X operate the same way when introduced to these tools.
Is it true that Gen Y has adopted these tech tools faster than others? Of course, they started using it as early as elementary school in many cases. It takes time for others to learn about it and time for developers to make the tools enterprise friendly. It takes even longer for organizations to figure out how to push it out and get unfamiliar employees comfortable with it.
This isn’t a generational battle, it’s a technological revolution. Don’t confuse the two.