The number one myth about Generation Y is that they're disloyal.

I'll tell you something interesting we've learned in our research. One of the questions we ask people every single day is this: "Are you loyal to your employer?"

The oldest, most experienced people, if you ask them, "Are you loyal to your employer?" begin waxing philosophical. They say, "Well, loyalty is my core value. I've based my whole life and career on loyalty. But, gee, nowadays it's hard to know what to do because it seems like loyalty is dead."

If you ask Baby Boomers and older Generation Xers, "Are you loyal to your employer?" they usually say this: "Yes. No. Yes and no. It depends on what you mean by loyal."

But the younger the person, the more likely they are to say "Yes." Now we were very surprised by that. We say in our interviews, "Are you loyal to your employer?" And they say, "Yes." And I'll say, "Are you sure? Because I thought you were going to say 'no.'" And they say, "I'm very loyal!" And then I might say to them, "Well, where do you think you'll be in six or twelve months?" And they say, "Oh, well, that depends on my best offer." We call it 'just-in-time loyalty.' And it's not the kind of loyalty you get in a kingdom. It's not the kind of loyalty where people follow rites of passage, where they have blind fealty to a hierarchy. It's not the kind of loyalty that you get in a kingdom. It's the kind of loyalty you get in a free market.

What do you get in a free market? The answer is, 'whatever you can negotiate.' The way that Gen Yers think about employment relationships is short-term and transactional. But it doesn't mean they're disloyal. It's just the kind of loyalty you get in a free market. It's the kind of loyalty you have to your customers and your clients. If they stop paying, well, you probably stop delivering services and products. No hard feelings. That's the deal.

Gen Yers are loyal. But they're loyal to you as if you are a customer. It's not going to be the old-fashioned, long-term, pay-your-dues, and climb the ladder kind of loyalty. If you try to get Gen Yers to make lots of short-term sacrifices now in exchange for vague promises about long-term rewards that may or may not vest in the deep, distant future, it's just not going to work.

One young person we interviewed said, "You know they ask me to bend over backwards and jump through hoops today and when I ask them what I get they told me, 'Well in five years you get this, in ten years you get this, in fifteen years you get this.'" That young person said, "I felt like they were, what's that expression? Trying to sell me a bridge?"
One young person we interviewed said, "They told me, 'Here's what you get in five years, here's what you get in ten years, here's what you get in fifteen years.'" And that young person said, "I actually got confused and I had to ask, 'You still want me to come to work tomorrow, right? Well, what do you have for me tomorrow, because I'd love to know what you have for me right now?'"

One young person we interviewed said, "I know they think they are the masters of the universe, but gee, the Soviet Union disappeared overnight. So, no hard feelings, but I'd like to know what you have for me today, tomorrow and next week."

One young person we interviewed said, "My boss keeps telling me, 'Stick with me kid and this is where you'll be in five years.'" And that young person said, "I'm dying to turn around and say to this guy, 'I hate to tell you, pal, but you don't know where you're going to be in five years.'" And what I love about that is: Who's right?

Who's right?

The old-fashioned, long-term, pay-your-dues, climb-the-ladder kind of loyalty doesn't make a lot of sense in a highly uncertain world. In a highly uncertain world it makes a lot of sense to think short-term and transactional. And remember, with Generation Y, they've never known it any other way.




BONUS MANAGEMENT TIP - HOW TO MANAGE GENERATION Y
IN LOCO PARENTIS: GIVE THEM STRUCTURE AND BOUNDARIES
If you want to give Gen Yers more freedom at work, the biggest favor you can do for them is establish clear boundaries and give them a structure within which they can function with some autonomy. It is true that some jobs require employees to take risks and make mistakes. Even in those cases, it is the manager's job to help Gen Yers avoid taking unnecessary risks and repeating mistakes that others have already made. Creativity and innovation do not require recklessness. As a leader, you have to create a structure and clear boundaries in order to create a space in which risk taking and mistakes are truly safe in the context of a job.