Joe Budde Jr.

There are so many people out there who think Gen-Y is the best thing since sliced bread.  I am a Gen-Y’er and I believe it most days, but today I am here to say that Gen Y is the most irresponsible generation.  Bold, I know.  At my session of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Signature Course, there were three things that stood out to me as issues where Gen-Y is irresponsible.

For Reasons Gen-Y is Irresponsible

1. Gen-Y (or their parents on their behalf) talks its way out of bad behavior.

The 7 Habits course had a great quote that was a great explanation of one of the top struggles of us Gen-Y’ers:

“You can’t talk yourself out of problems you behave your self into.”

How many times have you seen Gen Y’ers get themselves in a pickle only to talk themselves right out of a consequence?  Granted there are good ways to talk your way out of bad news.  But owning our actions and the associated consequences enable us to deepen and build lasting relationships.

2. Gen-Y spends time only on what they enjoy, not what is important.

One of the videos we watched in the Covey class said something to the effect that unsuccessful people only spend time on what they enjoy, not what is important.  Gen-Y, the generation full of passion and the ability to choose to work on or for something they are passionate about sometimes confuses passion with enjoyment.  Passion leads you to work towards something.  And sometimes the work on the path towards that goal is not enjoyable.  Most Gen-Y’ers find themselves in the struggle define their personal boundary between enjoyment and passion.

3. Gen-Y was taught to treat others as you want to be treated.

This is great advice if we lived alone on our own individual Walden Ponds.  Too bad we dont.  How I want to be treated doesn’t mean that someone else wants to be treated that same way.  If I enjoy direct feedback no matter what(my friends and I call it (No Grace Period), that doesn’t mean your coworker wants to be told that he comes to work in dress that is only appropriate for a picnic.  We really should be saying treat others as they want to be treated since relationships are about empathizing.

So, these are three areas where Gen-Y fails the responsible generation test as defined by the 7 habits of highly effective people.  Gen-Y has an awesome chance to act on our ideals and achieve supreme success, but not without tackling these responsiblity issues first.

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