Jason Calacanis: Gen Y Job Hoppers Are Destroying America
Last week blogger and serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis sent out an email newsletter with the title "Red, Jackson, Gen Y & Loyalty," which starts out with a discussion of the decline of basketball (not my area of expertise) and leads on to this startling assertion:
We live in a decaying empire and if you want to know what's killing us, it's not the Chinese, bankers or politiciansâ€"it's the trophy generation. Not all of Gen Y, you can never paint with that wide of a brush, but the majority of them seem to lack killer instinct but have excel at entitlement.What got Calacanis so riled up? A midnight email from a Gen Y employee informing the boss that, after just a year with the company, he was quitting. The result for the soon-to-be-ex-employee: a nasty reply. Result for the general reader: Calacanis's thoughts on Gen Y:
My belief is that one third of Gen Y kicks ass. I meet these folks at TechCrunch50, Open Angel Forum and on This Week in Startups all the time. I love them. They inspire me and give me hope.... However, the majority of Gen Y seem to operating under the bizarre rallying cry of: More money! Less responsibility! Shorter hours! No stress! More freedom! It's all about me!It's so obvious to me why our country is spiraling like a regional jet piloted by a $9 an hour, 20 year-old pilot with under 1,000 hours of flight time.... If you leave after a year, you don't get a ticker-tape parade and you don't get celebrated.
He also offers instructions for this wayward cohort of kids on how to quit right:
- Here is a basic script for a situation where you absolutely want to leave a job: "Boss, this is hard for me to say, so I'm going to just come out and say it: I'm resigning today. Don't worry, I will give you as much time as you need to transitionâ€"within reason. It's not personal, but I really want to take on this challenge at company TKTK. I understand if you don't want me here in the office as a distraction to the rest of the team. Please let me know how I can help us all have a really smooth transition."
- Here is a basic script for the situation where you would rather stay, but need for some things to change in order to do so: "Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today, Boss. I wanted to let you know that I'm considering leaving the company and have received a compelling offer at company TKTK. However, I would much rather stay here if a couple of small things could change. Would you like to hear what those things are?"
(Image of super villain by Mrs. Gemstone, CC 2.0)